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| Patriarchate of Bulgaria | |
|---|---|
| Българска патриаршия | |
 | |
| Type | Autocephaly |
| Classification | Christian |
| Orientation | Eastern Orthodox |
| Scripture | |
| Theology | Eastern Orthodox theology |
| Primate | Daniil |
| Bishops | 15 |
| Priests | 2,000 |
| Parishes | 2,600 |
| Monasteries | 120 |
| Language | Bulgarian andOld Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) |
| Headquarters | Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral,Sofia,Bulgaria |
| Territory | Bulgaria |
| Possessions | United States,Canada,Australia,European Union,Argentina,Russia,Greece,Turkey |
| Founder | Boris I of Bulgaria (original) Anthim I (asBulgarian Exarchate) Stefan I of Bulgaria (modern incarnation) |
| Independence | 870–1018 1185–1393 1018–1767 1870–present |
| Recognition | 870(Autonomy) 927(Patriarchate)[1][better source needed] 1235(Patriarchate) 1945(Autocephaly) 1953(Patriarchate) |
| Separations | Old Calendar Bulgarian Orthodox Church (late 1980s) Bulgarian Orthodox Church – Alternative synod (1996–2013) |
| Members | 7–8 million |
| Official website | Bulgarian Orthodox Church |
TheBulgarian Orthodox Church (Bulgarian:Българска православна църква,romanized: Bûlgarska pravoslavna cûrkva), legally thePatriarchate of Bulgaria (Bulgarian:Българска патриаршия,romanized: Bûlgarska patriarshiya), is anautocephalousEastern Orthodox jurisdiction based inBulgaria. It is the first medieval recognised patriarchate outside thePentarchy and theoldest Slavic Orthodox church, with some 6 million members inBulgaria and between 1.5 and 2 million members in a number of otherEuropean countries,Asia, theAmericas,Australia, andNew Zealand. It was recognized as autocephalous in 1945 by theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.[2]
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has its origin in the flourishing Christian communities and churches established inSoutheast Europe as early as the first centuries of the Christian era. Christianity was brought to theThracian lands by the apostlesPaul andAndrew in the 1st century AD, when the first organised Christian communities were formed. By the beginning of the 4th century, Christianity had become the dominant religion in the region. Towns such as Serdica (Sofia),Philipopolis (Plovdiv), Odessus (Varna), Dorostorum (Silistra) and Adrianople (Edirne) were significant centres of Christianity in theRoman Empire.
TheMonastery of Saint Athanasius, the first Christian monastery in Europe, was founded inThrace in 344 bySaint Athanasius near modern-dayChirpan,Bulgaria, following theCouncil of Serdica and theEdict of Serdica.[3]
The raids and incursions into the Roman provinces in the 4th and the 5th centuries brought considerable damage to the ecclesiastical organisation of the Christian Church in the Bulgarian lands, yet did not destroy it.Kubrat andOrgana were both baptized together in Constantinople and from the surviving Christian communities, Christianity made inroads with local Bulgar-Slavic people. By the middle of the 9th century, the majority of theearly Slavs, especially those living inThrace andMacedonia under Eastern Roman rule, were Christianized. The Christian religion also enjoyed some success among theBulgar nobility, with recorded conversions among that group. However, it was not until the official adoption ofChristianity by theFirst Bulgarian Empire during the reign ofBoris I in 865 that an independent Bulgarian ecclesiastical entity was established.
Boris I believed that cultural advancement and the sovereignty and prestige of a Christian Bulgaria could be achieved through an enlightened clergy governed by an autocephalous church. To this end, he manoeuvred between the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Roman Pope for a period of five years until in 870 AD, theFourth Council of Constantinople granted the Bulgarians an autonomous Bulgarian archbishopric. The archbishopric had its seat in the Bulgarian capital ofPliska, and its diocese covered the whole territory of theBulgarian state. The tug-of-war between Rome and Constantinople was resolved by placing the Bulgarian archbishopric under the jurisdiction of thePatriarch of Constantinople, from whom it obtained its first primate, its clergy, and theological books.
