About Bulgaria and its Church. History of Orthodoxy in Bulgaria Orthodox churches in Bulgaria on the map

Short story churches

According to legend, the first disciples to preach Christianity on the territory of Bulgaria were the disciple Apostle Amplius (in Odissa, now Varna) and the Apostle from 70 (in Philippopolis of Thracia, now Plovdiv). It was in these cities that the first episcopal sees appeared.

In 865, the Bulgarian Tsar Boris I was baptized by a Byzantine bishop, and soon there was a mass baptism of the inhabitants. In 919, the independence (autocephaly) of the Bulgarian Church was first proclaimed, which received the status of a patriarchate. Autocephaly was abolished in 1018, after the victory of Byzantium over Bulgaria.

In the 14th century, a special, saving spiritual practice - hesychasm, proclaimed by the saint - spread widely among Bulgarian monks. The hesychasts were the Monk Theodosius of Tarnovsky, Patriarch Euthymius of Tarnovsky and their disciples.

At the end of the 14th century, Bulgaria was conquered by the Turks and remained under Turkish yoke until 1878. At this time, Orthodox Bulgarians were subject to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In some periods, priests were even forbidden to serve in the Slavic language, but were forced to serve in Greek. The Bulgarian Church gained independence only in 1872

In the Bulgarian Church, Saint Prince Boris, the baptizer of the Bulgarian people, is especially revered; the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles brothers and - the creators of Slavic writing, who translated the books of Holy Scripture and liturgical books into the Slavic language, and St. Clement, Bishop of Ohrid - one of the disciples of the holy brothers. Also revered is the Patriarch of Tarnovo, Saint Euthymius, who served the spiritual growth of the Church and the strengthening of the country; the abbot of the Hilandar monastery, Venerable Paisios, and Saint Sophronius, Bishop of Vrachansky, glorified in 1964. The heavenly patron of Bulgaria is the founder of one of the most famous monasteries, Rev.

In 1992, with the active participation of politicians, a split began in the Bulgarian Church. Some of the hierarchs opposed the current Patriarch Maxim and formed an “alternative synod.” Almost all the property of the church, with the exception of most churches, was transferred to the disposition of the schismatics. It was only in 1998 that the conflict began to fade. In 2003, the canonical hierarchy received official registration and was recognized by the state, and a year later the schismatic churches were transferred to the Bulgarian Church.

Patriarch of Bulgaria

The future Patriarch Neophyte (in the world Simeon Nikolov Dimitrov) was born on October 15, 1945 in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia. After graduating from the Sofia Theological Academy in 1971, he completed his education at the Moscow Theological Academy, receiving a candidate of theology degree for his dissertation on the topic “The Moscow Synodal direction in Russian church singing and its significance.” In 1973 he returned to Sofia and taught church singing at the Theological Academy, in 1975 he became a monk, and in 1976 he was ordained a hieromonk. In 1985 he was ordained bishop, in 1989 he was appointed rector of the Sofia Theological Academy, and since 1992 he has served as chief secretary of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. In 1994 he became Metropolitan of Dorostol and Cherven, and in 2013 he was elected Patriarch of Bulgaria.

BULGARIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH, one of the 15 autocephalous Orthodox churches. Christianity penetrated into the modern territory of Bulgaria very early. According to existing legend, Ampilius, a disciple of St., served as bishop in the city of Odessa (modern Varna). Apostle Paul. In the II century. There were also episcopal sees in the cities of Debelt and Anchial. In the V-VI centuries. Christianity begins to spread among the Balkan Slavs due to the fact that many of them served as mercenaries in the Byzantine army. In the 670s. Turkic-speaking Bulgarians invaded the territory of Bulgaria. Christianity penetrated into their midst much more difficultly than among the Slavs. However, in the VIII-IX centuries. There was a merger of these two ethnically heterogeneous elements living in a mixture: the Turkic-speaking Bulgarians were assimilated linguistically and culturally by the Slavs, although the name Bulgarians was assigned to the people, and Bulgaria to the country. Mass baptism of Bulgarians occurred in 865 under Prince Boris I (852-889). Already in 870, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church became autonomous, and, although it continued to be under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, it enjoyed broad internal self-government. However, in the 10th century, when Bulgaria was conquered by Byzantium, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church lost its relatively independent position. After the restoration of the Bulgarian kingdom in 1185-86, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church again became quite independent. In the 13th century A patriarchate was formed in the city of Tarnovo, and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church became autocephalous.

After the conquest of Bulgaria by the Turks, the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was abolished, and the church was again transferred to the jurisdiction of Constantinople. After this, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church began to be governed by Greek bishops, who sought (especially in the cities) to displace the Church Slavonic language from liturgical practice and to completely Hellenize the church. In an effort to counteract this, the Bulgarians began to insist on autonomy for their church. These efforts became especially intensified in the 19th century. Many ecumenical patriarchs tried to resolve this issue and satisfy the demands of the Bulgarians, but due to the pressure exerted by the Greeks living on the Balkan Peninsula, they did not succeed. In 1860, the Bulgarian bishops broke away from Constantinople. In the end, they obtained permission from the Turkish Sultan to create a separate Bulgarian exarchate. On this occasion, the Ecumenical Patriarch Antimus VI convened a local council, which took place in Constantinople in 1872 and was also attended by the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch. By decision of this council, the Bulgarian exarchate was prohibited. Only in 1945 did the Patriarchate of Constantinople recognize the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church within the borders of the territory of Bulgaria. In dogmatics and cult, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is similar to other Orthodox churches.

Since 1953, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has again been headed by a patriarch. His residence is in Sofia, and he is also the Metropolitan of Sofia. The Patriarch heads the Holy Synod, of which all metropolitans are also members. Legislative power in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church belongs to the Church-People's Council, which includes not only all serving bishops and other clergy, but also a certain number of laity.

There are 12 metropolitanates within the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. 11 of them are located on the territory of Bulgaria: Varna and Preslavskaya (with a department in Varna), Veliko Tarnovskaya, Vidinskaya, Vrachanskaya, Dorostolskaya and Chervenskaya (with a department in Ruse), Lovchanskaya, Nevrokopskaya (with a department in Blagoevgrad), Plovdiv, Sliven, Sofia, Staro-Zagorskaya. One metropolitanate - New York - is located outside Bulgaria. Outside the country there are also two dioceses headed by bishops: Akron and Detroit. Foreign dioceses provide spiritual care for believers of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church living in the USA, Canada, Latin America and Australia. In addition, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has two parishes in Hungary, two in Romania and one in Austria. The Bulgarian monastery of St. has long been located on Mount Athos. George - Zografsky.

The number of followers of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is more than 6 million people. By ethnicity, the overwhelming majority are Bulgarians.

In 1994, a split occurred in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. 4 metropolitans, led by Metropolitan Pimen of Nevrokop, 2 bishops and part of the clergy formed their own synod and announced the deposition of Patriarch Maxim. The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church condemned the schismatics, depriving them not only of their rank, but also of monasticism, but they did not recognize the resolutions of the synod.

Material from the ABC of pilgrims

Bulgaria(Bulgarian Bulgaria), full official form - Republic of Bulgaria(Bulgarian) Republic of Bulgaria) - a state in South-Eastern Europe, in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, occupies 22% of its area.

Largest cities

• Sofia
• Plovdiv
• Varna
• Burgas

Orthodoxy in Bulgaria

Orthodoxy in Bulgaria- one of the traditional Christian denominations, which became widespread in Bulgaria from the 5th-7th centuries. Orthodoxy is practiced by about 82.6% of the country's population (2010).

Story

On the territory of modern Bulgaria, Christianity began to spread already in the 1st century. According to the tradition of the Bulgarian Church, there was an episcopal see in the city of Odessa (now Varna), where the bishop was Ampliy, a disciple of the Apostle Paul.

Baptism of the Preslav Court (N. Pavlovich)

Eusebius of Caesarea reports that in the 2nd century, on the territory of today's Bulgaria, there were episcopal sees in the cities of Debelt and Anchial. A participant in the First Ecumenical Council, 325, was Protogonus, Bishop of Sardiki (present-day Sofia).

In 865, under St. Prince Boris, the general baptism of the Bulgarian people takes place. After a four-year union with the Roman Church, in 870 the Bulgarian Church became autonomous under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Bulgarian Orthodox Church

Currently, more than 5,905,000 people consider themselves followers of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church - the largest Orthodox organization in the country. Despite the schism that occurred in 1992 with the assistance of the political authorities, when some of the hierarchs spoke out against Patriarch Maxim, accusing him of having connections with the former communist government, and considering his enthronement uncanonical, as well as the formation of an alternative Synod by schismatics, the majority of the clergy did not join the schism. In the 1990s, the canonical hierarchs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church were not officially recognized by the state, and almost all of the church’s real estate (except for churches) was transferred to the disposal of schismatics. In 1996, the former Nevrokop Metropolitan Pimen (Enev) was proclaimed an alternative Patriarch. Pimen's group announced the canonization of Hierodeacon Ignatius (Vasil Levsky).

At the Pan-Orthodox Conference in 1998, part of the majority of the hierarchy, headed by Pimen, was accepted into the fold of the canonical Church. and in 2003, the hierarchy of the Bulgarian Church received official registration and was recognized by the state. In 2004, the schismatic churches were transferred to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and in 2012 the head of the Alternative Synod repented, which can be considered the completion of the schism.

On December 9, 2011, the Council of Ministers of Bulgaria decided to allocate about 880 thousand euros from the state budget in 2012 for the needs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. 150 thousand euros will be allocated for the renovation of church buildings of national importance. Almost 300 thousand euros (597 thousand leva) will be allocated separately to the famous Rila Monastery. Currently, Orthodox clergy with higher education (that is, those who graduated from a theological academy) receive 300 leva, and those who graduate from a theological seminary receive 240 leva. IN big cities priests can receive 1500-2500 leva thanks to services, primarily weddings and baptisms, and in rural parishes the income of priests is often limited to just a salary.

Bulgarian Old Calendar Church

The Bulgarian Old Calendar Church separated from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in 1990 due to dissatisfaction among the conservative part of the Bulgarian population with the introduction of the New Julian calendar in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in 1968.

Currently, it is headed by Metropolitan Photius (Siromakha) of Triaditsa and has 17 churches, 9 chapels, 2 monasteries, 20 clergy and about 70 thousand believers.

Old Believers

Followers of the Russian Old Believers traditionally lived on the territory of Bulgaria. Currently, several villages professing the Old Believers are under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, as well as the Russian Old Orthodox Church.

Shrines

The relics of saints and miraculous icons in Bulgaria are located in churches and monasteries of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

• Relics of St. King Stefan Milutin of Serbia (XIV century) (Sofia, Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ)
• Relics of St. St. Modest of Jerusalem (VII century) (Sofia, Church of St. John of Rila, Sofia Theological Seminary)
• Relics of St. St. Serafima Soboleva (20th century) (Sofia, Russian St. Nicholas Cathedral)
• Relics of St. St. John of Rila (10th century) (Rila Monastery, Kyustendil region, about 20 km northeast of Rila)
• Icon of the Mother of God “Hodegetria” (Rila Monastery)
• “Iverskaya” Icon of the Mother of God (Rozhen Monastery, Blagoevgrad region, 6 km from Melnik, near the village of Rozhen)
• Original “Bachkovo” Icon of the Mother of God (Bachkovo Monastery, 10 km south of Asenovgrad, near the village of Bachkovo)
• "Blachernae" Icon of the Mother of God (Bachkovo Monastery)
• Icon “Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary” (Kalofer Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, about 20 km east of Karlovo, near Kalofer)
• Icon of the Mother of God “Three-Handed” (Troyan Monastery, 10 km from Troyan, near the village of Oreshak)
• Icon of St. St. George the Victorious (Glozhene Monastery, west of Lovech, near the village of Glozhene)
• Icon of St. St. George the Victorious (Pomorie, Monastery of St. George the Victorious)
• “Jerusalem” Icon of the Mother of God (Kazanlak, Kazanlak Vvedensky Monastery)
• Icon of the Mother of God “Hodegetria the Black” (Nessebar, Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
• Icon of the Mother of God “Gerondissa” (Varna, Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Temples

• Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel (Arbanassi)
• Church of the Nativity (Arbanassi)
• Church of the Holy Week (Batak)
• Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Varna)
• Cathedral of St. Demetrius (Vidin)
• Church of St. John Aliturgetos (Nessebar)
• Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel (Nessebar)
• Church of Christ Pantocrator (Nessebar)
• Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (Svishtov)
• Temple-monument to Alexander Nevsky (Sofia)
• Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (Sofia)
• Cathedral of the Holy Week (Sofia)
• Hagia Sophia (Sofia)
• Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Targovishte)
• Church-monument of the Nativity of Christ (Shipka)

Monasteries

• Bakadzhik Monastery (near the village of Chargan, 10 km from Yambol)
• Bachkovo Monastery (10 km south of Asenovgrad, near the village of Bachkovo)
• Monastery of St. St. George the Victorious (Pomorie)
• Glozhene Monastery (west of Lovech, near the village of Glozhene)

Orthodoxy in Bulgaria is very difficult to understand from the outside. On the one hand, every Russian tourist or pilgrim will happily discover, as in any Orthodox country, that in a Bulgarian church, everything is the same as in their native Russia, everything is like home. But not in every church you can take communion, even on Sunday; in the largest monasteries there are hardly more than 10 monks...

We talk with Hieromonk Zotik (Gaevsky) about his path to faith, to service in the priesthood, service in Bulgaria and the fate of Bulgarian Orthodoxy.

Monasticism is for life.
– Father, please tell us how you came to faith?

– I was born into an Orthodox church-going family. My mother raised me in the Orthodox faith. Since childhood, she not only took me to church, but introduced me to church sacraments and spiritual life. The whole family tried to take communion often - and not only during, but also outside of fasting.
After school I decided to enter the Theological Seminary.

– How did your peers feel about the fact that you went to church, and even decided to enter the Seminary?

– Normally, and even with respect. They asked who had any questions about church life. And I tried to answer as best I could.
– Father, why monasticism and not the white clergy? So this is a calling?

– I was born in Moldova, and the people there are Orthodox and have a good attitude towards the Orthodox Church. After school, I entered the Chisinau Theological Seminary, which is located on the territory Holy Ascension Novo-Nyametsky Kitskansky Monastery. And this greatly influenced my choice. Observing monastic life up close played a role - I became stronger in my desire to devote my whole life to serving God.
I think it is wrong to say that this is the calling of some. We are all called by God, and He calls us all to Himself. It all depends on who responds to this call of God.

– How did your parents accept your choice?

“Both mom and dad took it well.” True, my mother was worried that I was still young. I was eighteen years old when I became a novice. Her only advice was that I should not rush into taking monastic vows: “Don’t rush, because monasticism is for life. This is not for a day, not for two, not for a year, for life.”

Orthodoxy in Bulgaria
– Father, please tell us how you ended up in Bulgaria?

– After I graduated from the Chisinau Theological Seminary, my supervisor suggested that I study in Bulgaria, in Sofia, at the Faculty of Theology.

– Why in Bulgaria, and not in Kyiv or Moscow?

– There were many who wanted to study in Moscow, Kiev, and the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, but it was very difficult to enter the Moscow Theological Academy. I would have been sent to Bulgaria as an exchange student, that is, I would have studied at the Faculty of Theology in Sofia without admission. I was also very interested in this Orthodox country.

– Is Bulgaria similar to Moldova?

- No, it’s not like that. Because the Bulgarians are Slavs, and the Moldovans belong to another group - the Romanesque. Romanians and Moldovans are similar to each other in traditions and customs, and Bulgarians and Moldovans are similar in the Orthodox faith.

– Please tell me, what do you plan to do after finishing your studies at the Faculty of Theology in Sofia?

– Of course, the ways of the Lord are inscrutable, but I’m thinking of returning to Moldova, teaching at the Theological Seminary or at the Theological Academy. If there is an opportunity to teach in a secular educational institution, of course, I will take it with pleasure.

– When you arrived in Bulgaria, what struck you? Are there differences in faith? Many note that in Bulgaria there is a decline in faith. Is it so?

- Yes, that's actually true. Firstly, the depressing picture on Sundays and holidays is that churches in Bulgaria are half empty. There is no such church life as I saw in Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Greece, Serbia. It’s like there’s spiritual mortification here.

– Why does this happen, in your opinion?

– I was looking for answers to this question, but it is very difficult to answer. You need to know well the specifics of the Bulgarian people, mentality, and historical past.

– Perhaps this is due to dependence on Turkey for several centuries?

- I think not. Both Greeks and Serbs were under Turkish rule. But in Serbia and Greece, churches on Sundays are filled to capacity.

