Bulgarian Orthodox Church

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Trojan Monastery : Icon of Our Lady
Trojan Monastery: St. Cyril and Method by Zachari Zograf
Fresco from the Boyana Church
All Saints' Day fresco from the Roschen monastery .

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church ( Bulgarian Българска православна църква , proper name: Bulgarian Orthodox Church ) is an autocephalous church of Christian , Byzantine Orthodoxy . In 927 the independence of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as a local Orthodox Church in mainland Europe was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople .

In 2006 it comprised around 85% of the almost 8 million inhabitants of Bulgaria, as well as around 1.5 to 2 million members spread across the Balkan Peninsula , the rest of Europe and the rest of the world. The Church is governed by the Holy Synod , headed by the Patriarch . President of the Holy Synod, Metropolitan of Sofia and Patriarch of Bulgaria has been His Holiness Patriarch Neofit since February 24, 2013 .

History of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church

Middle Ages (until 1018)

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church traces the beginning of its formation back to the missionary trips of the Apostle Paul to the Roman provinces of Thrace and Moesia around the year 50. From this point on, Christianization began, especially in the cities of the country, which was particularly encouraged by the Byzantine state church. Khan Kubrat is mentioned as the first Bulgarian ruler to adopt Christianity . It was not until the eighth century that Christianity became the state religion. Bulgaria gained independence after the Proto- Bulgarians invaded the Balkans in the 7th century, and it took around 200 years for Christianity to penetrate the Bulgarian upper class. Under Tsar Boris I , who took the name Knjaz Mihail when he was baptized , Christianity became the state religion . Boris knew how to use the differences between Rome and Byzantium (Constantinople) and achieved an independent status for his Orthodox rite-oriented church. For his empire, which followed not only the proto-Bulgarian , but also Slavic and Thracian rites and worship of gods, Boris was looking for a binding link. That should be Christianity. The development of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church should also play a major role in the formation of a homogeneous state structure. In Bulgaria, this was the task of the monasteries in particular . The Christianization of the Bulgarian people began in 864 by representatives of the Constantinople Patriarchate. An arbitration decision by the representatives of the Eastern Patriarchates at the Council of Constantinople on March 3, 870 placed the Bulgarian Church under the ecumenical patriarch.

After the Christianization of the country, the first Christian sacred buildings were carried out on a larger scale between 864 and 870 . The preferred design was the basilica , such as the Archbishop's Church in Pliska (Preslaw) and the Sophia churches in Sofia and Ohrid ; also cross-in-square as the bishop's church to Glawnica were built. In 886 the students of the Slav apostles Cyril and Methodius , namely Naum and Kliment , succeeded in introducing the Slavic liturgy in Bulgaria. In 893, Old Bulgarian was introduced as the liturgical language in a council of the Bulgarian Church . In the Bulgarian Empire new churches were built and two literary and spiritual centers were founded, one in Ohrid and one in Preslav . Both centers also served as written and spiritual schools. On the basis of Old Bulgarian, an independent Bulgarian literature and Christian civilization were developed.

Under the firstborn son and heir to the throne Knjaz Vladimir Rassate of Knjaz Boris, there was a rebellion of 50 boyars who, together with Rassate, rejected Christianity. They tried to reintroduce the ancestral paganism, belief in the proto-Bulgarian god Tangra. The revolt was put down by Tsar Boris I, who had meanwhile retired to a monastery. He hanged his son Knjaz Rassate and killed all boyars involved and their families. His third son Simeon became Tsar in 893 and remained faithful to Christianity.

In 919 Tsar Simeon I donated the Zografou Monastery to the Bulgarian Church. In the same year Simeon I, the Great, also appointed the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to the Patriarchate Church. In 927, its independence as a local Orthodox Church on mainland Europe was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Bulgarian Archbishop Damjan was awarded the title of patriarch by the Byzantine Senate on the orders of Emperor Romanos I. Lakapenos . In the following centuries there were repeated differences with Byzantium (Constantinople).

In 971, Byzantium conquered eastern Bulgaria and the capital was successively moved to Sofia, Skopje , Prespa , Bitola and Ohrid. The Bulgarian Patriarch Damjan fled from the old capital Preslaw, which was occupied by the Byzantines, to Ohrid via Sredec and Bitola. As a result, the seat of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church also shifted. Probably in 976 Tsar Samuil elevated the Archdiocese of Ohrid to the "Bulgarian Patriarchate" . Germanus I (976–1000) became the first patriarch.