Although the archbishopric enjoyed full internal autonomy, the goals ofBoris I were scarcely fulfilled. AGreek liturgy offered by aByzantine clergy furthered neither the cultural development of the Bulgarians, nor the consolidation of the Bulgarian Empire; it would have eventually resulted in the loss of both the identity of the people and the statehood of Bulgaria.[according to whom?]
Following the Byzantine theory of"Imperium sine Patriarcha non staret", which said that a close relation should exist between an Empire and Patriarchate, Boris I greeted the arrival of the disciples of the recently deceasedSaints Cyril and Methodius in 886 as an opportunity. Boris I tasked them with the instruction of the future Bulgarian clergy in theGlagolitic alphabet and the Slavonic liturgy prepared byCyril. The liturgy was based on the vernacular of the early Slavs from the region ofThessaloniki. In 893, Boris I expelled the Greek clergy from the country and ordered the Greek language to be replaced with the Slav-Bulgarian vernacular.
Following Bulgaria's two decisive victories over the Byzantines atAcheloos (near the present-day city ofPomorie) andKatasyrtai (nearConstantinople), the government declared the autonomous Bulgarian Archbishopric as autocephalous and elevated it to the rank ofPatriarchate at an ecclesiastical and national council held in 919. After Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire signed a peace treaty in 927 that concluded the20-year-long war between them, the Patriarchate of Constantinople recognised the autocephalous status of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and acknowledged its patriarchal dignity.[4][5]
The Bulgarian Patriarchate was the first autocephalous Slavic Orthodox Church, preceding the autocephaly of theSerbian Orthodox Church (1219) by 292 years and of theRussian Orthodox Church (1596) by 662 years. It was the sixth Patriarchate after thePentarchy patriarchates of Rome, Constantinople,Alexandria,Antioch andJerusalem. The seat of the Patriarchate was the new Bulgarian capital ofPreslav. The Patriarch was likely to have resided in the town of Drastar (Silistra), an old Christian centre noted for its martyrs and Christian traditions.
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On April 5, 972, Byzantine EmperorJohn I Tzimisces conquered and burned downPreslav, and captured BulgarianTsarBoris II. Patriarch Damyan managed to escape, initially to Sredetz (Sofia) in western Bulgaria. In the coming years, the residence of the Bulgarian patriarchs remained closely connected to the developments in the war between the next Bulgarian royal dynasty, theComitopuli, and theByzantine Empire. Patriarch German resided consecutively in the medieval Bulgarian cities of Maglen (Almopia) and Voden (Edessa) (both in present-day north-westernGreece), and Prespa (in present-day southernNorth Macedonia). Around 990, the next patriarch, Philip, moved toOhrid (in present-day south-westernNorth Macedonia), which became the permanent seat of the Patriarchate.
After Bulgaria fell under Byzantine domination in 1018, EmperorBasil IIBulgaroktonos (the “Bulgar-Slayer”) acknowledged the autocephalous status of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. By special charters (royal decrees), his government set up its boundaries, dioceses, property and other privileges. He deprived the church of its Patriarchal title and reduced it to the rank of an archbishopric. Although the first appointed archbishop (John of Debar) was a Bulgarian, his selected successors, as well as the whole higher clergy, wereByzantine. The monks and the ordinary priests continued to be predominantly Bulgarian. To a large extent the archbishopric preserved its national character, upheld Slavonic liturgy, and continued its contribution to the development of Bulgarian literature. The autocephaly of theOhrid Archbishopric remained respected during the periods of Byzantine, Bulgarian, Serbian, andOttoman rule. The church continued to exist until it was abolished in 1767 by theOttoman Empire which ruled its territory at the time.