– In Soviet times, were there persecutions of Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria?

- Yes, they were in those days. But not like, say, in the USSR. Almost not a single temple in Bulgaria was destroyed. That is, all churches, all monasteries have been preserved. There was no persecution against the clergy, against the Orthodox. The communist regime in Bulgaria was quite loyal to the Orthodox Church. The only case was the murder of Archimandrite Boris in the Blagoevograd diocese by one zealous communist. But this is an exception.

- Father, do young people come to church?
– He comes, but only to light a candle, cross himself, and ask the priest to read a prayer for health.
– How do you feel about the fact that Bulgarian parishioners do not wear headscarves?

– I think that every Orthodox country has its own traditions, its own customs. If in Russia Orthodox women wear headscarves, here in the Balkans they do not. Why do I speak Balkans? Because not only women in Bulgaria, but also in Greece and Serbia do not cover their heads with scarves. It is a local tradition for women to go to church without hats or scarves. I think there is no need for Russian tourists and pilgrims to be indignant about the fact that Bulgarian women do not wear headscarves. This is their tradition.

– Father, many Russian pilgrims are surprised why they don’t always give communion during the liturgy in Bulgarian churches. Why does this happen?

– Yes, this is a problem in Bulgaria. Because in the Turkish and tsarist periods, during the period of communism, people very rarely went to church and very rarely received communion. And in Russia during the Soviet period, Orthodox Christians also did not always have the opportunity to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Usually they limited themselves to receiving the sacrament several times a year, including during Lent. Now we notice changes in the Orthodox life of Russia - a spiritual revival, the churching of many. People go to church and receive communion often, almost every Sunday. And in Bulgaria there is an unspoken teaching that Orthodox Christians should receive communion no more than four times a year, that is, during fasting. Unfortunately, this point of view is supported by many clergy and archpastors of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Although we find neither in the Holy Scriptures nor in the teachings of the Holy Fathers confirmation that Orthodox Christians should receive communion only four times a year.

Despite the fact that both you and I have noticed the deadening of spiritual life in Bulgaria, a kind of lack of church life, we must admit that this is a holy land, there are shrines here at almost every step. In this small country there are about five hundred Orthodox monastic monasteries. Can you imagine?

– And all the active ones?

– Yes, all the monasteries are active, but, unfortunately, they are half empty. The largest Stavropegic monastery in Bulgaria is Rylsky, which has... eleven monks. It is considered the largest Bulgarian monastery. In Bulgaria, in fact, there are a lot of shrines and saints - these are St. John of Rila - the patron saint of the Bulgarian land, St. Clement of Ohrid, St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Boris, Tsar Peter, St. Paraskeva and many others. And we believe that through the prayers of these holy saints of God, spiritual revival will occur on the Bulgarian land.

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Current situation

Currently, the jurisdiction of the BOC extends to the territory of Bulgaria, as well as to the Orthodox Bulgarian communities of Western Europe, North and South America and Australia. The highest spiritual authority in the BOC belongs to the Holy Synod, which includes all metropolitans headed by the Patriarch. Full title of the primate: His Holiness Patriarch of Bulgaria, Metropolitan of Sofia. The residence of the Patriarch is located in Sofia. The small composition of the Synod, constantly working, includes 4 metropolitans, elected for a period of 4 years by all bishops of the Church. Legislative power belongs to the Church-People's Council, whose members are all serving bishops, as well as representatives of the clergy and laity. The highest judicial and administrative power is exercised by the Synod. The Synod has a Supreme Church Council, which is in charge of the economic and financial issues of the BOC. The Chairman of the Supreme Church Council is the Patriarch; The Council consists of 2 clergy, 2 laymen as permanent members and 2 deputies elected for 4 years by the Church-People's Council.

The BOC consists of 14 dioceses (metropolises): Sofia (department in Sofia), Varna and Preslav (Varna), Veliko Tarnovo (Veliko Tarnovo), Vidin (Vidin), Vratsa (Vratsa), Dorostol and Cherven (Ruse), Lovchan (Lovech), Nevrokopskaya (Gotse-Delchev), Plevenskaya (Pleven), Plovdivskaya (Plovdiv), Slivenskaya (Sliven), Stara Zagorskaya (Stara Zagora), American-Australian (New York), Central-Western European (Berlin). As of 2002, according to official data, the BOC operated about 3,800 churches, in which more than 1,300 clergy served; more than 160 monasteries, where about 300 monks and nuns worked.

Theological disciplines are taught in state educational institutions (the theological faculty of the Sofia University “St. Clement of Ohrid”; the theological faculty and the faculty of church art of the Veliko Tarnovo University; the department of theology of the University of Shumen).

Educational institutions of the BOC: Sofia Theological Seminary in the name of St. John of Rila; Plovdiv Theological Seminary.

The church press is represented by the following publications: “Church Herald” (the official organ of the BOC), “Dukhovna Kultura” (monthly magazine), “Godishnik at the Dukhovna Academy” (yearbook).

Church during the period of the First Bulgarian Kingdom (IX - beginning of the 11th century).

The adoption of Christianity in Bulgaria occurred during the reign of Saint Prince Boris. It was determined by the course of internal development of the country. The external impetus was the military failures of Bulgaria, surrounded by strong Christian powers. Initially, Boris and the group of nobility that supported him were inclined to accept Christianity from the Western Church. In the early 60s of the 9th century, Louis the German, king of the East Frankish state, informed the Pope about the conversion of many Bulgarians to Christianity and that their prince himself intended to be baptized. However, in 864, under military pressure from Byzantium, Prince Boris was forced to make peace with it, pledging, in particular, to accept Christianity from Constantinople. The Bulgarian ambassadors who arrived in Constantinople to conclude a peace treaty were baptized and returned to the capital of the Bulgarian state, Pliska, accompanied by a bishop and many priests and monks. Prince Boris was baptized along with his entire family and entourage, taking the Christian name Michael, in honor of the ruling Byzantine Emperor Michael III.

Regarding the exact date of the baptism of Bulgaria in historiography, there are different points of view from 863 to 866. Many scholars place this event in 865; This is also the official position of the BOC. A number of studies also give the year 864. It is believed that the baptism was timed to coincide with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14 or on the Saturday of Pentecost. Since the baptism of the Bulgarians was not a one-time act, but a long process, different sources reflected its different stages. The decisive moment was the baptism of the prince and his court, which meant the recognition of Christianity as the state religion. This was followed by a mass baptism of the people in September 865. Soon, an uprising broke out in 10 regions of Bulgaria against the introduction of a new religion. It was suppressed by Boris, and 52 noble leaders of the rebellion were executed in March 866.

The baptism of the Bulgarians complicated already tense relations between Rome and Constantinople. Boris, in turn, sought to achieve independence of the Bulgarian Church from both the Byzantine and papal administrations. Back in 865, he sent a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople, Saint Photius, in which he expressed his desire to establish a Patriarchate in Bulgaria similar to that of Constantinople. In response, Photius sent a message to “The most glorious and famous, beloved spiritual son Michael in the Lord, Archon of Bulgaria from God,” effectively denying the Bulgarians the right to church autocephaly.

In 866, a Bulgarian embassy was sent to King Louis the German in Regensburg with a request to send bishops and priests. At the same time, another Bulgarian embassy went to Rome, where it arrived on August 29, 866. The ambassadors conveyed 115 questions from Prince Boris to Pope Nicholas I. The text of the questions has not been preserved; their content can be judged from the 106 answers of the pope that have come down to us, compiled on his personal instructions by Anastasius the Librarian. The Bulgarians wanted to receive not only learned mentors, liturgical and doctrinal books, Christian law and the like. They were also interested in the structure of an independent Church: is it permissible for them to appoint a Patriarch for themselves, who should ordain the Patriarch, how many true Patriarchs are, which of them is second after the Roman one, where and how they receive the chrism, and the like. The answers were solemnly presented on November 13, 866 by Nicholas I to the Bulgarian ambassadors. The Pope urged Prince Boris not to rush into installing the Patriarch and to work to create a strong church hierarchy and community. Bishops Formosa of Porto and Paul of Populon were sent to Bulgaria. At the end of November, papal envoys arrived in Bulgaria, where they launched energetic activities. Prince Boris expelled the Greek clergy from his country; the baptism performed by the Byzantines was declared invalid without the “approval” of it by the Latin bishops. At the beginning of 867, a large German embassy, ​​consisting of presbyters and deacons led by Bishop Germanaric of Passau, arrived in Bulgaria, but it soon returned, convinced of the success of the envoys of Rome.

Immediately after the arrival of the Roman clergy in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian embassy headed to Constantinople, joined by the Roman ambassadors - Bishop Donatus of Ostia, Presbyter Leo and Deacon Marinus. However, the pope's envoys were detained at the Byzantine border in Thrace and, after 40 days of waiting, returned to Rome. At the same time, the Bulgarian ambassadors were received in Constantinople by Emperor Michael III, who presented them with a letter to Prince Boris condemning the change in the Bulgarian church and political orientation and accusations against the Roman Church. The rivalry for church influence in Bulgaria aggravated the aggravation of relations between the Roman and Constantinople Sees. Back in 863 Pope Nicholas I refused to recognize the legality of placing Photius on the Patriarchal throne and declared him deposed. In turn, Photius sharply condemned the dogmatic and ritual traditions of the Western Church implanted in Bulgaria, primarily the doctrine of Filioqre. In the summer of 867 A Council was convened in Constantinople, at which the “innovations” of the Western Church were anathematized, and Pope Nicholas was declared deposed.

Meanwhile, Bishop Formosus of Porto, who received unlimited powers in church affairs from Prince Boris, introduced the Latin rite of worship in Bulgaria. In order to receive papal blessing to install Formosus as primate of the Bulgarian Church, in the 2nd half of 867, Bulgarian ambassadors were again sent to Rome. However, Nicholas I invited Boris to choose as the future archbishop one of the 3 bishops sent to him: Dominic of Triventus and Grimualdus of Polymartius or Paul of Populon. The papal embassy arrived in Pliska at the beginning of 868 under the new pope Adrian II. Prince Boris, having learned that his request was not satisfied and Formosus was ordered to return to Rome, sent back the candidates sent by the pope and Paul of Populon and asked in a letter to elevate him to the rank of archbishop and send to Bulgaria the deacon Marin, whom he knew, or some cardinal worthy of leading the Bulgarian Church. The Pope refused to ordain Deacon Marin, deciding to place his close associate, Subdeacon Sylvester, at the head of the Bulgarian Church. Accompanied by Bishop Leopard of Ancona, he arrived in Pliska, but was sent back to Rome with Boris’ demand to send Formosus or Marinus. Adrian II sent a letter to Boris, urging him to name any candidate other than Formosus and Marinus. However, by this time, at the end of 868, Prince Boris had already decided to reorient himself again towards Byzantium.

The Byzantine Emperor Basil I the Macedonian, who came to power in 867, removed Photius from the Patriarchal throne. Prince Boris negotiated with the restored Patriarch St. Ignatius, and the Bulgarians made it clear that they would make any concessions if the Bulgarian Church returned under the protection of Byzantium. At the Council of Constantinople 869–870. The Bulgarian church question was not considered, but on March 4, 870 - shortly after the last meeting of the Council (February 28) - the hierarchs, in the presence of Emperor Vasily I, listened to the ambassadors of Boris, who asked the question to whom the Bulgarian Church should obey. A discussion took place between the papal legates and the Greek hierarchs, as a result of which the Bulgarian ambassadors were given a decision that the territory of Bulgaria was under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Constantinople, as a former possession of the Byzantine Empire. The Latin clergy, led by Grimuald, were forced to leave Bulgaria and return to Rome.

Pope John VIII (872–882) used diplomatic measures to return the Bulgarian diocese to Roman rule. However, Prince Boris, without breaking off relations with the Roman Curia, did not agree to accept the pope’s proposals and still adhered to the provisions adopted in 870. At the Council of Constantinople (late 879 - early 880), the papal legates again raised the issue of ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Bulgaria. As a result, a decision was made that was important for the history of the BOC: from that moment on, the Bulgarian Archdiocese should not appear in the lists of dioceses of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Essentially, the decisions of this Local Council were beneficial to Constantinople and Bulgaria, whose archbishop actually received autonomy rights in relation to the Church of Constantinople. At the same time, this meant the final failure of Rome’s policy on the Bulgarian issue. The Pope did not immediately realize this, at first interpreting the conciliar decree as the departure of the Byzantine clergy from Bulgaria and the withdrawal of the Bulgarian Archdiocese from the jurisdiction of Constantinople. In 880, Rome tried to intensify contacts with Bulgaria through the Croatian bishop Theodosius of Nin, but his mission was unsuccessful. The letter sent by the pope in 882 to Boris also remained unanswered.

Church structure

While the question of the status and title of the head of the Bulgarian Church remained the object of negotiations between the popes and the Bulgarian prince, church administration was carried out by the bishops who headed the Roman mission in Bulgaria (Formosus of Portuana and Paul of Populon in 866–867, Grimuald of Polymartia and Dominic of Triventum in 868–869, individually Grimuald in 869–870). It is unclear what powers were given to them by the pope, but it is known that they consecrated temples and altars and ordained lower clergy of Bulgarian origin. The installation of the first archbishop was delayed due to disagreements regarding the identity of the specific candidate. These disagreements, as well as the desire of the Roman high priests to maintain full control over the Bulgarian diocese for as long as possible, led to the Bulgarians refusing to belong to the Roman church organization.

The decision to transfer the Bulgarian Church under the jurisdiction of Constantinople, made on March 4, 870, marked the beginning of the organizational formation of the Bulgarian Archdiocese. It is traditionally believed that the first Bulgarian Archbishop Stefan, whose name is recorded in the “Tale of the Monk Christodoulus about the Miracles of the Great Martyr George” at the beginning of the 10th century (in one of the lists he is called Joseph), was ordained by the Patriarch of Constantinople, St. Ignatius and belonged to the Byzantine clergy; This ordination could hardly have taken place without the consent of Prince Boris and his entourage. According to the newest hypothesis, the origins of the creation of the Bulgarian Church in 870–877. stood Nicholas, Metropolitan of Heraclea of ​​Thracia. Perhaps he received control of the newly formed Bulgarian diocese as part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and sent his representatives to the places, one of whom was his nephew, an unknown monk and archdeacon, who died in Cherven on October 5, 870. In the 70s of the 9th century, in the capital of Bulgaria, Pliska, construction began on the Great Basilica, designed to become the main cathedral of the country. Pliska apparently became the permanent place of residence of the Bulgarian archbishops around 878 under Archbishop George, who is known from the letter of Pope John VIII and the prayers. When the capital of Bulgaria was moved to Preslav in 893, the residence of the primate of the BOC also moved there. The cathedral became the Golden Church of St. John in the outer city of Preslav.

With regard to internal administration, the Bulgarian archbishop was independent, only formally recognizing the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople. The archbishop was elected by the Council of Bishops, apparently even without his approval by the Patriarch of Constantinople. The decision of the Council of Constantinople in 879–880 not to include Bulgaria in the lists of dioceses of the Patriarchate of Constantinople actually secured the rights of autonomy for the Archbishop of Bulgaria. According to his position in the Byzantine church hierarchy, the primate of the BOC received an independent status. The special place that the Bulgarian Archbishop occupied among the heads of other Local Churches is attested in one of the lists of dioceses of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, where he, together with the Archbishop of Cyprus, was placed after the 5 Patriarchs before the metropolitans subordinate to Constantinople.

After 870, simultaneously with the creation of the Bulgarian Archdiocese, the formation of dioceses subordinate to it began. The number of dioceses created in Bulgaria and the location of their centers cannot be precisely determined, but undoubtedly there were many of them. A letter from Pope John VIII to Prince Boris dated April 16, 878 mentions Bishop Sergius, whose see was located in Belgrade. Representatives of the BOC, Bishops Gabriel of Ohrid, Theoktist of Tiberiople, Manuel of Provat and Simeon of Develta, were present at the Council of Constantinople in 879–880. Ordained bishop around 893 by St. Clement of Ohrid initially headed 2 dioceses - Draguvitija and Veliki, and later a third of the Bulgarian state (Exarchate of the South-Western Lands) was transferred under his spiritual supervision. Between 894 and 906, one of the greatest Bulgarian church writers, Konstantin Preslavsky, became the bishop of Preslav. Probably, after 870, the dioceses that existed on the Balkan Peninsula before its settlement by Slavic tribes were also restored, with centers in Sredets, Philippopolis, Dristre and others. Pope John VIII, in letters to Bulgaria, argued that there were so many Bulgarian dioceses that their number was not consistent with the needs of the Church.

