Refugees from Macedonia who have fled from the Turkish village, now seeking the protection of the Monks of Rilo Monastery (Bulgaria). They are afraid to return for fear of massacre by the Turks, and are in deplorable condition, having little money, and almost without clothing; in fact, they have nothing except what is given them by the Monks, and are seen in the same condition in which they made their escape, many coming from the district of Drama, hundreds of miles over rugged and snow-covered mountains.

Filmed during Charles Rider Noble's visit to Bulgaria in 1903 that coincided with a time when the Monastery sheltered refugees from Macedonia. When they visited the Monastery in Rylo, they filmed a few films there including this and "Feast of St. John at Rylo Monastery".

Rarely has the strain on the relations between Turkey and Bulgaria been brought before our eyes as plainly as by the film showing the sentries of the two nations marching on either side of the boundary line on the frontier, and Turkish oppression is powerfully and properly exposed by the spectacle of the hundreds of wretched refugees at Rylo Monastery, the mothers with their babes in their arms, in rags, and all evidently half starved and exhausted.

Source: The Era - 9. January 1904

These poor Christian fugitives from the Turkish villages of Macedonia have fled, in fear of massacre, across the frontier into Bulgaria, seeking the protection of the Monks of Rilo Monastery, in the Balkans. They are in a deplorable condition, with little or no money, and almost without clothing, many having crossed the rugged and snowy mountains (in the clothing they are here depicted, some being barefooted), fleeing from districts hundreds of miles from their present sanctuary.

Source: Urban Eclipse Catalog - February 1905