As a result of the successful uprising of the brothersPeter IVandIvan Asen I in 1185/1186, the foundations of theSecond Bulgarian Empire were laid withTarnovo as its capital. FollowingBoris I’s principle that the sovereignty of the state is inextricably linked to the autocephaly of the Church, the two brothers immediately took steps to restore theBulgarian Patriarchate. They initially established an independent archbishopric in Tarnovo in 1186. It required almost 50 years of struggle for this archbishporic to receive recognition and elevation to the rank of a Patriarchate according to the canonical order.[6] Following the example ofBoris I, BulgarianTsarKaloyan manoeuvred for years between the Patriarch of Constantinople andPope Innocent III. Finally in 1203 the latter proclaimed the Tarnovo Archbishop Vassily "Primate andArchbishop of all Bulgaria and Walachia." The union with theRoman Catholic Church continued for well over two decades.
Under the reign ofTsarIvan Asen II (1218–1241), conditions were created for the termination of the union with Rome and for the recognition of the autocephalous status of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. In 1235 a church council was convened in the town ofLampsakos. Under the presidency ofPatriarch Germanus II of Constantinople and with the consent of all Eastern Patriarchs, the council confirmed thePatriarchal dignity of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and consecrated the Bulgarian archbishop German asPatriarch.
Despite a reduction in size of the boundaries of the diocese of theTarnovo Patriarchate at the end of the 13th century, its authority in the Eastern Orthodox world remained high. The Patriarch of Tarnovo confirmed the patriarchal dignity of theSerbian Orthodox Church in 1346, despite protests by thePatriarchate of Constantinople. TheTarnovo Literary School developed under the wing of the Patriarchate in the 14th century, with scholars of the rank ofPatriarch Evtimiy,Gregory Tsamblak, andKonstantin of Kostenets. A considerable flowering was noted in the fields of literature,architecture, and painting; the religious and theological literature also flourished.
Tarnovo fell under domination by theOttoman Empire in 1393. The Ottomans sentPatriarch Evtimiy into exile and the autocephaly of the church was revoked the next year. The church was organizationally integrated into the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In 1394, theHoly Synod of theEcumenical Patriarchate gave the authorisation to theMetropolitan ofMoldavia, Jeremiah, "to move with the help of God to the holy Church of Turnovo and to be allowed to perform everything befitting a prelate freely and without restraint." By around 1416, the territory of the Patriarchate of Turnovo was totally subordinated to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The other Bulgarian religious centre – theOhrid Archbishopric – survived until 1767.[7]
Following the execution of many leaders of the Bulgarian orthodox church, it was fully subordinated to thePatriarch of Constantinople. The millet system in theOttoman Empire granted a number of important civil and judicial functions to the Patriarch of Constantinople and the diocesan metropolitans. After the higher-ranking Bulgarian church clerics were replaced by Greek ones at the beginning of the Ottoman period, the Bulgarian population was subjected to double oppression – politically by the Ottomans and culturally by the Greek clergy. With the rise of Greek nationalism in the second half of the 18th century, the clergy imposed theGreek language and a Greek consciousness on the emerging Bulgarian bourgeoisie. They used the Patriarchate of Constantinople to assimilate other peoples. At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the clergy opened numerous schools utilizing theGreek language rather than the Bulgarian language as their medium of instruction; they nearly banned Bulgarian-language liturgy. These actions threatened the survival of the Bulgarians as a separate nation and people with its own, distinct national culture.[citation needed]
Throughout the centuries of Ottoman domination, Orthodox monasteries were instrumental in the preservation of the Bulgarian language and Bulgarian national consciousness. Especially important were theZograph andHilandar monasteries onMount Athos, as well as theRila,Troyan,Etropole,Dryanovo,Cherepish andDragalevtsi monasteries in Bulgaria. The monks managed to preserve their national character in the monasteries, continuing traditions of the Slavonic liturgy and Bulgarian literature. They continued to operate monastery schools and carried out other educational activities, which managed to keep the flame of the Bulgarian culture burning.[citation needed]
In 1762, St.Paisius of Hilendar (1722–1773), a monk from the southwestern Bulgarian town ofBansko, wrote a short historical work. It was the first work written in the modern Bulgarianvernacular and was also the first call for a national awakening. InHistory of Slav-Bulgarians, Paissiy urged his compatriots to throw off subjugation to the Greek language and culture. The example of Paissiy was followed by a number of otheractivists, including St. Sophroniy of Vratsa (Sofroni Vrachanski) (1739–1813), hieromonk Spiridon of Gabrovo, hieromonkYoakim Karchovski (d. 1820), hieromonkKiril Peychinovich (d. 1845).
