Fredo Valla

Bogre. The Great European Heresy

Bogre is a journey into time and space, on the trail of Cathars, Albigenses and Bogomils, medieval heretics who spread from Bulgaria to the European West. Why Bogre? Those who speak the Occitan language know that bogre (pronounced “bugre”) means Bulgarian, but over the centuries that word has acquired the meaning of foolish, the one who masks the truth. In the 12 th century, bogre became an insult directed towards the Occitan Cathars, who were equated to the Bulgarian Bogomils, from whom the Western Catharism derived. The followers of these heretical teachings called each other “good people” and “good christians” because they believed they were returning christianity to its original purity. Their ideas traveled the length and breadth of Europe, from the Balkans to the Pyrenees, from center-northern Italy to Bosnia.