Beloved Bulgarian clairvoyant dies, evoking outpourinf of

[aco...@mic.dundee.ac.uk]

The following was reported by Andy C using
the Fortean Times - On line reporting service

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Seen in Nando Times on 12 August 1996

<P> SOFIA, Bulgaria (Aug 11, 1996 3:41 p.m. EDT) -- "Aunt Vanga," a
blind peasant whose supposed clairvoyant powers gave her saint-like
status across this impoverished Balkan country, died Sunday at 84,
provoking an outpouring of national grief.<P>

Vangelia Gushterova meant so much to generations of Bulgarians that
the state news agency BTA flashed the news of her death of cancer in
a Sofia hospital once reserved for high government officials.<P>

"She lived not for herself but for the people. That made her a
living saint for us," said Prime Minister Zhan Videnov.<P>

Born in neighboring Macedonia in 1911, Vanga lost her sight at age
12 in a windstorm.<P>

From the time she was a teen-ager, she was a legend for what many
believed was her ability to see into the future and the past, to
make correct diagnoses or predictions and even locate missing
persons.<P>

She claimed to derive her powers from an ancient city buried under
her village in southwestern Bulgaria.<P>

BTA said more than 1 million people had consulted the seer, whose
fame stretched across the Balkans.<P>

Almost every day, thousands of sick and desperate people would line
up outside Vanga's modest house in Rupite, a village 100 miles south
of the capital, Sofia.<P>

Many of Bulgaria's most respected intellectuals and notable
politicians sought Vanga's advice, usually uttered in a trance.
Almost all of her predictions related to people's private lives.<P>

Petar Stoyanov, the main anti-Communist presidential candidate,
visited Vanga at the start of his campaign. He and his main rival in
the October elections, Socialist Georgi Pirinski, sent condolences
to Vanga's relatives Sunday.<P>

During the communist era, many senior politicians, including
longtime ruler Todor Zhivkov, are said to have consulted Vanga
before key decisions. Communism collapsed in Bulgaria in 1989.<P>

Vanga was told four years ago that she was terminally ill with
breast cancer. She refused an operation and went on receiving people
until last month, when relatives moved her to hospital in Sofia.<P>

Funeral plans were unknown, but Vanga has said she wanted to be
buried in Rupite.<P>

Contact email address: aco...@mic.dundee.ac.uk

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