Korteza of Sliven

In an old group photograph, Korteza stands among several men, holding an icon. Her name is less familiar today, but this woman from Sliven travelled, attracted visitors and entered the recollections of people around Peter Deunov in the early twentieth century. Her story leads to Aytos, physician Georgi Mirkovich and a spring near Momchilovtsi.

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The key facts
Known as	Korteza, the clairvoyant of Sliven
Recollections	Izgrevat, volume 10
Historical setting	Early twentieth century

Korteza is the woman at the centre of this archival group photograph, published by Slovoto.Slovoto · Unidentified author

The woman from Sliven

References name her as Korteza Stefanova or Konstantina Stefanova. Information about her birth year and family life is scarce. Sliven is the city consistently associated with her.

There her story intersects with Dr Georgi Mirkovich, a physician interested in spiritualism. Later publications disagree about whether she worked in his household. The surviving polemical text The Vestal of the Holy Virgin rejects the claim that she was his servant.

The journey to the spring at Momchilovtsi

A local account published by BGvesti links Korteza to the discovery of the spring near Momchilovtsi. It says she arrived on horseback via Rozhen and indicated where people should dig. The spring became a pilgrimage site, with a chapel built beside it.

The article also describes a group photograph with the residents who welcomed her, dated there to 1910. The story of the water is still told in the village. Its attributed healing properties belong to local belief.

Visitors in Aytos

Volume ten of Izgrevat devotes a chapter to Korteza in Aytos. The recollection covers the period from 1910 to 1912. People approached her with personal questions and hopes of learning something about their loved ones.

The narrator believed she could communicate with the dead. His recollection also conveys the atmosphere of those encounters: trust in the clairvoyant, religious expectations and intense personal experiences. It is a participant’s testimony preserved in a memoir.

Her name in Deunov’s talks

Korteza also appears in Peter Deunov’s talks, in stories about spiritual life. This helps explain why his followers’ literature preserves her name even where a detailed personal biography is missing.

Predictions and accounts with traceable sources

Korteza is in the centre, holding an icon.

Korteza and the holy spring in Momchilovtsi

A local St George’s Day report recounts Korteza’s visit and her identification of water near the village. The story survives alongside veneration of the holy spring.

Where and when it was recorded: A report dated 6 May 2015 about an earlier event.
What can be established: The report documents local tradition and the celebration. It does not provide a record contemporary with the visit establishing exactly how the water was found.

Portrait: Slovoto · Unidentified author

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