Bachkovo Monastery

In 1018 the Byzantine Emperor Basil II conquered the rest of the Bulgarian Empire. After the conquest, Ohrid became, according to other sources, Skopje, capital of Byzantine Subject Bulgaria . Basil II reorganized the Bulgarian Church without affecting the existing autocephaly. The patriarchate was renamed again to a diocese and the "Archdiocese of Ohrid and all of Bulgaria" . Basil II rewrote the jurisdiction of the archbishopric and provided the 54 eparchies with a fixed number of semi-free peasants and clergy . The archbishopric remained independent from the Byzantine imperial church, but the bishops were appointed by the Byzantine emperor. The first Archbishop John I Debranin (1018-1037) appointed by Emperor Basil II was still a Slav . After that, however, the Byzantine emperors always appointed Greek priests from the clergy of the capital city of Hagia Sophia as archbishops. This started a Hellenization of the old center of Slavic culture; Greek became the liturgical and official language. Only the simple priests in the rural regions were Bulgarians. Above all, however, the monasteries (such as the Batschkowo monastery ) already proved to be places of refuge and refuge for Bulgarians during this period .

Archbishop Leo von Ohrid was one of the co-signers of the deed of the Patriarch of Constantinople, which sealed the separation from the Latin Church in 1054 . He had previously worked out theological justifications for this step in his writings. Theophylact of Ohrid successfully defended the autocephaly of his archbishopric against the claims of the patriarchy in 1078. In 1157 the Archbishop John Adrian IV Komnenos used the honorary title Archbishop of Justiniana Prima and Bulgaria . On the one hand he referred to the ancient and on the other hand to the Bulgarian tradition in order to emphasize the importance of his archbishopric in relation to Constantinople . The archbishopric of Ohrid and all of Bulgaria existed for almost 750 years until it was abolished in 1767/68.

After a decline during the 11th and 12th centuries, the Bulgarian Church was elevated to patriarchy by the patriarch Germanos II of Constantinople and the Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem under Tsar Ivan Assen II .

The Bogomil Community

See main article on this subject Bogomils

The church between 1185 and 1393

The church during the Ottoman rule from 1396 to 1878

With the invasion of the Ottoman conquerors, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church also lost its independence and was placed under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. After the exile of the last Bulgarian Patriarch Euthymios of Tarnowo in 1393, Patriarch Antonios IV of Constantinople entrusted the Metropolitan Jeremias of Mauroblachia in August 1394 with the administration of the diocese of Veliko Tarnowo . So the Bulgarian Patriarchate of Tarnowo was downgraded to a diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The rulers of the Kingdom of Vidin , the Despotate Welbashd and the Despotate Dobruja had already subordinated their churches to the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The role of the Bulgarian church during Ottoman rule was initially reduced to a minimum, the practice of the Christian religion was made difficult for the population, new churches were hardly allowed - on the contrary, some monasteries and churches were destroyed or used as mosques. Only a few Bulgarian monasteries were allowed to continue their activities with the Sultan's permission (e.g. the Rila Monastery , which was granted certain privileges by decree of Sultan Bajazid I in 1402 ). At the same time, Old Bulgarian was gradually replaced as the liturgical language by Greek by the Greek-influenced Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. During the reign (1520–1566) of Suleyman I, there was a building ban on Christian churches. The Ottoman Empire grew stronger in the 15th century, and only after the first Turkish defeat in 1529 did the situation of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church improve again. She was given special permission to build churches, for example the construction and painting of single-nave, vaulted monastery churches in the Dragalewzi , Kremikowzi , Ilienci and Demetrios monasteries.

When the Ottomans in Central Europe suffered military setbacks in the course of the 17th century and the Bulgarian resistance grew stronger, they reacted violently. The Rhodope Mountains were Islamized by force , 218 churches and 33 monasteries between Stanimaka and Kostenez were destroyed. At the end of the 17th century, 250 churches were destroyed in the Tarnowo area after an uprising.

