The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has over 1,150 years of history, which is closely related to the history, ups and downs of the Bulgarian state. She is the guardian of spirituality and defender of Bulgaria in the difficult times of foreign rule and played a key role in the formation of the modern Bulgarian nation. On June 30, it elected its fourth patriarch, after the death of Patriarch Neofit, BGNES reported.
In the 9th century, Bulgaria underwent territorial expansion, which brought the state into closer contact with Christianity than ever before. Thus Khan Boris, who ruled in the period 852-889, decided to officially introduce the Christian religion, through which Slavs and Bulgarians would be united. The conversion of the Bulgarian people began in 865.
After that, the issue of establishing an independent Bulgarian church is on the agenda. After a church council held in Constantinople, on March 4, 870, Emperor Basil I convened an extraordinary meeting, at which it was decided that Bulgaria would receive its autonomous archbishopric under Byzantine tutelage, with the archbishop elected by the Bulgarian episcopate and confirmed by the Patriarch of Constantinople.
The Bulgarian Church began to assert itself on the international scene in parallel with the country's political successes and cultural rise. After the battle at the Aheloy River on August 20, 917, Prince Simeon proclaimed himself "king of Bulgarians and Romans". Two years later, due to the rule of a close relationship between the kingdom and the patriarchate, church autocephaly was officially proclaimed at a church-people's council, and the Bulgarian archbishop received the title of patriarch.
In 971, when Byzantium conquered the eastern Bulgarian lands, the center of the state moved to western Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Patriarchate also moved there, initially its center was in Voden, and then in Ohrid.
After the conquest of Bulgaria by the Byzantine Emperor Basil II the Bulgar Killer in 1018, the Bulgarian Church remained independent, but under the name of the Ohrid Archbishopric. At the head of it Basil || A Bulgarian murderer frames a Bulgarian clergyman. With the restoration of the Bulgarian state in 1186 by Assen and Peter, the autocephalous archbishopric of Tarnovo was established, headed by archbishop Vasili.
In 1204, a union was concluded between Pope Innocent III and the Bulgarian king Kaloyan. With it, the supremacy of the Catholic Church was recognized by the Bulgarian side. In return, the Bulgarian ruler was awarded the title "king", and Basil was given the title "primate", equivalent to patriarch.
The Patriarchate was officially recognized in 1235 during the reign of Tsar Ivan Asen II. The first Patriarch of Tarn was Joachim I, and the last - St. Euthymius. His is the credit for the foundation of the Tarnovo Book School, as well as for the introduced spelling and language reform and the new translations of liturgical and other theological books. Among the work of the patriarch, many more lives, eulogies, epistles, etc. stand out. After falling under Ottoman rule in 1393, St. Patriarch Euthymius was sent into exile in the Bachkovo Monastery, where he remained until his death.
By the beginning of the 15th century, the Patriarchate of Tarnovo was already completely subordinated to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Patriarch of Constantinople represents the Bulgarian people, which is considered part of the so-called "rum millet", representing the Christian population in the Ottoman Empire.
However, the clergy preserved the Bulgarian self-awareness and in the era of the Renaissance, the achievement of the independence of the Patriarchate of Constantinople became the main goal of the national movement. An essential part of the efforts to achieve the independence of the church is the expulsion of the Greek bishops and their replacement with Bulgarian ones, as well as the removal of the Greek language from the services. After the Crimean War, the Sultan's reform act Hatihumayun created conditions for legal actions in the field of church-national struggle. This is how we got to the Easter action of April 3, 1860, when in the church "St. Stephen", Bishop Hilarion of Makariopol rejects dependence on the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Tsarigrad and announces an independent Bulgarian church organization. Ten years later, Sultan Abdul Aziz signed a firman for the establishment of an independent Bulgarian church structure in the form of an exarchy, semi-dependent from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople - this was practically the first institution established even before the restoration of the Bulgarian state.
Two years after the establishment of the exarchate, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was put under schism.
The battle between the Bulgarian Exarchate and the Ecumenical Patriarchate is the most difficult for the Orthodox Bulgarians in Macedonia. At the referendum in the dioceses of Skopje and Ohrid, the vast majority of the residents of these two dioceses voted in favor of the Exarchate, emphasizing their Bulgarian origin. The importance of this election is even greater considering that it was made in free conditions without any external interference and pressure on the voters.
After the Liberation, it was decided to keep the seat of the exarchy in the capital Constantinople, since about a million and a half Bulgarians remained within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, in practice, internal and external exarchial jurisdictions are established. Relations between church and state in the following decades were often strained. After the death of Exarch Joseph in 1915, a new church head could not be elected for 30 years.
The schism over the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was lifted on February 22, 1945. In 1953, the Third Church-People's Council was opened in Sofia, during which the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was officially proclaimed a patriarchate. Metropolitan Kirill of Plovdiv was elected as patriarch. The Bulgarian Patriarchate is recognized by several Orthodox churches, and in 1961 the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople officially recognized the revived Bulgarian Patriarchate. | BGNES
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