Baba Vanga

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Baba Vanga bigraphy, stories - Bulgarian psychic

Baba Vanga : biography

31 January 1911 – 11 August 1996

Baba Vanga () (31 January 1911 – 11 August 1996), born Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova () after marriage Vangelia Gushterova () was a blind Bulgarian mystic, clairvoyant and herbalist who spent most of her life in the Rupite area in the Kozhuh mountains, Bulgaria. Her followers were convinced that she possessed paranormal abilities.Прoрoчeствaтa нa Вaнгa. Жeни Кoстaдинoвa, Издателство Труд, ISBN 954-528-074-3,Страници 696.

Life

Vanga was born in Strumica, then in the Ottoman Empire (present-day Republic of Macedonia). During the second Bulgarian annexation of the region (1941–1944) she moved to Petrich, Bulgaria. She was a premature baby who suffered from health complications. In accordance with local tradition, the baby was not given a name until it was deemed likely to survive. When the baby first cried out, a midwife went into the street and asked a stranger for a name. The stranger proposed Andromaha (Andromache), but this was rejected as "too Greek", so the second stranger’s proposal, Vangelia (Vangelis, , short for , "herald of the good news", from the components ευ- meaning "true" and άγγελος which means "messenger"), was accepted–also a Greek name, but popular with the Bulgarians in the region.According to Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, at the beginning of the 20th century the Macedonian Bulgarians constituted the majority of the population in the whole region of Macedonia. They are described in the encyclopaedia as "Slavs, the bulk of which is regarded by almost all independent sources as Bulgarians": 1,150,000, whereof, 1,000,000 Orthodox and 150,000 Muslims (the so-called Pomaks); Turks: ca. 500,000 (Muslims); Greeks: ca. 250,000, whereof ca. 240,000 Orthodox and 14,000 Muslims; Albanians: ca. 120,000, whereof 10,000 Orthodox and 110,000 Muslims; Vlachs: ca. 90,000 Orthodox and 3,000 Muslims; Jews: ca. 75,000; Roma: ca. 50,000, whereof 35,000 Orthodox and 15,000 Muslims; In total 1,300,000 Christians (almost exclusively Orthodox), 800,000 Muslims, 75,000 Jews, a total population of ca. 2,200,000 for the whole of Macedonia. Dictionary of Personal Names of the Bulgarians, Nikolai P. Kovatchev State Publishing House "Dr Petar Beron", 1987, p 58. (Bg.)

In her childhood, Vangelia was an ordinary girl. Her father was conscripted into the Bulgarian Army during World War I, and her mother died when Vanga was quite young, which meant the girl depended on the neighbors for a long time. Vanga was intelligent, with blue eyes and blond hair. Her inclinations started to show up when she herself thought out games and loved playing "healing"–she prescribed some herbs to her friends, who pretended to be ill. Her father, being a widower, eventually married a good woman, thus providing a stepmother to his daughter.

A turning point in her life was a tornado which lifted Vanga up and threw her in the field (this claim has not been verified with meteorological records or other accounts from that time). She was found after a long search–very frightened, and her eyes were covered with sand and dust, so she couldn’t open them because of the pain. No healing gave results. There was money only for a partial operation,The truth about Vanga, p. 42 so her eyesight was failing.

In 1925 Vanga was brought to a school for the blind in the city of Zemun (Kingdom SHS), where she spent three years, and was taught to read Braille, play the piano, as well as do knitting, cooking, and cleaning.The truth about Vanga, pp. 43-44 After the death of her stepmother she had to go back home to take care of her younger siblings. Her family was very poor, and she had to work all day.

In 1939 Vanga caught pleurisy, although she had been quite healthy in the previous years. The doctor’s opinion was that she would soon die but she recovered quickly.

During World War II Vanga attracted more believers–a number of people visited her, hoping to get a hint about whether their relatives were alive, or seeking for the place where they died. On 8 April 1942 the Bulgarian tzar Boris III visited her.