Discontent with the supremacy of the Greek clergy started to flare up in several Bulgarian dioceses as early as the 1820s. However, it was not until 1850 that the Bulgarians purposefully struggled against the Greek clerics in a number of bishoprics, demanding their replacement with Bulgarian ones. By that time, most Bulgarian clergy had realised that further struggle for the rights of theBulgarians in theOttoman Empire could not succeed unless they managed to obtain some degree of autonomy from thePatriarchate of Constantinople. As the Ottomans identified nationality with religion, and the Bulgarians were Eastern Orthodox, the Ottomans considered them part of theRoum-Milet, i.e., the Greeks. To gain Bulgarian schools and liturgy, the Bulgarians needed to achieve an independent ecclesiastical organisation.
The struggle between the Bulgarians, led byNeofit Bozveli andIlarion Makariopolski, and the Greeks intensified throughout the 1860s. In early April 1860, the name of the Ecumenical Patriarch was intentionally omitted during a prayer in Easter in theBulgarian St. Stephen Church in Constantinople, which could be seen as a unilateral declaration of Bulgarian ecclesiastical independence.[8] By the end of the decade, Bulgarian bishoprics had expelled most of the Greek clerics. Thus the whole of northern Bulgaria, as well as the northern parts ofThrace andMacedonia had effectively seceded from the Patriarchate. The Ottoman government restored the Bulgarian Patriarchate under the name of "Bulgarian Exarchate" by a decree (firman) of theSultan promulgated on February 28, 1870. The original Exarchate extended over present-day northern Bulgaria (Moesia),Thrace without theVilayet of Adrianople, as well as over north-easternMacedonia. After the Christian population of the bishoprics ofSkopje andOhrid voted in 1874 overwhelmingly in favour of joining the Exarchate (Skopje by 91%, Ohrid by 97%), theBulgarian Exarchate became in control of the whole ofVardar andPirin Macedonia. The Bulgarian Exarchate was partially represented insouthern Macedonia and theVilayet of Adrianople by vicars. Thus, the borders of the Exarchate included all Bulgarian districts in theOttoman Empire.
ThePatriarchate of Constantinople opposed the change, promptly declaring theBulgarian Exarchate schismatic and its adherentsheretics. Although the status and the guiding principles of the Exarchate reflected the canons, the Patriarchate argued that “surrender ofOrthodoxy to ethnic nationalism” was essentially a manifestation ofheresy.[citation needed]
The first Bulgarian Exarch wasAntim I, who was elected by the Holy Synod of the Exarchate in February, 1872. He was discharged by the Ottoman government immediately after the outbreak of theRusso-Turkish War on April 24, 1877, and was sent into exile inAnkara. His successor,Joseph I, managed to develop and considerably extend its church and school network in the Bulgarian Principality,Eastern Rumelia,Macedonia and theAdrianople Vilayet. In 1895, theTarnovo Constitution formally established the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as the national religion of the nation. On the eve of theBalkan Wars, in Macedonia and theAdrianople Vilayet, theBulgarian Exarchate had seven dioceses with prelates and eight more with acting chairmen in charge and 38 vicariates; 1,218 parishes and 1,212 parish priests; 64 monasteries and 202 chapels; as well as of 1,373 schools with 2,266 teachers and 78,854 pupils.
