Katerina Cilka ( bg, Катерина Цилка; 1868 – 22 June 1952) was a

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

Protestant missionary from Bansko, abducted for ransom by a detachment of the

pro-Bulgarian Bulgarophiles ( bg, българофили; Serbian and Macedonian бугарофили or бугараши ; ; ro, Bulgarofilii) is a term used for Slavic people from the regions of Macedonia and Pomoravlje who are ethnic Bulgarians. In Bulga ...

Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; bg, Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация (ВМРО), translit=Vatrešna Makedonska Revoljucionna Organizacija (VMRO); mk, Внатр� ...

(IMRO) in 1901 and released in 1902.

Early life and education

She was born as Katerina Dimitrova Stefanova ( bg, Катерина Димитрова Стефанова) in Bulgarian Protestant family in the Ottoman Empire's town of Bansko in 1868. Later she graduated from the American Board School at Samokov, Bulgaria. Cilka was a sister of the Sofia University Professor Constantine Stephanove. She moved to the United States to study at the

Northfield Seminary Northfield Mount Hermon School, often called NMH, is a co-educational preparatory school in Gill, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is a member of the Eight Schools Association. Present day NMH offers nearly 200 courses, including AP and ...

and the Charity Nursing School of the Presbyterian Hospital (New York City). Cilka met in New York and married

Grigor Cilka Grigor M. Cilka (1875-1919) was an Albanian Protestant reverend and missionary. In the height of the Albanian National Awakening he became a teacher at the first Albanian school for girls in Korçë. His wife Katerina was kidnapped during the Miss ...

, an Albanian Protestant who studied at the United Theological Seminary. They returned to the Balkans and settled in Korçë.

Kidnapping

In the summer of 1901, Cilka helped Ellen Stone, who had to take a short training course for

teachers in primary Protestant schools in her native Bansko. On 3 September 1901,

Yane Sandanski Yane Ivanov Sandanski (, ) (originally spelled in older Bulgarian orthography ) (18 May 1872 – 22 April 1915), was a Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary.Per Julian Allan Brooks' thesis the term ‘Macedo-Bulgarian’ refers to the Exarchist po ...

and

Hristo Chernopeev Hristo Chernopeev ( bg, Христо Чернопеев) (1868, Dermantsi – 6 November 1915, Krivolak) was a Bulgarian Army officer and member of the revolutionary movement in Macedonia. He was among the leaders of the Bulgarian People's Macedo ...

's chetas abducted both Stone and Cilka. Their captivity lasted 4 months and became known as the

Miss Stone Affair The Miss Stone Affair ( bg, Афера „Мис Стоун“, mk, „Афера Мис Стон“) was the kidnapping of American Protestant missionary Ellen Maria Stone and her pregnant Bulgarian fellow missionary and friend Katerina Cilk ...

. They were set free on 2 February 1902 near the town of

Strumica Strumica ( mk, Струмица, ) is the largest city2002 census results
in English and Macedon ...

Later life

After the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

, she and her husband moved to Sofia. There Grigor died after the First World War from the Spanish flu. After his death, she went to live in Albania. She died in Tirana on 22 June 1952.Richard Cochran, Katerina Tsilka, Institute for Albanian and Protestant studies, 2014, р. 48
/ref>

References

External links

"Born among Brigands; Mrs Tsilka's story of her Baby", published in "McClure's magazine", New York, 1902.

of Cilka and Stown. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cilka, Katerina American Protestant missionaries Female Christian missionaries 1868 births 1952 deaths Bulgarian women People from Bansko People from Salonica vilayet 20th-century Bulgarian people Converts to Protestantism from Eastern Orthodoxy Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni 19th-century Bulgarian women 19th-century Bulgarian people