Wide internal autonomy allowed the BOC to independently establish new episcopal sees in the country in accordance with its administrative-territorial division. In the Life of St. Clement of Ohrid says that during the reign of Prince Boris, there were 7 metropolises within Bulgaria, in which cathedral churches were erected. The location of 3 of them is known for sure: in Ohrid, Prespa and Bregalnica. Others, in all likelihood, were located in Develta, Dristre, Sredets, Philippopolis and Vidin.

It is assumed that the office of the Bulgarian Archdiocese was created in the likeness of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. With her were many ministers, assistants to the archbishop, who made up his retinue. The first place among them was occupied by the syncellus, who was in charge of organizing church life; 2 lead seals of the end of the 9th - beginning of the 10th century have been preserved, where “George Chernets and the Bulgarian Syncellus” are mentioned. The secretary of the primate of the Bulgarian Church, the most influential person in the archbishop's office, was chartophylax (in Byzantium this title meant the keeper of the archive). On the wall of the Golden Church in Preslav there is a Cyrillic inscription - graffiti, informing that the Church of St. Joanna was built by Chartophylax Paul. The exarch was obliged to monitor the correct observance and execution of church canons, explain the dogmas and ethical standards of the Church to clergy, carrying out higher preaching, mentoring, missionary and supervisory activities. The position of exarch was held after 894 by the famous church writer John the Exarch. The Bulgarian scribe and translator Gregory, who lived during the reign of Tsar Simeon, was called “presbyter and mentor of all clergy of the Bulgarian churches” (a title that was absent in the Patriarchate of Constantinople).

The higher and lower clergy were mostly Greek, but, apparently, there were also Slavs among them (for example, Sergius, Bishop of Belgrade). For a long time, the Byzantine clergy was the main conductor of the political and cultural influence of the empire. Prince Boris, who sought to create a national church organization, sent Bulgarian youths, including his son Simeon, to study in Constantinople, assuming that he would later become an archbishop.

In 889, Saint Prince Boris retired to a monastery (apparently at the Great Basilica in Pliska) and transferred the throne to his eldest son Vladimir. But due to the new prince’s commitment to paganism, Boris had to remove him from power and return to governing the country. In the fall of 893, he convened a Council in Preslav with the participation of the clergy, nobility and people, which de jure deposed Vladimir and transferred power to Simeon. The Preslav Council is usually associated with the assertion of the priority of the Slavic language and Cyrillic writing.

Spread of Slavic books and temple building

The activities of the Slavic first teachers, Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius, were of great importance for the strengthening and spread of Christianity in Bulgaria. According to a number of sources, Equal to the Apostles Cyril preached and baptized the Bulgarians on the Bregalnitsa River (modern Macedonia) even before the official adoption of Christianity by Prince Boris. This legendary-historical tradition took shape during the period of Byzantine rule and at the early stage of the revival of the Bulgarian state in the 12th-13th centuries, when the main focus of the preservation of national culture was the southwestern regions.

After the death of Archbishop Methodius in 886, persecution of the Latin clergy began, supported by Prince Svyatopolk, against the Slavic liturgy and writing in Great Moravia, the disciples of the glorious apostles - Angelarius, Clement, Lawrence, Naum, Savva; Konstantin, the future Bishop of Preslav, also obviously belongs to their number; they found refuge in Bulgaria. They entered the country in different ways: Angelarius and Clement reached Belgrade, which then belonged to Bulgaria, on a log, crossing the Danube; Nahum was sold into slavery and ransomed in Venice by the Byzantines; the ways of others are unknown. In Bulgaria they were gladly received by Prince Boris, who needed enlightened employees who were not directly connected with either Rome or Constantinople.

Over the course of about 40 years from 886 to 927, scribes who arrived from Great Moravia and a generation of their students, through translations and original creativity, created in Bulgaria a full-fledged multi-genre literature in a language understandable to the people, which formed the basis of all medieval Orthodox Slavic, as well as Romanian literature. Thanks to the activities of the students of Cyril and Methodius and with the direct support of the supreme authorities in Bulgaria, in the last quarter of the 9th -1st third of the 10th century, 2 literary and translation centers (or “schools”) emerged and were actively operating - Ohrid and Preslav. At least two of the disciples of the glorious apostles - Clement and Constantine - were elevated to the rank of bishop.

Clement is called "the first bishop of the Bulgarian language" in the life written by Theophylact, Archbishop of Ohrid. During his educational activities in the region of Kutmichevitsa in southwestern Bulgaria, Clement trained a total of 3,500 students (including the future Bishop of Devol Mark).

The heyday of Bulgarian culture under Tsar Simeon was called the “Golden Age”. The compiler of the “Izbornik” of Tsar Simeon compares the Bulgarian ruler with the king of Hellenistic Egypt, Ptolemy II Philadelphus (III century BC), under whom the Septuagint was translated from Hebrew into Greek.

In the 10th century, during the reign of Tsar St. Peter and his successors, literary creativity in Bulgaria takes on an occasional character, characteristic of all writers of the Slavia Orthodoxa region in the Middle Ages. From this time, the cycle of teachings of Peter the Monk (identified by researchers with the Tsar, the son of Simeon) and the “Conversation on the New Bogumilov Heresy” by Kozma the Presbyter are known, containing the most complete picture of the new heretical teaching and characterizing the spiritual and especially monastic life of Bulgaria in the middle of the 2nd half X century. Almost all the monuments created in the 9th–10th centuries in Bulgaria came to Rus' early, and many of them (especially non-liturgical ones) were preserved only in Russian lists.

The activities of the Slavic scribes were of fundamental importance for the establishment of the internal autonomy of the BOC. The introduction of the Slavic language contributed to the gradual replacement of the Greek clergy with the Bulgarian one.

The construction of the first temples on the territory of Bulgaria began, apparently, back in 865. According to Anastasius the Librarian, it acquired significant proportions during the stay of the Roman clergy in the country from 866 to 870, who consecrated “many churches and altars.” Evidence of this is the Latin inscription discovered in Preslav. Churches were often built on the foundations of destroyed early Christian temples, as well as pagan sanctuaries of the Proto-Bulgarians, for example, in Pliska, Preslav and Madara. This practice is recorded in the “Tale of the Monk Christodoulus about the Miracles of the Great Martyr. George" beginning of the 10th century. It tells how Prince Boris destroyed pagan temples and erected monasteries and temples in their place.

Active church-building activity continues with the arrival of the disciples of Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius in Bulgaria. In Ohrid St. Clement founded on the ruins of a 5th century basilica. monastery of the Great Martyr Panteleimon and built 2 rotunda churches. In 900, the Monk Naum erected a monastery in the name of the Holy Archangels on the opposite shore of Lake Ohrid at the expense of Prince Boris and his son Simeon. The canon composed by Nahum of Ohrid in honor of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called testifies to his special veneration by the disciples of Cyril and Methodius.

At the request of Prince Boris, the committee Taradin built a large temple on Bregalnitsa in honor of the 15 Tiberiopolis martyrs who suffered in Tiberiopolis (Strumica) under Julian the Apostate. The relics of the martyrs Timothy, Comasius and Eusebius were solemnly transferred to this church. This event occurred on August 29 and was included in the Slavic calendars (monthly words of the Assemanian Gospel of the 11th century and the Strumitsky Apostle of the 13th century). The disciples of Clement of Ohrid were appointed clergy of the newly built church. During the reign of Simeon, the Comitant Dristr transferred the relics of Saints Socrates and Theodore from Tiberoupolis to Bregalnitsa.

The lives of the 15 Tiberiopolis martyrs report on the active construction of churches and the strengthening of the influence of the Bulgarian Church during the reign of Prince Boris: “From that time on, bishops began to be appointed, priests were ordained in large numbers and holy churches were erected, and the people that had previously been a barbarian tribe now became a people God... And from now on a person can see that the churches are multiplying in number, and the temples of God, which the above-mentioned Avars and Bulgarians destroyed, have been rebuilt well and erected from the foundations.” The construction of churches was also carried out on the initiative of private individuals, as evidenced by the Cyrillic inscription of the 10th century: “Lord, have mercy on Your servant John the Presbyter and Your servant Thomas, who created the temple of St. Blaise.”

The Christianization of Bulgaria was accompanied by the construction of many monasteries and an increase in the number of monastics. Many Bulgarian aristocrats took monastic vows, including members of the princely house (Prince Boris, his brother Dox Chernorizets, Tsar Peter and others). A significant number of monasteries were concentrated in large cities (Pliska, Preslav, Ohrid) and their environs. For example, in Preslav and its suburbs, according to archaeological data, there are 8 monasteries. Most of the Bulgarian scribes and church hierarchs of that time came from among the inhabitants of city monasteries (John the Exarch, Presbyter Gregory Mnich, Presbyter John, Bishop Mark of Devolsky and others). At the same time, monastic monasteries began to appear in mountainous and remote areas. The most famous desert dweller of that time was St. John of Rila († 946), founder of the Rila Monastery. Among the ascetics who continued the traditions of ascetic monasticism, the monks Prokhor of Pshinsky (11th century), Gabriel of Lesnovsky (11th century), Joachim of Osogovsky (late 11th - early 12th centuries) became famous.

A number of sources (for example, “The Tale of the Monk Christodoulus about the Miracles of the Great Martyr George,” early 10th century) report a large number of wandering monks who did not belong to the brethren of a particular monastery.

Establishment of the Bulgarian Patriarchate

In 919, after the victories won over the Greeks, Prince Simeon proclaimed himself “king of the Bulgarians and Romans”; the royal title of his son and successor Peter (927–970) was officially recognized by Byzantium. During this period, the BOC received the status of a Patriarchate. There are different opinions regarding the exact date of this event. According to the ideas of that time, the status of the Church should correspond to the status of the state, and the rank of the church head should correspond to the title of secular ruler (“there is no kingdom without the Patriarch”). Based on this, it has been suggested that Simeon confirmed the Patriarchate in Bulgaria at the Preslav Council of 919. This is contradicted by the fact of negotiations that Simeon conducted in 926 with Pope John X on the elevation of the Bulgarian archbishop to the rank of Patriarch.

It is traditionally believed that the Patriarchal title of the Primate of the BOC was officially recognized by Constantinople in early October 927, when a peace treaty was concluded between Bulgaria and Byzantium, sealed by the dynastic union of the 2 powers and the recognition of Peter, the son of Simeon, as the king of the Bulgarians.

There are, however, a number of serious arguments that indicate the recognition of the patriarchal dignity of the BOC not at the time of Peter’s accession to the throne (927), but in the subsequent years of his reign. The 2nd sigil of Emperor Basil II Bulgarian Slayers, given to the Ohrid Archdiocese (1020), speaking about the territory and legal rights of the BOC during the time of Tsar Peter, calls it an Archdiocese. Beneshevich's Taktikon, describing the ceremonial practices of the Byzantine Empire court around 934–944, places the "Archbishop of Bulgaria" in 16th place, after the syncells of the Roman, Constantinople and Eastern Patriarchs. The same instruction is contained in the treatise of Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913–959) “On Ceremonies.”

In the “List of Archbishops of Bulgaria”, the so-called Ducange list, compiled in the middle of the 12th century and preserved in manuscripts of the 13th century, it is reported that by order of Emperor Roman I Lecapinus (919–944), the imperial synclitte proclaimed Damian Patriarch of Bulgaria, and the BOC was recognized as autocephalous . Presumably, the BOC received this status during the period when the Patriarchal throne in Constantinople was occupied by Theophylact (933–956), the son of Emperor Roman Lecapinus. It was with Theophylact, his relative, that Tsar Peter maintained close ties and turned to him for advice and clarification regarding the heresy of Bogomilism, a religious and social movement that became widespread in Bulgaria from the middle of the 11th century.

During the reign of Tsar Peter, there were at least 28 episcopal sees in the Bulgarian Church, listed in the Chrisovul of Basil II, (1020). The most important church centers were: in Northern Bulgaria - Preslav, Dorostol (Dristra, modern Silistra), Vidin (Bydin), Moravsk (Morava, ancient Marg); in Southern Bulgaria - Plovdiv (Philippopolis), Sredets - Triaditsa (modern Sofia), Bregalnitsa, Ohrid, Prespa and others.

The names of a number of Bulgarian archbishops and Patriarchs are mentioned in the Synod of Tsar Boril (1211), but the chronology of their reign remains unclear: Leonty, Dimitri, Sergius, Gregory.

Patriarch Damian, after the capture of Dorostol in 971 by the Byzantine emperor John Tzimiskes, fled to Sredets into the possessions of the Komitopuls David, Moses, Aaron and Samuel, who became the actual successors of the Bulgarian statehood. With the formation of the Western Bulgarian Kingdom in 969, the capital of Bulgaria was moved to Prespa and then to Ohrid. The residence of the Patriarch also moved to the West: according to the sigils of Vasily II - to Sredets, then to Voden (Greek Edessa), from there to Moglen and, finally, in 997 to the Ohrid list Dukange, without mentioning Sredets and Moglen, names Prespa in this series. The military successes of Tsar Samuil were reflected in the construction of a grandiose basilica in Prespa. The relics of St. were solemnly transferred to Prespa. Achille from Larissa, captured by the Bulgarians in 986. At the end of the altar of the Basilica of St. Achille contains images of 18 “thrones” (cathedras) of the Bulgarian Patriarchate.

After Damian, Ducange's list lists Patriarch Germanus, whose see was originally located in Woden and was then moved to Prespa. It is known that he ended his life in the monastery, taking the schema with the name Gabriel. Patriarch Herman and Tsar Samuil were ktitors of the Church of St. Herman on the shores of Lake Mikra Prespa, in which Samuel's parents and his brother David were buried, as evidenced by inscriptions from 993 and 1006.

Patriarch Philip, according to Ducange's list, was the first whose see was located in Ohrid. Information about the Ohrid Patriarch Nicholas (he is not mentioned in Ducange’s list) is contained in the prologue Life of Prince John Vladimir († 1016), son-in-law of Tsar Samuel. Archbishop Nicholas was the prince’s spiritual mentor; his life calls this hierarch the wisest and most wonderful.

The question of who was the last Bulgarian Patriarch, David or John, remains controversial. The Byzantine historian John Skylitzes reports that in 1018. “Archbishop of Bulgaria” David was sent by Queen Maria, the widow of the last Bulgarian Tsar John Vladislav, to Emperor Vasily II to announce the conditions for her abdication from power. In the postscript of Michael Devolsky to the work of Skylitzes it is said that the captive Bulgarian Patriarch David participated in the triumphal procession of the emperor in Constantinople in 1019. However, the veracity of this story is disputed. The compiler of Ducange's list knows nothing about David. In the same year 1019, the Ohrid Church already had a new primate - Archbishop John, the former abbot of the Debar monastery, a Bulgarian by birth. There is reason to believe that he became Patriarch in 1018, and in 1019 he was demoted by Basil II to the rank of archbishop, subordinate to Constantinople.

Church during the era of Byzantine rule in Bulgaria (1018–1187)

The conquest of Bulgaria by the Byzantine Empire in 1018 entailed the liquidation of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. Ohrid became the center of the autocephalous Ohrid Archdiocese, which consisted of 31 dioceses. It covered the former territory of the Patriarchate, as stated in the 2nd sigil of Basil II (1020): “... the current most holy archbishop owns and governs all the Bulgarian bishoprics, which under Tsars Peter and Samuel were owned and governed by the then archbishops.” After the death of Archbishop John around 1037, a Slav by origin, the See of Ohrid was occupied exclusively by Greeks. The Byzantine government pursued a policy of Hellenization; the Bulgarian clergy was gradually replaced by Greek ones. At the same time, the Byzantine hierarchs sought to preserve the independence of the Ohrid Church. Thus, Archbishop John Komnenos (1143–1156), nephew of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, found a new justification for the special status of the Ohrid Archdiocese. In the protocol of the Local Council of Constantinople (1143), he signed himself not as “Archbishop of Bulgaria” (which was done before), but as “Archbishop of the First Justiniana and Bulgaria.” The identification of Ohrid with the ancient ecclesiastical center of Justiniana I (modern Tsarichin Grad), founded by Justinian I and actually located 45 km south of the city of Niš, was later developed by the Ohrid Archbishop Dimitri II Homatian (1216–1234) into a theory with the help of which the Ohrid Archdiocese managed to maintain independence for more than 5 centuries. In the 12th century, the bishops of Velbuzh also claimed this title.