In the 18th century, further defeats by the Turks led to the disintegration of feudal society in the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarian population in the cities increased, and with it their demands for rights, churches and education. The National Revival began in the second half of the 18th century; During this time, the Greek Church increased its influence in the Bulgarian and Macedonian areas. Another major setback for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was the abolition of the Archdiocese of Ohrid in 1767 , which up to that point "...  only embodied the autocephalous tradition of Bulgaria  ...". All suffragan dioceses in the Archdiocese of Ohrid were subordinated to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. As a reaction to these events, a Bulgarian national movement was formed, striving for church independence from the sovereignty of the Greek Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

At the beginning of the 19th century there was renewed resistance against the Greek metropolitan and the Greek priests he appointed: the so-called Bulgarian church war broke out. For the Bulgarian Christians in Macedonia and Thrace in the Ottoman Empire, the Catholic Uniate Church was created in 1860 , which dates back to the Union of Kilkis in 1859. French Lazarists had taken advantage of the local population's dissatisfaction with the Orthodox Phanariotic bishops and promised the population a national hierarchy. In 1861, Josif Sokolski, the first Catholic metropolitan was installed. The resulting church saw itself as part of the Bulgarian national movement and had up to 30,000 believers.

In 1870 the Ottoman Empire established its own Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the so-called Bulgarian Exarchate , after a Ferman (decree) of the Sultan , which no longer wanted to be under the patronage of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Constantinople. A plebiscite was permitted for all places that were not mentioned by name in the Firman . If two-thirds of the Orthodox residents declared themselves to be part of the Bulgarian exarchate, the place was placed under the jurisdiction of the renewed Bulgarian Church. Under pressure from the Patriarch of Constantinople, this mainly affected eparchies in Macedonia and Thrace, which were not mentioned in Ferman. In the next few years some of the Macedonian dioceses joined the exarchate after a referendum. This process lasted into the 1880s. In 1874, after a plebiscite, the first Bulgarian bishop of the Skopje eparchy was installed.

With the formation of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the second, penultimate period of the Bulgarian Revival ended . Now a Bulgarian-Greek church struggle broke out on the Balkan Peninsula, most of all in the mixed regions of Macedonia and Thrace, over the confession of the Bulgarian Exarchate. Opposed to this were the advocates of the Greek-dominated patriarchate in Constantinople and the Catholic universities .

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church only regained its independence on March 12, 1870 by a Ferman (decree) of Sultan Abdülhamid II in Constantinople with the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate . But as early as 1872 the Bulgarian Orthodox Church had to face further challenges; for that year the Patriarch of Constantinople had declared it schismatic. Up until the Balkan Wars in 1912/1913, the Bulgarian Exarchate comprised 23 eparchies (dioceses) in Bulgaria, Thrace and Macedonia . According to Article 10 of the Fermans of 1870, further areas could be added if the Bulgarian population represented a two-thirds majority of the total population there.

In eight eparchies, only one Bulgarian clergyman was able to represent church interests due to the pressure of the Greek and Serbian populations belonging to the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

See main article: Bulgarian Exarchate , Ferman on Establishing the Bulgarian Exarchate .

The church between 1878 and 1945

The years after the liberation of Bulgaria in 1878 were characterized by a great deal of building activity by educational institutions, monasteries and churches, including the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church received new development opportunities through the training of priests and was able to regain its place in Bulgarian society.

In 1922 the Romanian Orthodox Church entered full sacramental communion with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. It was not until 1953 that the independent Bulgarian Patriarchate was officially restored.

In 1943 the two metropolitans - Stefan I of Sofia and Kiril of Plovdiv were among the initiators and active participants in the campaign - campaigned for the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews from deportation.

During the Second World War , between 1944 and 1946 , the Sofia Spiritual Academy was used as the headquarters of the Soviet army that occupied Bulgaria.

The Church under Communist Rule (1945 to 1990)

During the communist rule, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was a particular target of persecution . In the early days, many low-ranking Orthodox bishops and clergy were victims of shootings and extermination in death camps. Until recently the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was banned from working with young people.

On September 20, 1950, the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP) decided to merge the Sofia and Plovdiv Spiritual Academies . The Tscherepisch train station near the Tscherepisch monastery was assigned as the seat of the merged academy . Between 1951 and 1990 the area of ​​the academy in Sofia served as the palace of the pioneers . The BKP also tried to remove and manipulate patriarchs and diocesan bishops in order to change the hierarchy. Nevertheless, the church leadership came to an arrangement with the government and the mass organizations of the Bulgarian population in order to preserve a certain autonomy vis-à-vis the state. For its part, the Communist Party valued the historic merits of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the struggle for national sovereignty during Ottoman rule.