In 1913, ExarchJoseph I transferred his offices fromIstanbul toSofia; he died in 1915, a few months before Bulgaria fatefully opted to participate inWorld War I alongside theCentral Powers. As a consequence of theTreaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1919, the Bulgarian Exarchate was deprived of its dioceses inMacedonia and AegeanThrace. During the three decades after Joseph's death, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church did not elect a regular head because of opposition from the Bulgarian government.[9]: 2 Between 1915 and 1945 the Church was governed by theHoly Synod, similar to theMost Holy Synod of theRussian Orthodox Church.
Conditions for the restoration of the Bulgarian Patriarchate and the election of a head of the Bulgarian Church were created afterWorld War II.[10] In 1945 the schism was lifted and the Patriarch of Constantinople recognised the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Church. In 1950, the Holy Synod adopted a new Statute which paved the way for the restoration of the Patriarchate and in 1953, it elected the Metropolitan of Plovdiv,Cyril, Bulgarian Patriarch.[11] After the death of Patriarch Cyril in 1971, in his place was elected the Metropolitan ofLovech,Maxim, leading the church until his death in 2012. On 10 November 2012 Metropolitan Cyril of Varna and Veliki Preslav was chosen as interim leader to organize the election of the new Patriarch within four months.[12] At the church council convened to elect a new Patriarch 24 February 2013, the Metropolitan ofRuse,Neophyt was elected Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church with 90 votes against 47 for Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovech.[13]
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Under Communism (1944–1989), Bulgaria's rulers worked to control rather than destroy the church. Still, the early postwar years were unsettling to church hierarchs. During 1944–1947 the church was deprived of jurisdiction in marriage, divorce, issuance of birth and death certificates, and other passages that had been sacraments as well as state events. Communists removed study of the catechism and church history from school curricula. They generated anti-religious propaganda and persecuted some priests. 1947–1949 was the apex of the campaign to intimidate the church. Bishop Boris was assassinated; Egumenius Kalistrat, administrator of theRila Monastery, was imprisoned; and various other clergy were murdered or charged with crimes against the state. The communists soon replaced all clergy who refused to endorse the regime's policies. They banished Exarch Stefan, who had co-authored a book in 1948 that was considered anti-Communist.[14]
From that time until the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of Communist rule in 1989, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and theBulgarian Communist Party and State Security coexisted in a closely symbiotic partnership, in which each supported the other.[citation needed] 11 (out of 15) members of Bulgarian Orthodox Church's Holy Synod worked forcommunist State Security.[15] The party supported the elevation of the exarchate to the rank of patriarchate in May 1953. The 1970 commemoration served to recall that the exarchate (which retained its jurisdictional borders until after World War I) included Macedonia and Thrace in addition to present-day Bulgaria. In 2013, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a Bulgarian deputy, due to its involvement in the rescue of Jews during World War II. It was the first religious institution to receive such a nomination.[16][17] Along with the wider Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church originally did not recognize the autocephaly of theMacedonian Orthodox Church,[18] since the latter's unilateral declaration of autocephaly in 1967. However, after theEcumenical Patriarchate andSerbian Orthodox Church restored communion with the Macedonian Church in May 2022, the Bulgarian Church followed suit on 22 June 2022.[19]
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church considers itself an inseparable member of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church and is organized as a self-governing body under the name ofPatriarchate. It is divided into thirteen dioceses within the boundaries of the Republic of Bulgaria and has jurisdiction over additional two dioceses for Bulgarians inWestern andCentral Europe, and theAmericas,Canada andAustralia. The dioceses of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church are divided into 58 church counties, which, in turn, are subdivided into some 2,600 parishes.
The supreme clerical, judicial and administrative power for the whole domain of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is exercised by theHoly Synod, which includes thePatriarch and the diocesan prelates, who are calledmetropolitans. Church life in the parishes is guided by the parish priests, numbering some 1,500.
Eparchies in Bulgaria: (withBulgarian names in brackets)
Eparchies abroad:
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church also has some 120 monasteries in Bulgaria, with about 2,000monks and nearly as manynuns.
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