Within the borders of the Ohrid diocese, church leaders of Greek origin to a certain extent took into account the spiritual needs of the Bulgarian flock. This contributed to better preservation of Slavic culture within the Ohrid Archdiocese compared to Eastern Bulgaria, directly subordinate to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and subsequently ensured its revival (hence, the Bulgarian scribes of the 12th–13th centuries arose the idea of ​​Macedonia as the cradle of Slavic writing and Christianity in Bulgaria). With the transition of the archbishop's table to the Greeks in the mid-11th century and the Hellenization of the social elite of society, there was a gradual but noticeable decline in the status of Slavic culture and worship to the level of parish churches and small monasteries. This did not affect the Byzantines’ veneration of local Slavic saints. Thus, Archbishop Theophylact of Ohrid (1090–1108) created the Life of the Tiberiopolis Martyrs, the lengthy Life of Clement of Ohrid and a service to him. George Skylitsa wrote the Life of John of Rylsky and a whole series of services to him (about 1180). Demetrius Khomatian is credited with establishing the celebration of the Holy Seven (equal to the apostles Methodius, Cyril and their five disciples), and he also compiled a short Life and service to Clement of Ohrid.

The Church during the era of the 2nd Bulgarian Kingdom (1187–1396). Tarnovo Archdiocese

In the autumn of 1185 (or 1186) an anti-Byzantine uprising broke out in Bulgaria, led by local bolyar brothers Peter and Asen. Its center was the strong fortress of Tarnov. On October 26, 1185, many people gathered there for the consecration of the Church of the Great Martyr. Demetrius of Thessalonica. According to Nikita Choniates, a rumor spread that the miraculous icon of St. Demetrius from Thessalonica, sacked by the Normans in 1185, is now in Tarnovo. This was perceived as evidence of the special patronage of the military commander. Demetrius to the Bulgarians and inspired the rebels. The restoration of Bulgarian statehood within the framework of the 2nd Bulgarian Kingdom with its capital in Tarnovo resulted in the restoration of autocephaly of the Bulgarian Church. Information about the establishment of a new bishopric in Tarnovo during the uprising is contained in a letter from Demetrius Khomatian to Basil Pediadite, Metropolitan of Kerkyra, and in the Synodal Act of the Ohrid Archdiocese of 1218 (or 1219). In the fall of 1186 or 1187, in the newly built church where the icon of the Great Martyr was located. Demetrius, the Bulgarian leaders forced 3 Byzantine hierarchs (the Vidin metropolitan and 2 unknown bishops) to ordain priest (or hieromonk) Vasily, who crowned Peter Asen, as a bishop. In fact, a new independent diocese appeared in the center of the rebel territory.

The establishment of the bishopric was followed by an expansion of its canonical powers; in 1203 it became the Archdiocese of Tarnovo. During the period 1186–1203. 8 dioceses that fell away from the Ohrid Archdiocese came under the authority of the Tarnovo Primate: Vidin, Branichev, Sredets, Velbuzh, Nis, Belgrade, Prizren and Skopje.

Tsar Kaloyan (1197–1207), brother of Peter and John Asen I, took advantage of the difficult situation in which the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos (1195–1203) and Patriarch John V Kamatir (1191–1206) found themselves in connection with the 4th Crusade and the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204. The Patriarch of Constantinople was forced to recognize Tarnovsky as the church head and grant him the right to ordain bishops. In addition, the Tarnovo Archbishop, taking advantage of the situation, arrogated to himself similar rights in relation to the Ohrid diocese: Archbishop Basil appointed bishops to the dowager episcopal sees of the Ohrid archdiocese.

At the same time, Tsar Kaloyan negotiated with Pope Innocent III about recognition of his royal dignity. The pope set ecclesiastical submission to Rome as a condition for Kaloyan's coronation. In September 1203, chaplain John of Kazemarinsky arrived in Tarnov, who presented Archbishop Vasily with a palium sent by the pope and elevated him to the rank of primate. In a letter dated February 25, 1204. Innocent III confirmed the appointment of Basil "primate of all Bulgaria and Wallachia." The final approval of Basil by Rome was marked by his anointing, performed on November 7, 1204 by Cardinal Leo, and the presentation of the signs of the highest church authority and the “Privilegium” to him, which determined the canonical state of the Tarnovo archdiocese and the powers of its head.

Union with Rome served as a means to achieve certain political goals, and when, in the international aspect, it became an obstacle to the further rise of the rank of the Bulgarian Church, it was abandoned. Most researchers believe that the conclusion of the union was a formal act and did not change anything in the Orthodox liturgical and ritual practice of Bulgaria.

In 1211 In Tarnovo, Tsar Boril convened a Church Council against the Bogomils and compiled a new edition of the Synodik on the Week of Orthodoxy (Synodik of Tsar Boril), which was repeatedly supplemented and revised during the 13th–14th centuries and serves as an important source on the history of the Bulgarian Church.

In connection with the strengthening of the position of Bulgaria during the reign of John Assen II (1218–1241), the question arose not only of recognizing the independence of its Church, but also of elevating its primate to the rank of Patriarch. This happened after John Asenes II concluded an agreement on a military alliance against the Latin Empire with the Nicaean emperor John III Ducas Vatatzes. In 1234, after the death of Archbishop Vasily, the Bulgarian Council of Bishops chose Hieromonk Joachim. The choice was approved by the king, and Joachim went to Nicaea, where his consecration took place. This demonstrated the belonging of the Bulgarian Archdiocese to the Eastern Church, canonical communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (temporarily located in Nicaea) and the final break with the Roman Curia. In 1235, a Church Council was convened in the city of Lampsacus under the chairmanship of Patriarch Herman II of Constantinople, at which Patriarchal dignity was recognized for Archbishop Joachim I of Tarnovo.

In addition to the Tarnovo and Ohrid dioceses, 14 dioceses were subordinated to the new Patriarch, 10 of which were headed by metropolitans (the metropolises of Preslav, Cherven, Lovchan, Sredets, Ovech (Provatskaya), Dristra, Serres, Vidin, Philippi (Drama), Mesemvri; bishoprics of Velbuzh, Branichev, Belgrade and Nis). The re-creation of the Bulgarian Patriarchate is devoted to 2 chronicle stories, contemporary to the event: one as part of the additions to the Synodic of Boril, the second as part of a special story about the transfer of the relics of St. Paraskeva (Petki) in Tarnov. The Bulgarian Church did not have such an extensive diocese either before or after until the end of the 2nd Bulgarian Kingdom.

The diocese of Skopje in 1219 came under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Archdiocese of Pec, and Prizren (around 1216) returned to the diocese of the Ohrid Archdiocese.

In the 1st half of the 13th century, Tarnovo turned into an impregnable fortress city. It consisted of 3 parts: the outer city, Tsarevets Hill with the royal and patriarchal palaces and Trapezitsa Hill, where there were 17 churches and Cathedral Ascension. The Bulgarian kings set themselves the task of making Tarnovo not only the church and administrative center, but also the spiritual center of Bulgaria. They actively pursued a policy of “collecting shrines.” After the Bulgarian victory over the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos, among the trophies, a large patriarchal cross was captured, which, according to George Acropolite, “was made of gold and had a particle of the Honest Tree in the middle.” It is possible that the cross was made by Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine. Until the end of the 70s of the 13th century, this cross was kept in the Tarnovo treasury in the Church of the Ascension.

Under John Asen I, the relics of St. St. were transferred from Sredets to Tarnovo. John of Rylsky and were placed in a new church built in the name of this saint on Trapezitsa. Tsar Kaloyan transferred the relics of the holy martyrs Michael the Warrior, St. Hilarion, Bishop of Moglen, Venerable. Philothea Temnitskaya and etc. John, Bishop of Polivotsky. John Asen II erected a church of 40 martyrs in Tarnovo, where he transferred the relics of St. Paraskeva of Epivatskaya. At the first Asenya, the concept was formed: Tarnovo - “New Constantinople”. The desire to liken the capital of Bulgaria to Constantinople was reflected in many literary works of that era.

The Synodikon mentions the names of 14 Patriarchs for the period from 1235 to 1396; according to other sources, there were 15 of them. The surviving information about their life and activities is extremely fragmentary. The lists do not mention Archbishop Vasily I, who, although not officially recognized as Patriarch, was named as such in a number of documents. A lead seal with the name of Patriarch Vissarion has been preserved, which dates back to the 1st quarter of the 13th century, believing that Vissarion was the successor of Primate Basil and also a Uniate. However, it is not possible to accurately determine the years of his Patriarchate.

St. Joachim I (1235–1246), who took monastic vows on Mount Athos, became famous for his virtuous and fasting life and was canonized immediately after his death. Patriarch Vasily II was a member of the regency council under Kaliman's young brother, Michael II Asen (1246–1256). During his Patriarchate, the Batoshevsky Monastery of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built.

After the death of John Asenj II, the territory of the Tarnovo diocese gradually decreased: dioceses in Thrace and Macedonia were lost, then Belgrade and Branichev, and later Nis and Velbuzh dioceses.

Patriarch Joachim II is mentioned in the Synodikon as the successor of Vasily II and in the ktitor's inscription of 1264/65 of the rock monastery of St. Nicholas near the village of Trinity. The name of Patriarch Ignatius is indicated in the colophons of the Tarnovo Gospel of 1273 and the Apostle of 1276–1277. The Synodik calls him “the pillar of Orthodoxy” because he did not accept the union with Rome concluded at the Second Council of Lyons (1274). The Bulgarian book tradition of the last quarter of the 13th century reflects the strengthening of anti-Catholic tendencies: in the short edition of “The Tale of the Seven Ecumenical Councils”, in the “Questions and Answers about the Gospel Words”, in the “Tale of the Zograf Martyrs”, in the “Tale of the Xiropotamian Monastery”.

Ignatius' successor, Patriarch Macarius lived during the era of the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the Ivail uprising and civil strife between John Asen III and George Terter I, who is mentioned in the Synodik as a martyr, but it is unknown when and how he suffered.

Patriarch Joachim III (80s of the 13th century - 1300) was an active politician and church leader. In 1272, while not yet Patriarch, he had conversations in Constantinople with Girolamo d'Ascoli (later Pope Nicholas IV) in the presence of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. In 1284, already as Patriarch, he participated in the Bulgarian embassy to Constantinople. In 1291, Nicholas IV sent Joachim III (whom he called “archiepiscopo Bulgarorum”) a letter reminding him that at their first meeting he spoke of his disposition towards the idea of ​​​​subordination to the Pope of Rome, that is, “to what I encourage you now.” . Tsar Theodore Svyatoslav (1300–1321) suspected Patriarch Joachim III of conspiring with Chaka, the son of the Tatar ruler Nogai and pretender to the Bulgarian throne, and executed him: the Patriarch was thrown from the so-called Frontal Rock on Tsarevets Hill in Tarnovo. Patriarchs Dorotheos and Romanos, Theodosius I and Ioannikios I are known only from the Synodicus. They probably occupied the Tarnovo See in the 1st half of the 14th century. Patriarch Simeon participated in the Council in Skopje (1346), at which the Peć Patriarchate was established and Stefan Dušan was crowned king of the Serbian crown.

Patriarch Theodosius II (about 1348 - about 1360), who took monastic vows at the Zograf Monastery, maintained active ties with Athos (he sent to Zograf as a gift the Explanatory Gospel of Theophylact, Archbishop of Ohrid, rewritten by order of his predecessor, Patriarch Simeon, and Pandects Nikon the Montenegrin in new translation). In 1352, in violation of the canons, he ordained Theodoret as Metropolitan of Kyiv after Patriarch Callistos of Constantinople refused to do so. In 1359/60, Patriarch Theodosius headed the Council against heretics in Tarnovo.

Patriarch Ioannikis II (70s of the 14th century) was formerly the abbot of the Tarnovo Monastery of the 40 Martyrs. Under him, the Vidin Metropolis fell away from the Bulgarian diocese.

In the 14th century, the religious and philosophical teaching of hesychasm found fertile ground and many followers in Bulgaria. The embodiment of the ideas of mature hesychasm, St. Gregory of Sinait came to the Bulgarian lands around 1330, where in the area of ​​Paroria (in the Strandzha Mountains) he founded 4 monasteries, the largest of them on Mount Katakekriomene. Tsar John Alexander provided patronage to this monastery. The disciples and followers of Gregory Sinaite from Paroria (Slavs and Greeks) spread the teachings and practices of hesychasts throughout the Balkan Peninsula. The most famous of them were St. Romil Vidinsky, St. Theodosius of Tarnovo, David Disipate and the future Patriarch of Constantinople Callistus I. At the Council of Constantinople in 1351, hesychasm was recognized as fully consistent with the foundations of the Orthodox faith and from that time received official recognition in Bulgaria.

Theodosius of Tarnovsky took an active part in exposing various heretical teachings that spread in Bulgaria in the middle and 2nd half of the 14th century. In 1355, on his initiative, a Church Council was convened in Tarnovo, where the teaching of the Barlaamites was anathematized. At the Tarnovo Council of 1359, the main distributors of Bogomilism, Cyril Bosota and Stefan, and the Adamite heresies, Lazarus and Theodosius, were condemned.

With the support of Tsar John Alexander, St. Theodosius founded the Kilifarevo monastery in the vicinity of Tarnov around 1350, where under his leadership many monastics labored (around 1360, their number reached 460) from the Bulgarian lands and from neighboring countries - Serbia, Hungary and Wallachia. Among them were Euthymius of Tarnovsky, the future Patriarch of Bulgaria, and Cyprian, the future Metropolitan of Kiev and Moscow. The Kilifarevo Monastery became one of the main centers of hesychasm, as well as book learning and enlightenment in the Balkans. Theodosius Tarnovsky translated into Slavic the “Very Useful Chapters” of Gregory Sinaite.

From the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries until the last quarter of the XIV century (the time of Patriarch Euthymius), through the efforts of several generations of Bulgarian monks (including hesychasts), who worked mainly on Mount Athos (Dionysius the Wonderful, Zacchaeus the Philosopher (Vagil), elders John and Joseph, Theodosius Tyrnovsky, as well as many nameless translators), a book reform was carried out, which received the name “Turnovo” or, more precisely, “Athos-Tyrnovo” law in the scientific literature. Two large corpuses of texts were translated anew (or significantly edited by comparing Slavic lists with Greek ones): 1) a complete circle of liturgical and paraliturgical books (Stichnoy Prologue, triode Synaxarion, “studio collection” of homilies, patriarchal homilary (Gospel teaching), Margarita and others) necessary for worship according to the Jerusalem Rule, which was finally established in the practice of the Byzantine Church during the 13th century; 2) ascetic and accompanying domatic-polemical works - a kind of library of hesychasm (The Ladder, the works of Abba Dorotheus, Isaac the Syrian, Simeon the New Theologian, Gregory the Sinaite, Gregory Palamas and others). The translations were accompanied by the gradual development of a unified orthography (based on Eastern Bulgarian), the absence of which distinguished Bulgarian writing throughout the 12th - mid-14th centuries. The results on the right had a strong impact on ancient Orthodox literature - Serbian, Old Russian (the “second South Slavic influence” of the late 14th–10th centuries).

The largest church figure of the 2nd half of the 14th century was Evfimy Tarnovsky. After the death of Theodosius, he labored first in the Studite monastery, and then in Zograf and the Great Lavra on Athos. In 1371, Euthymius returned to Bulgaria and founded the Holy Trinity Monastery, where a grandiose translation effort began. In 1375 he was elected Bulgarian Patriarch.

The merit of Patriarch Euthymius is the comprehensive implementation of the results of the Athonite law into the practice of the BOC, so active that even younger contemporaries (Konstantin Kostenetsky) perceived the Patriarch as the initiator of the reform itself. In addition, Patriarch Euthymius is the largest Bulgarian writer of the 14th century, a prominent representative of the style of “weaving words.” He wrote services, lives and words of praise for almost the entire pantheon of saints, whose relics were collected in Tarnovo by the first kings of the Asenei dynasty, as well as a word of praise for Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helen and a letter to Mnikhus Cyprian (the future Metropolitan of Kyiv). A student and close friend of Euthymius was one of the prolific Slavic scribes of the 14th–15th centuries, Gregory Tsamblak, who wrote a word of praise for him.

Church during the era of Turkish rule in Bulgaria (end of the 14th - 2nd half of the 19th century)

Liquidation of the Tarnovo Patriarchate

John Sratsimir, the son of Tsar John Alexander, who ruled in Vidin, took advantage of the fact that during the occupation of the city by the Hungarians (1365–1369), Metropolitan Daniel of Vidin fled to Wallachia. Returning to the throne, John Sratsimir subordinated the Vidin Metropolis to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, thereby emphasizing his ecclesiastical and political independence from Tarnovo, where his brother John Shishman ruled. At the beginning of 1371, Metropolitan Daniel negotiated with the Synod of Constantinople and received control of the Triadic diocese. In July 1381, the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople installed Metropolitan Cassian to the See of Vidin, which consolidated the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Constantinople over the Vidin Metropolis. In 1396, Vidin was taken by the Turks.

