History. Bogomils: Gnostic roots, identifying old church

Bogomils. Gnostics.
The Balkans as Religious Crossroads
Gnostics in historical Christianity

Bogomil church, Roadside medieval church, Bosnia

The Bogomils were a Christian sect whose beliefs ran afoul of the Roman Catholic Church.  They were declared heretics, and crusades commenced against them.  Any branded Gnostic appear to have met a similar fate, if not crusades killing them, then rejection and destruction of their texts, is that so?

This stretch of road from Sinj in Croatia, to Mostar, Bosnia, runs through Bogomil (historical Christian) graveyards, with heavy headstones, and there are old buildings like this old church. See "The Burden of the Balkans," by M. Edith Durham, 1905. See http://www.peacelink.nu/Boker/Durham/Durham.

We understand that this abandoned church, derelict but remarkably strong construction, was Bogomil.

Durham observes that, despite their persecution, some Bogomil practices were followed in the area until some 50-60 years before her book.  That would mean a community with roots to the original Bogomils, through the mid-19th Century. This is now a Google book also. Detailed history, including Montenegro. Start with its Preface at Google book, Burden of the Balkans.  The area has been split between Turks and their descendants, Muslim; and the Macedonians, Christian Serb and others, for centuries. Find the Illustrations list, and scroll to them.

Bogomils.  Is this abandoned church near the graveyard really Bogomil? We have tried to find corroboration other than the people we spoke to there. Read Bogomil history at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/9892/bhhisto. See more about gnosticism at http://www.philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/christ/early/gnost; and at http://www.halexandria.org/dward269.; more on Gnostics, at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gnostics.

Churches often doubled as places of refuge, built without vulnerable windows, to serve as defense as well, or very few windows. And there is just an arrow-slit going up the belfry. Persecution of heretics.  Substitute any disfavored minority, and see the practice continue.

Bogomils in Bosnia.  Are all of them gone now?
More blogs about Bosnia Road Ways.