On July 17, 1393, the Ottoman army captured Tarnovo. Patriarch Euthymius actually led the defense of the city. The works of Gregory Tsamblak “A word of praise to Patriarch Euthymius” and “The story of the transfer of the relics of St. Paraskeva”, as well as “Eulogy of St. Philotheus” by Metropolitan Joasaph of Vidinsky tells about the plunder of Tarnov and the destruction of many churches. The surviving temples were empty, having lost most of the priests; those who survived were afraid to serve. Patriarch Euthymius was exiled to prison (probably to the Bachkovo monastery), where he died around 1402. The Bulgarian Church was left without its First Hierarch.

In August 1394, Patriarch Anthony IV of Constantinople, together with the Holy Synod, decided to send Metropolitan Jeremiah to Tarnovo, who in 1387 was appointed to the see of Mavrovlahia (Moldova), but for a number of reasons was unable to begin governing the diocese. He was instructed to go “with God’s help to the holy Tarnovo Church and without hindrance to carry out all the affairs appropriate for a bishop,” with the exception of the ordination of bishops. Although the hierarch sent to Tarnovo was not placed at the head of this diocese, but only temporarily replaced the primate of the diocese, which was considered in Constantinople as a dowager, in Bulgarian historical science this act is interpreted as a direct intervention of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the jurisdiction of the autocephalous Bulgarian Church (Tarnovo Patriarchate). In 1395, Metropolitan Jeremiah was already in Tarnovo and in August 1401 he still ruled the Tarnovo diocese.

The temporary dependence of the Tarnovo Church on Constantinople turned into permanent. There is practically no information about the circumstances of this process that has survived. Subsequent changes in the canonical position of the BOC can be judged on the basis of 3 letters related to the dispute between Constantinople and Ohrid about the boundaries of their dioceses. In the first, the Patriarch of Constantinople accused Archbishop Matthew of Ohrid (mentioned in the response letter) of having annexed the Sofia and Vidin dioceses to his ecclesiastical region, without having canonical rights. In a reply letter, Matthew’s successor, unknown to us by name, explained to the Patriarch that his predecessor received, in the presence of the Patriarch and members of the Synod of the Church of Constantinople, from the Byzantine emperor a letter according to which his diocese included the lands up to Adrianople, including Vidin and Sofia. In the 3rd letter, the same Archbishop of Ohrid complains to Emperor Manuel II about the Patriarch of Constantinople, who, contrary to the imperial decree, expelled the metropolitans of Vidin and Sofia, installed from Ohrid. Researchers date this correspondence differently: 1410–1411, or after 1413 or around 1416. In any case, no later than the 2nd decade of the 15th century, the Tarnovo Church was subordinated to Constantinople. There are no church-legal justifications for the liquidation of the Tarnovo Patriarchate. However, this event was a natural consequence of Bulgaria’s loss of its own statehood. Other Balkan Churches maintained autocephaly much longer, on whose territory part of the Bulgarian population lived (and where in the 16th–17th centuries there were much more favorable conditions for the preservation of Slavic writing and culture): the Peć and Ohrid Patriarchates (abolished in 1766 and 1767, respectively). From that time on, all Bulgarian Christians came under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Bulgaria within the Patriarchate of Constantinople

The first metropolitan of the Tarnovo diocese within the Patriarchate of Constantinople was Ignatius, the former metropolitan of Nicomedia: his signature is the 7th in the list of representatives of the Greek clergy at the Florence Council of 1439. In one of the lists of dioceses of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the mid-15th century, the Tarnovo Metropolitan occupies a high 11th place (after Thessaloniki); 3 episcopal sees are subordinate to him: Cherven, Lovech and Preslav. Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Tarnovo diocese covered most of the lands of Northern Bulgaria and extended south to the Maritsa River, including the areas of Kazanlak, Stara and Nova Zagora. The bishops of Preslav (until 1832, when Preslav became a metropolitan), Cherven (until 1856, when Cherven was also elevated to the rank of metropolitan), Lovchansky and Vrachansky were subordinate to the Tarnovo metropolitan.

The Patriarch of Constantinople, considered the supreme representative before the Sultan of all Orthodox Christians (millet bashi), had broad rights in the spiritual, civil and economic spheres, but remained under the constant control of the Ottoman government and was personally responsible for the loyalty of his flock to the Sultan's authority. Church subordination to Constantinople was accompanied by increased Greek influence in the Bulgarian lands. Greek bishops were appointed to the departments, who in turn supplied Greek clergy to monasteries and parish churches, which resulted in the practice of conducting services in Greek, which was incomprehensible to most of the flock. Church positions were often filled with the help of large bribes; local church taxes (more than 20 of their types are known) were levied arbitrarily, often using violent methods. In case of refusal of payments, the Greek hierarchs closed the churches, anathematized the disobedient, and presented them to the Ottoman authorities as unreliable and subject to relocation to another area or taking into custody. Despite the numerical superiority of the Greek clergy, in a number of dioceses the local population managed to retain a Bulgarian abbot. Many monasteries (Etropolsky, Rilsky, Dragalevsky, Kurilovsky, Kremikovsky, Cherepishsky, Glozhensky, Kuklensky, Elenishsky and others) preserved the Church Slavonic language in worship.

In the first centuries of Ottoman rule, there was no ethnic hostility between the Bulgarians and Greeks; There are many examples of joint struggle against conquerors who equally oppressed Orthodox peoples. Thus, Metropolitan of Tarnovo Dionysius (Rali) became one of the leaders of the preparation of the 1st Tarnovo uprising of 1598 and attracted the bishops Jeremiah of Rusensky, Feofan Lovchansky, Spiridon of Shumensky (Preslavsky) and Methodius of Vrachansky subordinate to him. 12 Tarnovo priests and 18 influential laymen, together with the Metropolitan, vowed to remain faithful to the cause of the liberation of Bulgaria until their death. In the spring or summer of 1596, a secret organization was created, which included dozens of both clergy and secular persons. Greek influence in the Bulgarian lands was largely due to the influence of Greek-speaking culture and the influence of the growing process of “Hellenic revival”.

New martyrs and ascetics of the period of the Ottoman yoke

During the period of Turkish rule, the Orthodox faith was the only support for the Bulgarians that allowed them to preserve their national identity. Attempts at forced conversion to Islam contributed to the fact that remaining faithful to the Christian faith was also perceived as protecting one’s national identity. The feat of the new martyrs was directly correlated with the exploits of the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity. Their lives were created, services were compiled for them, the celebration of their memory was organized, the veneration of their relics was organized, churches consecrated in their honor were built.
The exploits of dozens of saints who suffered during the period of Turkish rule are known. As a result of outbreaks of fanatical bitterness of Muslims against the Christian Bulgarians, George the New of Sophia, burned alive in 1515, George the Old and George the New, hanged in 1534, suffered martyrdom; Nicholas the New and Hieromartyr. Bishop Vissarion of Smolyansky was stoned to death by a crowd of Turks - one in Sofia in 1555, others in Smolyan in 1670. In 1737, the organizer of the uprising, Hieromartyr Metropolitan Simeon Samokovsky, was hanged in Sofia. In 1750, Angel Lerinsky (Bitolsky) was beheaded with a sword for refusing to convert to Islam in Bitola. In 1771, the Hieromartyr of Damascus was hanged by a crowd of Turks in Svishtov. Martyr John in 1784 confessed the Christian faith in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople, converted into a mosque, for which he was beheaded; martyr Zlata Moglenskaya, who did not succumb to the persuasion of her Turkish kidnapper to accept his faith, was tortured and hanged in 1795 in the village of Slatino Moglenskaya areas. After torture, the martyr Lazarus was hanged in 1802 in the vicinity of the village of Soma near Pergamon. They confessed the Lord in the Muslim court. Ignatius of Starozagorsky in 1814 in Constantinople, who died by hanging, and so on. Onufriy Gabrovsky in 1818 on the island of Chios, beheaded by a sword. In 1822, in the city of Osman-Pazar (modern Omurtag), the martyr John was hanged, publicly repenting of having converted to Islam; in 1841, in Sliven, the head of the martyr Demetrius of Sliven was beheaded; in 1830, in Plovdiv, the martyr Rada of Plovdiv suffered for her faith: the Turks burst into the house and killed her and three children. The BOC celebrates the memory of all the saints and martyrs of the Bulgarian land, who pleased the Lord with a firm confession of the faith of Christ and accepted the crown of martyrdom for the glory of the Lord, on the 2nd week after Pentecost.

Patriotic and educational activities of Bulgarian monasteries

During the Turkish conquest of the Balkans in the 2nd half of the 14th - early 15th centuries, most of the parish churches and once thriving Bulgarian monasteries were burned or looted, many frescoes, icons, manuscripts, and church utensils were lost. For decades, teaching in monastery and church schools and the copying of books ceased, and many traditions of Bulgarian art were lost. Tarnovo monasteries were especially damaged. Some representatives of the educated clergy (mainly from among the monastics) died, others were forced to leave the Bulgarian lands. Only a few monasteries survived due to either the intercession of relatives of the highest dignitaries of the Ottoman Empire, or the special merits of the local population to the Sultan, or their location in inaccessible mountainous regions. According to some researchers, the Turks destroyed mainly monasteries located in areas that most strongly resisted the conquerors, as well as monasteries that were on the routes of military campaigns. From the 70s of the 14th century until the end of the 15th century, the system of Bulgarian monasteries did not exist as an integral organism; Many monasteries can be judged only from the surviving ruins and toponymic data.

The population - secular and clergy - on their own initiative and at their own expense, restored monasteries and churches. Among the surviving and restored monasteries are Rilsky, Boboshevsky, Dragalevsky, Kurilovsky, Karlukovsky, Etropolsky, Bilinsky, Rozhensky, Kapinovsky, Preobrazhensky, Lyaskovsky, Plakovsky, Dryanovsky, Kilifarevo, Prisovsky, Patriarchal Holy Trinity near Tarnovo and others, although their existence was constantly under threat due to frequent attacks, robberies and fires. In many of them, life stood still for long periods.

During the suppression of the 1st Tarnovo uprising in 1598, most of the rebels took refuge in the Kilifarevo Monastery, restored in 1442; For this, the Turks again destroyed the monastery. The surrounding monasteries - Lyaskovsky, Prisovsky and Plakovsky - were also damaged. In 1686, during the 2nd Tarnovo uprising, many monasteries were also damaged. In 1700, the Lyaskovsky Monastery became the center of the so-called revolt of Mary. During the suppression of the uprising, this monastery and the neighboring Transfiguration Monastery suffered.

The traditions of medieval Bulgarian culture were preserved by the followers of Patriarch Euthymius, who emigrated to Serbia, Mount Athos, and also to Eastern Europe: Metropolitan Cyprian († 1406), Gregory Tsamblak († 1420), Deacon Andrei († after 1425), Konstantin Kostenetsky († after 1433 ) and others.

In Bulgaria itself, a revival of cultural activity occurred in the 50s–80s of the 15th century. A cultural upsurge swept the western former territories of the country, with the Rila Monastery becoming the center. It was restored in the middle of the 15th century through the efforts of the monks Joasaph, David and Theophan with the patronage and generous financial support of the widow of Sultan Murad II Mara Brankovich (daughter of the Serbian despot George). With the transfer of the relics of St. John of Rila there in 1469, the monastery became one of the spiritual centers not only of Bulgaria, but also of the Slavic Balkans as a whole; Thousands of pilgrims began to arrive here. In 1466, an agreement on mutual assistance was concluded between the Rila monastery and the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon on Athos (inhabited at that time by Serbs - see Art. Athos). Gradually, the activities of scribes, icon painters and traveling preachers resumed in the Rila Monastery.

The scribes Demetrius Kratovsky, Vladislav Grammatik, monks Mardari, David, Pachomius and others worked in the monasteries of Western Bulgaria and Macedonia. The Collection of 1469, written by Vladislav the Grammar, included a number of works related to the history of the Bulgarian people: “The Extensive Life of St. Cyril the Philosopher”, “A eulogy to Saints Cyril and Methodius” and others, the basis of the “Rila Panegyric” of 1479 is made up of the best works of the Balkan hesychast writers of the 2nd half of the 11th - early 15th centuries: (“The Life of St. John of Rila”, epistles and other works by Euthymius of Tarnovsky, “The Life of Stefan Dečansky” by Grigory Tsamblak, “The Eulogy of St. Philotheos” by Joseph Bdinsky, “The Life of Gregory of Sinaite” and “The Life of St. Theodosius of Tarnovsky” by Patriarch Kallistos), as well as new works (“The Rila Tale” by Vladislav Grammar and “The Life of St. John of Rila with Little Praise” by Demetrius Kantakouzin).

At the end of the 15th century, monks-scribes and compilers of collections Spiridon and Peter Zograf worked in the Rila Monastery; For the Suceava (1529) and Krupniši (1577) Gospels stored here, unique gold bindings were made in the monastery workshops.

Book-writing activity was also carried out in monasteries located in the vicinity of Sofia - Dragalevsky, Kremikovsky, Seslavsky, Lozensky, Kokalyansky, Kurilovsky and others. The Dragalevsky monastery was restored in 1476; The initiator of its renovation and decoration was the wealthy Bulgarian Radoslav Mavr, whose portrait, surrounded by his family, was placed among the paintings in the vestibule of the monastery church. In 1488, Hieromonk Neophytos and his sons, priest Dimitar and Bogdan, built and decorated the Church of St. with their own funds. Demetrius in the Boboshevsky Monastery. In 1493, Radivoj, a wealthy resident of the suburbs of Sofia, restored the Church of St. George in the Kremikovsky Monastery; his portrait was also placed in the vestibule of the temple. In 1499, the church of St. Apostle John the Theologian in Poganov, as evidenced by the preserved ktitor portraits and inscriptions.

In the 16th–17th centuries, the Etropole Monastery of the Holy Trinity (or Varovitec), founded initially (in the 15th century) by a colony of Serbian miners that existed in the nearby city of Etropole, became a major center of writing. In the Etropol Monastery, dozens of liturgical books and collections of mixed content were copied, richly decorated with elegantly executed titles, vignettes and miniatures. The names of local scribes are known: the grammarian Boycho, the hieromonk Danail, Taho Grammar, the priest Velcho, the daskal (teacher) Koyo, the grammarian John, the carver Mavrudiy and others. In scientific literature there is even a concept of the Etropolian artistic and calligraphic school. Master Nedyalko Zograf from Lovech created an icon of the Old Testament Trinity for the monastery in 1598, and 4 years later he painted the church of the nearby Karlukovo monastery. A series of icons were painted in Etropol and surrounding monasteries, including images of Bulgarian saints; the inscriptions on them were made in Slavic. The activity of monasteries on the periphery of the Sofia Plain was similar: it is no coincidence that this area received the name Sofia Small Holy Mountain.

Characteristic is the work of the painter Hieromonk Pimen Zografsky (Sofia), who worked at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century in the vicinity of Sofia and Western Bulgaria, where he decorated dozens of churches and monasteries. In the 17th century, churches were restored and painted in Karlukovsky (1602), Seslavsky, Alinsky (1626), Bilinsky, Trynsky, Mislovishitsky, Iliyansky, Iskretsky and other monasteries.

Bulgarian Christians counted on the help of the Slavic peoples of the same faith, especially the Russians. Since the 16th century, Russia was regularly visited by Bulgarian hierarchs, abbots of monasteries and other clergy. One of them was the above-mentioned Tarnovo Metropolitan Dionysius (Rali), who delivered to Moscow the decision of the Council of Constantinople (1590) on the establishment of the Patriarchate in Russia. Monks, including the abbots of Rila, Preobrazhensky, Lyaskovsky, Bilinsky and other monasteries, in the 16th–17th centuries asked the Moscow Patriarchs and sovereigns for funds to restore damaged monasteries and protect them from oppression by the Turks. Later, trips to Russia for alms to restore their monasteries were made by the abbot of the Transfiguration Monastery (1712), the archimandrite of the Lyaskovsky Monastery (1718) and others. In addition to generous monetary alms for monasteries and churches, Slavic books were brought from Russia to Bulgaria, primarily of spiritual content, which did not allow the cultural and national consciousness of the Bulgarian people to fade.

In the 18th–19th centuries, as the economic capabilities of the Bulgarians grew, donations to monasteries increased. In the first half of the 18th century, many monastery churches and chapels were restored and decorated: in 1700 the Kapinovsky monastery was restored, in 1701 - Dryanovsky, in 1704 the chapel of the Holy Trinity in the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Arbanasi near Tarnovo was painted, in 1716 in the same In the village, the chapel of the monastery of St. Nicholas was consecrated, in 1718 the Kilifarevo monastery was restored (in the place where it is now located), in 1732 the church of the Rozhen monastery was renewed and decorated. At the same time, magnificent icons of the Trevno, Samokov and Debra schools were created. In monasteries, reliquaries for holy relics, icon frames, censers, crosses, chalices, trays, candlesticks and much more were created, which determined their role in the development of jewelry and blacksmithing, weaving, and miniature carving.

[!The Church during the period of the “Bulgarian Revival” (XVIII–XIX centuries)

Monasteries retained their role as national and spiritual centers during the period of the revival of the Bulgarian people. The beginning of the Bulgarian national revival is associated with the name of St. Paisius of Hilandar. His “Slavic-Bulgarian History of the Peoples, and of the Tsars, and of the Bulgarian Saints” (1762) was a kind of manifesto of patriotism. Paisiy believed that in order to awaken national self-awareness it is necessary to have a sense of one’s land and knowledge of the national language and the historical past of the country.

A follower of Paisius was Stoiko Vladislavov (later Saint Sophronius, Bishop of Vrachansky). In addition to distributing Paisius’s “History” (lists he made in 1765 and 1781 are known), he copied Damascenes, books of hours, prayer books and other liturgical books; he is the author of the first Bulgarian printed book (a collection of Sunday teachings called “Kyriakodromion, that is, Nedelnik”, 1806). Finding himself in Bucharest in 1803, he launched active political and literary activities there, believing that education was the main factor in strengthening popular consciousness. With the beginning of the Russian-Turkish War of 1806–1812. he organized and led the first all-Bulgarian political action, the goal of which was to achieve autonomy for the Bulgarians under the auspices of the Russian emperor. In a message to Alexander I, Sophrony Vrachansky, on behalf of his compatriots, asked to take them under protection and allow the creation of a separate Bulgarian unit within the Russian army. With the assistance of the Bishop of Vratsa, in 1810, a combat detachment of the Zemstvo Bulgarian Army was formed, which actively participated in the war and particularly distinguished itself during the assault on the city of Silistra.

Notable representatives of the Bulgarian revival in Macedonia (however, very moderate in views) were hieromonks Joachim Korchovsky and Kirill (Pejcinovic), who launched educational and literary activities at the beginning of the 19th century.

Monks and priests were active participants in the national liberation struggle. Thus, the monks of the Tarnovo district participated in the “Velchova Zavera” of 1835, the uprising of Captain Uncle Nikola in 1856, the so-called Hadjistaver Troubles of 1862, in the creation of the Internal Revolutionary Organization of the “Apostle of Freedom” V. Levsky and in the April Uprising of 1876.
In the formation of an educated Bulgarian clergy, the role of Russian theological schools, primarily the Kyiv Theological Academy, was great.

The fight for church autocephaly

Along with the idea of ​​political liberation from Ottoman oppression, the movement for church independence from Constantinople grew stronger among the Balkan peoples. Since the Patriarchs of Constantinople were of Greek origin, the Greeks had long been in a privileged position compared to other Orthodox peoples of the Ottoman Empire. Interethnic contradictions began to manifest themselves especially sharply after Greece achieved independence (1830), when a significant part of Greek society experienced a surge of nationalist sentiment, expressed in the ideology of panhellenism. The Patriarchate of Constantinople was also involved in these turbulent processes and increasingly began to personify the force that was slowing down the national revival of other Orthodox nations. There was a forcible planting Greek language in school education, measures were taken to oust the Church Slavonic language from worship: for example, in Plovdiv under Metropolitan Chrysanthos (1850–1857) it was banned in all churches except the Church of St. Petka. If the Greek clergy considered the inextricable connection between Hellenism and Orthodoxy natural, then for the Bulgarians such ideas became an obstacle to church-national independence.

The Bulgarian clergy opposed the dominance of the Greek clergy. The struggle for church independence in the first half of the 1920s began with protests for replacing the liturgical language from Greek to Church Slavonic. Attempts were made to replace the Greek clergy with Bulgarian clerics.

The dominance of the Greek rulers in the Bulgarian lands, their behavior, which sometimes did not fully meet the standards of Christian morality, provoked protests from the Bulgarian population, who demanded the appointment of bishops from the Bulgarians. The protests against the Greek metropolitans in Vratsa (1820), Samokov (1829–1830) and other cities can be considered harbingers of the Greek-Bulgarian church feud, which flared up in full force several decades later. At the end of the 30s of the 19th century, the population of the largest diocese of Tarnovo in the Bulgarian lands joined the struggle for church independence. This struggle, like the movement for the enlightenment of the Bulgarians, was based on the reform acts issued by the Ottoman government - the Gulhaney Hatti Sherif of 1839 and the Hatti Humayun of 1856. One of the ideologists and organizers of the Bulgarian national liberation movement, L. Karavelov, stated: “The Bulgarian church question is neither hierarchical nor economic, but political.” This period in Bulgarian historiography is usually characterized as the “peaceful stage” of the national revolution.

It should be noted that not all Greek hierarchs paid no attention to the needs of the Bulgarian flock. In the 20s–30s. XIX century. Metropolitan Hilarion of Tarnovo, a native of Crete, did not interfere with the use of the Church Slavonic language in the diocese and contributed to the opening of the famous Gabrovsky School (1835). Bishop Agapius of Vratsa (1833–1849) assisted in the opening of a women's school in Vratsa, helped in distributing books in Bulgarian, and used only Church Slavonic in worship. In 1839, the Sofia Theological School began to operate, founded with the support of Metropolitan Meletius. Some Greek priests created collections of sermons written in Greek alphabet in the Slavic language, understandable to the flock; Bulgarian books were printed in Greek script.

In addition, a number of actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople against some publications in Slavic languages ​​should be considered as a reaction to the increased activity among the Slavic peoples of Protestant organizations, primarily Bible societies with their tendency to translate liturgical books into national spoken languages. Thus, in 1841, the Patriarchate of Constantinople banned the New Bulgarian translation of the Gospel published a year earlier in Smyrna. The seizure of the already published book caused a negative reaction among Bulgarians. At the same time, the Patriarchate introduced censorship on Bulgarian publications, which served as another reason for the growth of anti-Greek sentiment.

In 1846, during Sultan Abdulmecid's visit to Bulgaria, Bulgarians everywhere turned to him with complaints about the Greek clergy and requests for the installation of rulers from the Bulgarians. At the insistence of the Ottoman government, the Patriarchate of Constantinople convened a Local Council (1850), which, however, rejected the Bulgarians' demand for independent election of priests and bishops with annual salaries. On the eve of the Crimean War of 1853–1856. The struggle for the national Church engulfed large cities and many regions inhabited by Bulgarians. This movement was also attended by many representatives of the Bulgarian emigration in Romania, Serbia, Russia and other countries and the Bulgarian community of Constantinople (by the middle of the 19th century, numbering 50 thousand people). Archimandrite Neophytos (Bozveli) put forward the idea of ​​opening a Bulgarian church in Constantinople. At the end of the Crimean War, the Bulgarian community in Constantinople became the leading center of legal national liberation activities.

Bulgarian representatives entered into negotiations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople with the goal of reaching an agreement on the formation of an independent Bulgarian Church. It cannot be said that the Patriarchate did nothing to bring the positions of the parties closer together. During the Patriarchate of Cyril VII (1855–1860), several bishops of Bulgarian origin were consecrated, including the famous national figure Hilarion (Stoyanov), who led the Bulgarian community of Constantinople with the title of Bishop of Macariopolis (1856). On October 25, 1859, the Patriarch laid the foundation of a Bulgarian temple in the capital of the Ottoman Empire - the Church of St. Stephen. Cyril VII tried in every possible way to help maintain peace in mixed Greek-Bulgarian parishes, legalized the equal use of Greek and Church Slavonic languages ​​in worship, took measures to distribute Slavic books and develop theological schools for the Slavs with instruction in their native language. However, many of the hierarchs of Greek origin did not hide their “Hellenophilia,” which hindered reconciliation. The Patriarch himself, because of his moderate policy on the Bulgarian issue, aroused discontent with the pro-Hellenic “party” and was removed through its efforts. The Bulgarians and the concessions made to them were considered belated and demanded church separation from Constantinople.

In April 1858, at the Local Council, the Patriarchate of Constantinople again rejected the demands of the Bulgarians (election of rulers by the flock, knowledge of the Bulgarian language by candidates, annual salaries for hierarchs). At the same time, the Bulgarian popular movement was gaining strength. On May 11, 1858, the memory of Saints Cyril and Methodius was solemnly celebrated in Plovdiv for the first time. The turning point in the Bulgarian church-national movement were the events in Constantinople on Easter on April 3, 1860 in the Church of St. Stephen. Bishop Hilarion of Makariopolis, at the request of the assembled people, did not remember the Patriarch of Constantinople during the divine service, which meant a refusal to recognize the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Constantinople. This action was supported by hundreds of church communities in the Bulgarian lands, as well as by Metropolitans Auxentius of Velia and Paisius of Plovdiv (Greek by origin). Many messages from the Bulgarians came to Constantinople, which contained a call to seek from the Ottoman authorities recognition of the independence of the Bulgarian Church and to proclaim Bishop Hilarion “Patriarch of all Bulgaria”, who, however, persistently rejected this proposal. In the capital of the Ottoman Empire, the Bulgarians formed a people's council of bishops and representatives of a number of dioceses who supported the idea of ​​​​creating an independent Church. The activities of various “party” groups intensified: supporters of moderate actions oriented towards Russia (led by N. Gerov, T. Burmov and others), pro-Ottoman (brothers Kh. and N. Typchileschov, G. Krystevich, I. Penchovich and others) and pro-Western (D. Tsankov, G. Mirkovich and others) groups and a “party” of national action (headed by Bishop Hilarion of Makariopol and S. Chomakov), which enjoyed the support of church communities, radical intelligentsia and revolutionary democracy.

Patriarch Joachim of Constantinople reacted sharply to the action of the Bulgarians and achieved the excommunication of Bishops Hilarion and Auxentius at the Council in Constantinople. The Greek-Bulgarian conflict was aggravated by the threat of some Bulgarians falling away from Orthodoxy (at the end of 1860, most of the Bulgarian community in Constantinople temporarily joined the Uniates).

Russia, while sympathetic to the Bulgarian popular movement, at the same time did not consider it possible to support the struggle against the Patriarchate of Constantinople, since the basis of Russian policy in the Middle East was the principle of the unity of Orthodoxy. “I need the unity of the Church,” wrote Emperor Alexander II in the instructions given in June 1858 to the new rector of the Russian embassy church in Constantinople. Most of the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church did not accept the idea of ​​a completely independent Bulgarian Church. Only Innocent (Borisov), Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride, defended the right of the Bulgarians to restore the Patriarchate. Moscow Metropolitan Saint Philaret (Drozdov), who did not hide his sympathies for the Bulgarian people, found it necessary that the Patriarchate of Constantinople provide the Bulgarians with the opportunity to freely pray to God in their native language and “have a clergy of the same tribe,” but rejected the idea of ​​​​an independent Bulgarian Church. After the events of 1860 in Constantinople, Russian diplomacy began an energetic search for a conciliatory solution to the Bulgarian church issue. Count N.P. Ignatiev, the Russian ambassador to Constantinople (1864–1877), repeatedly requested relevant directives from the Holy Synod, but the top leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church refrained from making certain statements, since the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Great Church did not address the Russian Church with any demands. In a response message to Patriarch Gregory IV of Constantinople (dated April 19, 1869), the Holy Synod expressed the opinion that, to a certain extent, both sides were right - Constantinople, which preserves church unity, and the Bulgarians, who legitimately strive to have a national hierarchy.

Church during the period of the Bulgarian Exarchate (from 1870)

At the height of the Bulgarian-Greek confrontation over the issue of church independence in the late 60s of the 19th century, Patriarch Gregory VI of Constantinople took a number of measures to overcome the discord. He expressed his readiness to make concessions, proposing the creation of a special church district under the control of Bulgarian bishops and under the chairmanship of the Exarch of Bulgaria. But this compromise option did not satisfy the Bulgarians, who demanded a significant expansion of the boundaries of their church region. At the request of the Bulgarian side, the Sublime Porte was involved in resolving the dispute. The Ottoman government presented two options for resolving the issue. However, the Patriarchate of Constantinople rejected them as uncanonical and proposed convening an Ecumenical Council to resolve the Bulgarian issue; permission for this was not obtained.
The negative position of the Patriarchate determined the decision of the Ottoman government to end the feud with its power. On February 27, 1870, Sultan Abdul-Aziz signed a firman establishing a special church district - the Bulgarian Exarchate; the next day, Grand Vizier Ali Pasha presented two copies of the firman to the members of the bilateral Bulgarian-Greek commission.

According to paragraph 1 of the firman, the management of spiritual and religious affairs was entirely left to the Bulgarian Exarchate. A number of points stipulated the canonical connection of the newly formed district with the Patriarchate of Constantinople: upon the election of an exarch by the Bulgarian Synod, the Patriarch of Constantinople issues a letter of confirmation (clause 3), his name must be commemorated during worship (clause 4), in matters of religion, the Patriarch of Constantinople and his Synod provide to the Bulgarian Synod the required help (item 6), the Bulgarians receive holy myrrh from Constantinople (item 7). In the 10th point, the boundaries of the Exarchate were determined: it included dioceses where the Bulgarian population predominated: Rushchuk (Rusenskaya), Silistria, Preslav (Shumenskaya), Tarnovskaya, Sofia, Vrachanskaya, Lovchanskaya, Vidinskaya, Nishskaya, Pirotskaya, Kyustendilskaya, Samokovskaya, Velesskaya , as well as the Black Sea coast from Varna to Kyustendzhe (except for Varna and 20 villages whose inhabitants were not Bulgarians), Sliven sanjak (district) without the cities of Ankhial (modern Pomorie) and Mesemvria (modern Nessebar), Sozopol kaza (district) without coastal villages and the Philippopolis (Plovdiv) diocese without the cities of Plovdiv, Stanimaka (modern Asenovgrad), 9 villages and 4 monasteries. In other areas with a mixed population, it was planned to hold “referendums” among the population; At least 2/3 of the inhabitants had to speak in favor of submitting to the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Exarchate.

Bulgarian representatives transferred the firman to the Provisional Bulgarian Synod, which met in one of the districts of Constantinople (it included 5 bishops: Hilarion of Lovchansky, Panaret of Plovdiv, Paisius of Plovdiv, Anfim of Vidinsky and Hilarion of Makariopolis). Among the Bulgarian people, the decision of the Ottoman authorities was greeted with enthusiasm. Celebrations took place everywhere and messages of gratitude were written addressed to the Sultan and the Sublime Porte.
At the same time, the Patriarchate of Constantinople declared the firman non-canonical. Patriarch Gregory VI expressed his intention to convene an Ecumenical Council to consider the Bulgarian issue. In response to the message of the Patriarch of Constantinople to the autocephalous Churches, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church rejected the proposal to convene an Ecumenical Council and advised the adoption of a firman on the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate, since it included all the main provisions of the project of Patriarch Gregory VI and the differences between them are insignificant.

The Bulgarian side began to create the administrative structure of the Exarchate. It was necessary to create a temporary governing body to prepare a draft Charter, which, according to paragraph 3 of the firman, was supposed to determine the internal management of the Bulgarian Exarchate. On March 13, 1870, a meeting was held in Constantinople that elected the Provisional Mixed Council (it included 5 bishops, members of the Provisional Synod, and 10 laymen) under the chairmanship of Metropolitan Hilarion of Lovchansky. To adopt the Charter of the Exarchate, a Church-People's Council had to be organized. A “Collection of rules for the election of delegates” (“Reason”) was sent to the dioceses, according to which the largest Bulgarian diocese - Tarnovo - could delegate 4 elected representatives, Dorostol, Vidin, Nish, Sofia, Kyustendil, Samokov and Plovdiv - 2 each, the rest - 2 1 representative. Delegates were to report to Constantinople from January 1–15, 1871, carrying with them statistical data about their diocese.

The First Church-People's Council was held in Constantinople from February 23 to July 24, 1871 under the chairmanship of Metropolitan Hilarion of Lovchan. 50 people took part in the Council: 15 members of the Temporary Mixed Council and 35 representatives of dioceses; these were figures in the movement for an independent Bulgarian Church, influential residents of Constantinople and diocesan centers, teachers, priests, representatives of local governments (1/5 of the delegates had secular higher education, almost the same number graduated from religious educational institutions). When discussing the Charter of the Exarchate, 5 bishops, with the support of G. Krastevich, defended the canonical order of church government, which provided for the special responsibility of the episcopate for the Church, while representatives of the liberal democratic movement were of the opinion of strengthening the position of the laity in church government. As a result, the liberals were forced to retreat, and paragraph 3 of the charter determined: “The Exarchate as a whole is governed by the spiritual authority of the Holy Synod, and each of the dioceses is governed by a metropolitan.” Representatives of the liberal democratic movement achieved a relative victory on the issue of diocesan governance: the draft charter provided for the creation of separate councils in each diocese - from the clergy and laity, but the delegates voted for the creation of unified diocesan councils, which were dominated by the laity. The number of secular persons in the mixed council of the Exarchate was also increased from 4 to 6 people (clause 8). The two-stage electoral system proposed in the draft charter also caused controversy. Liberals insisted on direct voting when electing laity to diocesan councils and when choosing an exarch by metropolitans, while bishops and conservatives (G. Krastevich) argued that such an order threatened to undermine the canonical system of church government. As a result, the two-tier system was retained, but the role of the laity in the selection of diocesan bishops increased. The discussion ended with consideration of the issue of lifelong or temporary election of an exarch. Liberals (Kh. Stoyanov and others) insisted on limiting his term of office; Metropolitans Hilarion of Lovchansky, Panaret and Paisius of Plovdiv also believed that the rotation of the exarch, although an innovation, did not contradict the canons. As a result, by a small margin (28 out of 46) votes, the principle of limiting the powers of the exarch to a period of 4 years was adopted.

The adopted Charter for the management of the Bulgarian Exarchate (Charter for the management of the Bulgarian Exarchate) consisted of 134 points, grouped into 3 sections (divided into chapters). The first section determined the procedure for electing the exarch, members of the Holy Synod and the mixed council of the Exarchate, diocesan metropolitans, members of diocesan, district (Kaziya) and community (Nakhi) mixed councils, as well as parish priests. The second section defined the rights and responsibilities of the central and local bodies of the Exarchate. The competence of the Holy Synod included the resolution of religious and dogmatic issues and the administration of justice in these areas (paragraphs 93, 94 and 100). The Mixed Council was entrusted with responsibility for educational activities: concern for the maintenance of schools, the development of the Bulgarian language and literature (clause 96 b). The Mixed Council is obliged to monitor the state of the Exarchate's property and control income and expenses, as well as resolve financial and other material disputes in divorces, betrothals, certification of wills, donations and the like (clause 98). The third section was devoted to church revenues and expenses and their control; a significant part of the income was allocated for the maintenance of schools and other public institutions. The highest legislative body of the Bulgarian Exarchate was declared to be the Church-People's Council of representatives of the clergy and laity, convened every 4 years (clause 134). The Council considered a report on all areas of the Exarchate's activities, elected a new exarch, and could make changes and additions to the Charter.

The Charter adopted by the Council was submitted for approval to the Sublime Porte (subsequently it remained unapproved by the Ottoman government). One of the basic principles laid down in this document was election: for all church positions “from first to last” (including officials of the Exarchate), candidates were not appointed, but elected. What was new in the practice of the Orthodox Church was the limitation of the term of office of the primate, which was intended to strengthen the conciliar principle in church governance. Each bishop had the right to nominate himself for the throne of exarch. Laymen - members of mixed councils - were called upon to play a significant role in church life. The main provisions of the Charter of 1871 were included in the Charter of the BOC, in force since 1953.

Patriarch Anthimus VI of Constantinople, elected to the throne in 1871, was ready to find ways of reconciliation with the Bulgarian side (for which he was severely criticized by the pro-Hellenic “party”). However, the majority of Bulgarians asked the Sultan to recognize the Bulgarian Exarchate as completely independent of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The deepening discord led the Sublime Porte to unilaterally enact the firman of 1870. On February 11, 1872, the Ottoman government gave permission (teskera) to elect an exarch of Bulgaria. The next day, the Temporary Mixed Council elected the oldest bishop in age, Metropolitan Hilarion of Lovchansky, as exarch. He resigned 4 days later, citing old age. On February 16, as a result of repeated elections, Anthimus I, Metropolitan of Vidin, became exarch. On February 23, 1872, he was confirmed in his new rank by the government and arrived in Constantinople on March 17. Anfim I began to fulfill his duties. On April 2, 1872, he received the Sultan’s berat, which defined his powers as the supreme representative of the Orthodox Bulgarians.

On May 11, 1872, on the feast of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, Exarch Anthimus I with 3 bishops who served him, despite the prohibition of the Patriarch, held a festive service, after which he read out an act signed by him and 6 other Bulgarian bishops, which proclaimed the restoration of an independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Metropolitans of the Exarchate were installed, and on June 28, 1872, they received berat from the Ottoman government, confirming their appointment. The Exarch's Chair remained in Constantinople until November 1913, when Exarch Joseph I moved it to Sofia.

At a meeting of the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople on May 13–15, 1872, Exarch Anthimus I was defrocked and deposed. Metropolitan Panaret of Plovdiv and Hilarion of Lovchanski were excommunicated from the Church, and Bishop Hilarion of Makariopolis was subjected to eternal anathema; All hierarchs, clergy and laity of the Exarchate were subjected to church punishment. From August 29 to September 17, 1872, a Council was held in Constantinople with the participation of the hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (including former Patriarchs Gregory VI and Joachim II), Patriarchs Sophronius of Alexandria, Hierotheus of Antioch and Cyril of Jerusalem (the latter, however, soon left the meeting and refused to sign under conciliar definitions), Archbishop Sophronius of Cyprus, as well as 25 bishops and several archimandrites (including representatives of the Greek Church). The actions of the Bulgarians were condemned as based on the beginning of phyletism (tribal differences). All “accepting phyletism” were declared schismatics alien to the Church (September 16).

The Bulgarian Exarch Anthimus I addressed a message to the primates of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches, in which he did not recognize the imposition of schism as legal and fair, since the Bulgarian Church remains unwaveringly devoted to Orthodoxy. The Holy Governing Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church did not respond to this message, but did not join the verdict of the Council of Constantinople, leaving unanswered the message of Patriarch Anthimus VI of Constantinople on the proclamation of schism. The Right Reverend Macarius (Bulgakov), at that time Archbishop of Lithuania, opposed the recognition of the excommunication; he believed that the Bulgarians separated not from the Ecumenical Orthodox Church, but only from the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the canonical grounds for recognizing the Bulgarian Exarchate do not differ from those in the 18th century The subordination of the Ohrid and Pec Patriarchates to Constantinople took place, also legalized by decree of the Sultan. Archbishop Macarius spoke in favor of preserving the fraternal relations of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which, however, did not oblige him, as he believed, to recognize the Bulgarians as schismatics. In an effort to maintain a neutral and conciliatory position towards the outbreak of discord, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church took a number of measures aimed at overcoming the isolation of the BOC, thereby considering the reasons for recognizing it as schismatic as insufficient. In particular, it was allowed to admit Bulgarians to Russian theological schools, some bishops provided the Bulgarians with holy chrism, and in a number of cases concelebrations took place between the Russian clergy and Bulgarian clergy. However, taking into account the position of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Russian Orthodox Church did not maintain full canonical communication with the BOC. Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, in pursuance of the order of the Holy Synod, did not allow Metropolitan Anfim of Vidin (former Exarch of Bulgaria) and Bishop of Branitsky Clement (future Metropolitan of Tarnovo), who arrived in Russia to express the gratitude of the Bulgarian people for liberation from Turkish yoke. Metropolitan Simeon of Varna, who arrived at the head of the Bulgarian state delegation on the occasion of the accession to the throne of Emperor Alexander III (May 1883), performed a memorial service for Alexander II in St. Petersburg without the participation of the Russian clergy. In 1895, Metropolitan Kliment of Tarnovsky was received fraternally by Metropolitan Palladius of St. Petersburg, but this time he did not have Eucharistic communion with the Russian clergy.

In 1873, plebiscites were held among the flock of the Skopje and Ohrid dioceses, as a result of which both dioceses were annexed to the Bulgarian Exarchate without the permission of Constantinople. Active church and educational activities took place on their territory.

After the defeat of the April Uprising of 1876, Exarch Anfim I tried to get the Turkish government to ease repression against the Bulgarians; at the same time, he turned to the heads of the European powers, to Metropolitan Isidore of St. Petersburg, with a request to petition Emperor Alexander II for the release of the Bulgarians. The Ottoman government achieved his removal (April 12, 1877); he was later taken into custody in Ankara. On April 24, 1877, an “electoral Council” consisting of 3 metropolitans and 13 laymen elected a new exarch - Joseph I, Metropolitan of Lovchansky.

After the Russian-Turkish War of 1877–1878, according to the decisions of the Berlin Congress of 1878, which established new political borders in the Balkans, the territory of the Bulgarian Exarchate was distributed between 5 states: the Principality of Bulgaria, Eastern Rumelia, Turkey (vilayets of Macedonia and Eastern Thrace), Serbia (Nis and Pirot dioceses came under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Serbian Church) and Romania (Northern Dobruja (Tulchansky district)).

The instability of the position of the Bulgarian Exarchate, as well as the political status of Bulgaria, was reflected in the question of the location of the primate of the Bulgarian Church in these conditions. The residence of the exarch was temporarily moved to Plovdiv (on the territory of Eastern Rumelia), where Joseph I launched active diplomatic activities, establishing contacts with members of the temporary Russian administration, as well as with representatives of the member states of the European Commission, which developed the Organic Charter of Eastern Rumelia, proving the need for a unified spiritual guidance for the entire Bulgarian people. Russian diplomats, like some Bulgarian politicians, believed that the seat of the exarch should be Sofia or Plovdiv, which would help heal the schism that divided the Orthodox peoples.

On January 9, 1880, Exarch Joseph I moved from Plovdiv to Constantinople, where he began active work to create governing bodies of the Exarchate, and sought from the Ottoman authorities the right to place bishops in those dioceses that were ruled by the Bulgarian rulers before the Russian-Turkish war (Ohrid, Veles, Skopje) . Through the so-called istilams (consultative surveys), the population of the Dabar, Strumitsa and Kukush dioceses expressed a desire to come under the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Exarchate, but the Turkish government not only did not satisfy their aspirations, but also constantly delayed the sending of the bishops of the Exarchate to the Bulgarian dioceses of Macedonia and Eastern Thrace. The Bulgarian Exarchate in Constantinople was officially an institution of the Ottoman state, while its financial support was provided by the Principality of Bulgaria. Every year, the Turkish government sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Confessions of the Principality, and later to the Holy Synod in Sofia, a draft budget for the Exarchate, which was later discussed in the People's Assembly. Significant funds received from Bulgarian taxpayers were spent both on the needs of the administration of the Exarchate in Constantinople and on paying the salaries of teachers and priests in Macedonia and Eastern Thrace.

As the independent Bulgarian state strengthened, the Ottoman government's distrust of the Bulgarian Exarch in Constantinople increased. At the beginning of 1883, Joseph I tried to convene the Holy Synod of the Exarchate in Constantinople to resolve a number of issues related to internal structure and governance, but the Turkish government insisted on its dissolution. In Constantinople, they were looking for a reason to cancel the firman of 1870 and remove the exarch as not having jurisdictional territories in the direct possessions of the Sultan. In accordance with the laws of the Principality of Bulgaria - Art. 39 of the Tarnovo Constitution and the amended Charter of the Exarchate of February 4, 1883 (“Exarchate Charter, adapted to the Principality”) - the bishops of the principality had the right to participate in the selection of the exarch and the Holy Synod. In this regard, in Constantinople a definite answer was demanded from the exarch: whether he recognizes the Church Charter of the Principality of Bulgaria or considers the Exarchate in Constantinople to be separate and independent. To this, the exarch diplomatically declared that the relations between the Exarchate in Constantinople and the Church in the Bulgarian Principality are purely spiritual and that the ecclesiastical law of free Bulgaria applies only to its territory; The Church in the Ottoman Empire is governed by temporary rules (since the Charter of 1871 has not yet been approved by the Turkish authorities). In October 1883, Joseph I was not invited to a reception in the Sultan's palace, which was attended by the heads of all religious communities recognized in the Ottoman Empire, which was regarded by the Bulgarians as a step towards eliminating the exarch and led to unrest among the population of Macedonia, East. Thrace and Eastern Rumelia. However, in this situation, the Bulgarian Exarchate found support from Russia. The Ottoman government had to give in, and on December 17, 1883, Exarch Joseph I was received by Sultan Abdülhamid II. The firman of 1870 was confirmed, the chair of the exarch was left in Constantinople and a promise was made that the ecclesiastical rights of the Bulgarians would continue to be respected in the vilayets of the empire.

In 1884, Exarch Joseph I attempted to send Bulgarian bishops to the Macedonian dioceses, the spiritual jurisdiction over which was disputed by both the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Serbs. The Sublime Porte skillfully used this rivalry to its advantage. At the end of the year, the Turkish authorities allowed the appointment of bishops in Ohrid and Skopje, but the berats confirming their appointment were not issued, and the bishops were unable to leave for their places.

After the reunification of the Bulgarian Principality with Eastern Rumelia (1885), the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885, the abdication of Prince Alexander I of Battenberg (1886) and the accession to his place of Prince Ferdinand I of Coburg (1887), the course of the Ottoman government regarding the Bulgarian Exarchate in Constantinople changed. In 1890, berats were issued confirming the appointment of Metropolitans Sinesius in Ohrid and Feodosius in Skopje, and what had been established during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877–1878 was abolished. military situation in European vilayets. The Exarchate was allowed to start publishing its own printed organ, Novini (News), later renamed Vesti. In mid-1891, by order of the Grand Vizier Kamil Pasha, the heads of Thessaloniki and Bitola vilayets were ordered not to interfere with the Bulgarians, who had left the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, to independently (through representatives of spiritual communities) settle their church affairs and monitor the functioning of schools; as a result, within a few months, more than 150 villages and cities declared to local authorities that they renounced their spiritual subordination to Constantinople and came under the jurisdiction of the Exarchate. This movement continued after the decree of the new (since 1891) Grand Vizier Dzhevad Pasha to limit the withdrawal of Bulgarian communities from the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate.

In the spring of 1894, berats were issued for the Bulgarian rulers of the Veles and Nevrokop dioceses. In 1897, Turkey rewarded Bulgaria for its neutrality in the Turkish-Greek War of 1897 by granting berat for the dioceses of Bitola, Dabar and Strumica. The Ohrid diocese was headed by the bishop of the Bulgarian Exarchate, who did not have a sultan's berat. For the remaining dioceses with a Bulgarian and mixed population - Kostur, Lerin (Moglen), Vodno, Thessaloniki, Kukush (Poleninsk), Sersk, Melnik and Drama - Exarch Joseph I managed to achieve recognition of the chairmen of church communities as governors of the Exarchate with the right to resolve all issues church life and public education.

With the massive support of the people and significant financial and political assistance from free Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Exarchate solved the problems of enlightening and strengthening the national identity of the Bulgarians who remained in the lands of the Ottoman Empire. It was possible to achieve the restoration of schools that were closed here during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877–1878. A significant role was played by the Enlightenment society, founded in 1880 in Thessaloniki, and the School Guardianship, a committee created in 1882 for organizing educational activities, which was soon transformed into the Schools Department of the Bulgarian Exarchate. In Thessalonica, a Bulgarian men's gymnasium was founded, which was of great importance in the spiritual life of the region, in the name of the Slavic educators Saints Cyril and Methodius (1880) and Bulgarian wives. Blagoveshchensk gymnasium (1882). For the Bulgarian population of Eastern Thrace, the center of education became the men's gymnasium of the imperial court of P. Beron in Odrin (Turkish Edirne) (1891). Until the end of 1913, the Exarchate opened 1,373 Bulgarian schools (including 13 gymnasiums) in Macedonia and the Odri region, where 2,266 teachers taught and 78,854 students studied. On the initiative of Exarch Joseph I, theological schools were opened in Odrina, in Prilep, which were then merged, transferred to Constantinople and transformed into a seminary. The Monk John of Rila was recognized as its patron saint, and Archimandrite Methodius (Kusev), who was educated in Russia, became its first rector. In 1900–1913, 200 people graduated from the Constantinople Theological Seminary of St. John of Rila; some of the graduates continued their education mainly in Russian theological academies.

While the leadership of the Exarchate sought to improve the situation of the Christian population of the Ottoman state through peaceful means, a number of priests and teachers created secret committees that aimed at armed struggle for liberation. The scale of revolutionary activity forced Exarch Joseph I to turn to the Bulgarian Prince Ferdinand I in the spring of 1903 with a letter in which he noted that poverty and despair had given rise to “revolutionary apostles” calling on the people to revolt and promising them political autonomy, and warned that the war would with Turkey will be a disaster for the entire Bulgarian people. During the Ilindeni uprising of 1903, the exarch used all his influence to save the population of Macedonia and Thrace from mass repression.

The troubled situation in the Ottoman vilayets prompted many clergy to move to free Bulgaria, leaving their flock without spiritual guidance. Outraged by this, Exarch Joseph I issued on February 10, 1912. District message (No. 3764), which prohibited metropolitans and diocesan administrators from allowing priests subordinate to them to leave their parishes and move to the territory of Bulgaria. The exarch himself, despite the opportunity to move to Sofia, remained in the Turkish capital in order to bring as much benefit as possible to his flock.

Internal structure of the Bulgarian Exarchate

According to Art. 39 of the Constitution of Bulgaria, the BOC both in the Principality of Bulgaria and within the Ottoman Empire remained united and indivisible. The chair of the exarch remained in Constantinople even after the political liberation of Bulgaria. In practice, church administration in free Bulgaria and in the territory of the Ottoman Empire was divided and developed independently of each other, since the Turkish authorities did not allow bishops from the principality to directly participate in the administration of the Exarchate. After the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, relations between the Bulgarian Exarchate and the Patriarchate of Constantinople improved somewhat. In 1908, for the first time, the exarch had the opportunity to form a legitimate Holy Synod.

Until 1912, the diocese of the Bulgarian Exarchate included 7 dioceses headed by metropolitans, as well as dioceses governed by “vicars of the exarch”: 8 in Macedonia (Kosturska, Lerinskaya (Moglenskaya), Vodno, Solunskaya, Poleninskaya (Kukushskaya), Serskaya, Melnikskaya, Drama ) and 1 in Eastern Thrace (Odrinskaya). In this territory there were about 1,600 parish churches and chapels, 73 monasteries and 1,310 priests.

In the Principality of Bulgaria the following dioceses initially existed: Sofia, Samokov, Kyustendil, Vrachansk, Vidin, Lovchansk, Tarnovsk, Dorostolo-Cherven and Varna-Preslav. After the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia (1885), the Plovdiv and Sliven dioceses were added to them, in 1896 the Starozagoras diocese was established, and after the Balkan wars of 1912–1913. The Nevrokop diocese also went to Bulgaria. According to the Charter of 1871, several dioceses were to be liquidated after the death of their metropolitans. The territories of the abolished Kyustendil (1884) and Samokov (1907) dioceses were annexed to the Sofia diocese. The third was to become the Lovchansk diocese, the titular metropolitan of which was Exarch Joseph I, but he managed to obtain permission to preserve the diocese even after his death.

In some dioceses of the Principality of Bulgaria there were 2 metropolitans at the same time. In Plovdiv, Sozopol, Anchiale, Mesemvria and Varna, along with the hierarchs of the BOC, there were Greek metropolitans subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. This contradicted Article 39 of the Constitution and irritated the Bulgarian flock, leading to acute conflicts. The Greek metropolitans remained in Bulgaria until 1906, when the local population, outraged by the events in Macedonia, seized their churches and achieved their expulsion.

Conflict situations also arose between the Holy Synod and some government cabinets. Thus, in 1880–1881, D. Tsankov, at that time the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Confessions, without informing the Synod, tried to introduce “Temporary Rules” for the spiritual management of Christians, Muslims and Jews, which was regarded by the Bulgarian bishops led by Exarch Joseph I as interference of secular power in the affairs of the Church. Joseph I was forced to come to Sofia, where he remained from May 18, 1881 to September 5, 1882.

As a result, on February 4, 1883, the “Charter of the Exarchate, adapted for the Principality,” developed on the basis of the Charter of 1871, came into force. In 1890 and 1891 additions were made to it, and on January 13, 1895, a new Charter was approved, supplemented in 1897 and 1900. According to these laws, the Church in the principality was governed by the Holy Synod, consisting of all metropolitans (in practice, only 4 bishops were constantly in session, elected for 4 years). Exarch Joseph I governed the Church in the principality through his viceroy ("delegate") in Sofia, who was to be elected by the metropolitans of the principality with the approval of the exarch. The first governor of the exarch was Metropolitan Gregory of Dorostolo-Chervensky, followed by Metropolitans of Varna-Preslav Simeon, Tarnovo Clement, Dorostolo-Chervensky Gregory (again), Samokovsky Dositheus and Dorostolo-Chervensky Vasily. Until 1894, permanent meetings of the Holy Synod of the principality were not held, then it functioned regularly, considering all current issues related to the governance of the Church in free Bulgaria.

During the reign of Prince Alexander I of Battenberg (1879–1886), state power did not come into conflict with the BOC. Things were different during the reign of Prince (1887–1918, from 1908 - Tsar) Ferdinand I of Coburg, a Catholic by religion. The exarch's governor, Metropolitan Clement of Tarnovo, who became the spokesman for the political line opposed to the government, was declared by supporters of Prime Minister Stambolov to be a conductor of extreme Russophilia and expelled from the capital. In December 1887, Metropolitan Clement was forced to retire to his diocese with a ban on performing divine services without special permission. Back in August 1886, Metropolitan Simeon of Varna-Preslav was removed from the administration of his diocese. An acute conflict flared up in 1888–1889 over the issue of commemorating the name of the prince as a Bulgarian sovereign during divine services. Thus, relations between the government and the Holy Synod were severed, and Metropolitans of Vrachansky Kirill and Clement of Tarnovo were brought to justice in 1889; Only in June 1890 did the rulers accept the formula for commemorating Prince Ferdinand.

In 1892, another initiative of Stambolov led to a new aggravation of relations between the Church and the state. In connection with the marriage of Ferdinand I, the government made an attempt, ignoring the Holy Synod, to change Article 38 of the Tarnovo Constitution in such a way that the prince’s successor could also be non-Orthodox. In response, the newspaper Novini (the press organ of the Bulgarian Exarchate published in Constantinople) began publishing editorials criticizing the Bulgarian government. Exarch Joseph I was sharply attacked by the government newspaper Svoboda. The Stambolov government suspended subsidies to the Bulgarian Exarchate and threatened to separate the Church of the Principality of Bulgaria from the Exarchate. The Grand Vizier sided with the Bulgarian government, and the exarch, placed in a hopeless position, stopped the newspaper campaign. Stambolov persecuted in every possible way the bishops who opposed his policies: this especially concerned Metropolitan Clement of Tarnovo, who was accused of a crime against the nation and sent to prison in the Lyaskovsky Monastery. A criminal trial was fabricated against him, and in July 1893 he was sentenced to life imprisonment (after an appeal, the penalty was reduced to 2 years). Bishop Clement was imprisoned in the Glozhen Monastery solely for his “Russophilism.” However, soon Ferdinad I, who decided to normalize relations with Russia, ordered the release of the Tarnovo Metropolitan and announced his consent to the transition of the heir to the throne, Prince Boris (the future Tsar Boris III) to Orthodoxy. On February 2, 1896, in Sofia, in the Cathedral Church of St. Nedelya, Exarch Joseph I performed the sacrament of confirmation of the heir. On March 14, 1896, the Bulgarian prince Ferdinand I, who arrived in the Ottoman capital to meet with Sultan Abdul Hamid II, visited the exarch. On March 24, he celebrated Easter in the Orthodox Church of St. Nedelya, presented Joseph I with a panagia, presented by Emperor Alexander II to the first Bulgarian exarch Anfim and bought by the prince after the death of the latter, and expressed the wish that in the future all Bulgarian exarchs would wear it.

In general, after the liberation of Bulgaria, the influence and importance of the Orthodox Church in the state gradually declined. In the political sphere, it was pushed into the background; in the sphere of culture and education, secular state institutions began to play the main role. The Bulgarian clergy, mostly illiterate, could hardly adapt to new conditions.

The 1st (1912–1913) and 2nd (1913) Balkan Wars and the Peace of Bucharest concluded in July 1913 led to the loss of spiritual power by the Exarchate within the European part of Turkey: the Ohrid, Bitola, Veles, Dabar and Skopje dioceses came under the jurisdiction Serbian Orthodox Church, and Thessalonica (Thessalonian) was annexed to the Greek Church. The first five Bulgarian bishops were replaced by Serbs, and Archimandrite Eulogius, who ruled the Thessaloniki diocese, was killed in July 1913. The BOC also lost parishes in Southern Dobruja, which came under the jurisdiction of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Only the Maronian diocese in Western Thrace (with its center in Gumurjin) remained subordinate to the Bulgarian Exarchate. Exarch Joseph I retained his flock mainly in Constantinople, Odrina (Edirne) and Lozengrad and decided to transfer his see to Sofia, leaving in Constantinople a “governorship”, which (until its liquidation in 1945) was controlled by the Bulgarian bishops. After the death of Joseph I on June 20, 1915, a new exarch was not elected, and for 30 years the BOC was governed by locums - the chairmen of the Holy Synod.

After Bulgaria entered the First World War on the side of Germany (1915), part of the former dioceses temporarily returned to the Bulgarian Exarchate (Vardar Macedonia). At the end of the war, in accordance with the provisions of the Neuilly Peace Treaty (1919), the Bulgarian Exarchate again lost dioceses in Macedonia: most of the Strumitsa diocese, the border lands that were previously part of the Sofia diocese, as well as the Maronian diocese with the see in Gumurjin in Western Thrace. On the territory of European Turkey, the Exarchate retained the Odrin diocese, which from 1910 until the spring of 1932 was headed by Archimandrite Nikodim (Atanasov) (since April 4, 1920 - the diocese of Tiberiopol). In addition, a temporary Lozengrad diocese was established, headed by Bishop Hilarion of Nishava from 1922, who was replaced in 1925 by the former Metropolitan of Skopje Neophytos, who also ruled the Odrin diocese from 1932. After the death of Metropolitan Neophytos (1938), the viceroy of the Exarchate took over the care of all Orthodox Bulgarians living within European Turkey.

After the First World War, the dioceses in Macedonia again fell away from the Bulgarian Exarchate; outside of Bulgaria, the BOC now included only the Odrin diocese in Turkish Eastern Thrace.

During these years, a reform movement arose in the BOC, whose representatives were both ordinary clergy and laity, as well as some bishops. Believing that in the new historical conditions reforms in the Church are necessary, November 6, 1919. The Holy Synod decided to begin changing the Charter of the Exarchate and notified the head of government A. Stamboliysky about this, who approved the initiative of the BOC. The Holy Synod appointed a commission chaired by Metropolitan Simeon of Varna-Preslav. However, under the influence of a group of theologians led by Kh. Vragov, P. Chernyaev and Archimandrite Stefan (Abadzhiev), on September 15, 1920, Stamboliysky, without informing the Holy Synod and the commission, submitted to the People's Assembly a bill amending the charter of the Exarchate, which was adopted and approved by royal decree. According to this law, the Holy Synod was obliged to complete the preparation of the charter within 2 months and convene the Church-People's Council. In response, the Bulgarian bishops convened a Council of Bishops in December 1920, which developed a “Project for amending the law on the convening of the Church-People’s Council.” An acute conflict arose between the Holy Synod and the government, which ordered military prosecutors to bring the disobedient bishops to justice; It was even planned to arrest the members of the Holy Synod, and form a Provisional Church Administration at the head of the BOC. At the cost of many efforts and compromises, the contradictions were somewhat smoothed out, elections of delegates took place (among which there were representatives of Macedonia - refugee priests and laity), and in February 1921 in the capital's church of St. The 2nd Church-People's Council was opened in the presence of Tsar Boris III.

According to the adopted Council Charter of the Exarchate, the Church-People's Council was considered as the highest legislative body of the BOC. The Charter was a detailed and systematic statement of Bulgarian church law. The highest principle of church government was declared to be the conciliar principle, that is, the participation in government of priests and laity at all levels while maintaining the primacy of the bishops. The Charter was approved by the Council of Bishops, and on January 24, 1923 approved by the People's Assembly. However, after the overthrow of the Stambolisky government (1923), the reform of the charter was limited to legislative orders, which introduced a number of amendments to the previous charter of the Exarchate, relating primarily to the composition of the Synod and the election of the exarch.

After the liberation of Bulgaria (1878), the influence and importance of the BOC in the country began to gradually decline; in the political sphere, in culture and education, it was pushed aside by new state institutions. In addition, the Bulgarian clergy turned out to be largely illiterate and were unable to adapt to new conditions. At the end of the 19th century, there were 2 incomplete theological schools in Bulgaria: in the Lyaskovo monastery - St. Apostles Peter and Paul and in Samokov (in 1903 it was transferred to Sofia and transformed into the Sofia Theological Seminary). In 1913, the Bulgarian Theological Seminary in Istanbul was closed; its teaching staff was transferred to Plovdiv, where they began work in 1915. There were a number of elementary priestly schools in which liturgical regulations were studied. In 1905, there were 1992 priests in Bulgaria, of which only 2 had higher theological education, and many had only primary education. The Faculty of Theology at Sofia University was opened only in 1923.

The main reason for the non-election of a new exarch after the death of Joseph I (1915) was the instability of the government's national and political course. At the same time, there were different opinions about the procedure for filling the departments of the Exarchate and the Metropolitan of Sofia: whether they should be occupied by one person or they should be divided. For 30 years, during which the BOC remained deprived of its Primate, church governance was carried out by the Holy Synod, headed by an elected vicar - the Chairman of the Holy Synod. From 1915 to the beginning of 1945, these were Metropolitans of Sofia Parthenius (1915–1916), Dorostolo-Chervensky Vasily (1919–1920), Maxim of Plovdiv (1920–1927), Vrachansky Kliment (1927–1930), Vidinsky Neophyte (1930–1944) and Stefan Sofia (1944–1945).

After the entry of the Red Army into the territory of Bulgaria and the formation of the government of the Fatherland Front on September 9, 1944, Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia, in a message to the Russian people on Radio Sofia, stated that Hitlerism is the enemy of all Slavs, which must be broken by Russia and its allies - the USA and Great Britain . On October 16, 1944, Locum Tenens Stefan was re-elected; 2 days later, at a meeting of the Holy Synod, it was decided to ask the government to allow the election of an exarch. Changes were made to the Charter of the Exarchate to expand the degree of participation of the clergy and people in elections. On January 4, 1945, the Holy Synod issued a District Message, in which the elections of the exarch were scheduled for January 21, and on January 14, preliminary meetings were ordered to be held in the dioceses: each was required to elect 7 electors (3 clergy and 4 laymen). The Electoral Council of the Exarchate took place on January 21, 1945 in the capital's Church of St. Sophia. 90 authorized voters took part in it, to whom 3 candidates were presented to vote: Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia, Neophyte of Vidin and Mikhail Dorostolo-Chervensky. Metropolitan Stefan was elected by a majority of votes (84), becoming the 3rd and last Bulgarian exarch.

An important task facing the BOC was the elimination of schism. At the end of 1944, the Synod established contact with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, whose representatives, when meeting with the Bulgarian envoy, stated that “the Bulgarian schism is currently an anachronism.” Back in October 1944, Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia asked the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church for assistance in overcoming the schism. On November 22, 1944, the Synod promised support and mediation in negotiations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In February 1945 in Moscow, during the celebrations on the occasion of the enthronement of the new Patriarch of Moscow, a conversation took place between His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I and Patriarchs Christopher of Alexandria and Alexander III of Antioch and representatives of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Metropolitan Herman of Thyatira, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Athenagoras of Sebastia, at which the “Bulgarian church question” was discussed " Patriarch Alexy I outlined the results of these discussions in his letter on February 20, 1945 to the Exarch of Bulgaria. On the day of his election, Exarch Stephen I sent a letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Benjamin with a request to “remove what was said on known reasons condemnation of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and, accordingly, recognize it as autocephalous and include it among the autocephalous Orthodox Churches.” The representatives of the Bulgarian Exarchate met with the Ecumenical Patriarch and held negotiations with the commission of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (consisting of Metropolitans Maximus of Chalcedon, Herman of Sardica and Dorotheus of Laodicea), which was to determine the conditions for lifting the schism.

On February 19, 1945, the “Protocol on the elimination of the anomaly that has existed for years in the body of the Holy Orthodox Church...” was signed, and on February 22, the Ecumenical Patriarchate issued a tomos that read: “We bless the autocephalous structure and governance of the Holy Church in Bulgaria and define it as the Holy Orthodox Autocephalous Bulgarian Church, and from now on we recognize Her as our spiritual sister, who is governed and conducts her affairs independently and autocephalously, in accordance with regulations and sovereign rights.”

V.I. Kosik, Chr. Temelski, A. A. Turilov

Orthodox Encyclopedia