In 1968 the church introduced the New Julian calendar in place of the previous Julian calendar, following the Orthodox churches of Greece, Romania and other countries.

After 1990

Only after the democratization of Bulgaria in 1990 were the old buildings of the academy in Sofia and Plovdiv transferred to the church; the amalgamation of the Sofia and Plovdiv academies was also reversed. An exchange of the church leadership elected under communist rule did not take place.

Rila monastery
The Last Judgment - fresco in the Rila Monastery

After democratization and the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was able to devote itself to its actual organizational and pastoral tasks.

In 1990 an alternative synod of clergy was created, from which a separate church developed. Likewise, that year priests and believers who followed the old Julian calendar separated and formed the Bulgarian Orthodox Old Calendar Church .

Structures

Churches, monasteries and believers

In church matters it now represents almost 85 percent of the Bulgarian population, looks after 1,985 priests and has 3,720 church buildings and 211 monasteries in Bulgaria as well as a large number of parishes and monasteries abroad (e.g. the Zografou monastery in the Greek monastic republic of Athos and the Trinity Monastery in Bodenwerder-Buchhagen, Germany ). The largest Bulgarian monastery is the Rila Monastery.

The church is responsible for several theological schools. There are two theological colleges: the Spiritual Academy in Sofia and in Plovdiv .

Currently, three monasteries are directly subordinate to the Patriarch ( Stauropegia ): the Rila Monastery , the Trojan Monastery and the Batschkowo Monastery .

Patriarchal election 2013

A priest of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church

After the death of Patriarch Maxim on November 6th, 2012, between January 10th and 13th, the Church elected the delegates for a council for the election of the new patriarch. On February 16, the Holy Synod selected the three candidates from the 13 Metropolitans, the Metropolitan Galaction of Stara Sagora, Neofit of Russe and Gavrail of Lovech for the office of head of the Church. The council met in Sofia on February 24th and Metropolitan Galaktion was eliminated from the first round. In the second round, Neofit received 94 votes from the 138 delegates and thus won the election. The minimum number of votes required for the election of the Patriarch was 92 votes.

Holy Synod

The Holy Synod is a permanent body (organ) that is at the head of the Orthodox Churches. The Holy Synod is the governing body that makes decisions between the Synods of Bishops. The Holy Synod is chaired by the Metropolitan of Sofia and Patriarch of Bulgaria, His Holiness Patriarch Neofit . Further members of the synod are the respective metropolitans (archbishops) of the dioceses of the church:

The General Secretary of the Holy Synod is consecrated Bishop Naum von Stobi .

Eparchies of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church

Eparchies of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church within Bulgaria

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is divided into 13 eparchies ( bishoprics ) within Bulgaria as well as two foreign dioceses :

  • Vidin (Видинска епархия)
  • Wraza (Врачанска епархия)
  • Lowetsch (Ловчанска епархия)
  • Veliko Tarnovo (Търновска епархия)
  • Dorostol and Cherven (Доростоло-червенска епархия; seat in Silistra )
  • Varna and Preslav (Варненско-преславска епархия; seat in Varna);
  • Sliven (Сливенска епархия);
  • Stara Sagora (Старозагорска епархия);
  • Plovdiv (Пловдивска епархия);
  • Sofia (Софийска епархия);
  • Newrokop (Неврокопска епархия);
  • Pleven (Плевенска епархия);
  • Russian (Русенска епархия);
  • Central and Western Europe (foreign diocese, seat in Berlin ), led by Archbishop Antonij - Metropolitan of Western and Central Europe:
    • Belgium - Brussels
    • Germany - Berlin, Hamburg, Bonn / Cologne / Kevelaer, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Mannheim, Munich, Passau, Regensburg, Stuttgart and the German Orthodox Trinity Monastery in Buchhagen
    • France - Lyon, Paris, Strasbourg
    • Great Britain - London
    • Italy - Milan, Rome
    • Croatia - Zagreb
    • Malta - Valleta
    • Netherlands - The Hague
    • Norway - Oslo
    • Austria - Graz, Vienna (parish of St. Iwan Rilski )
    • Sweden - Stockholm
    • Switzerland Zurich
    • Slovakia - Bratislava
    • Spain - Barcelona, ​​Dénia, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Segovia
    • Portugal - Lisbon
    • Hungary - Budapest
    • Czech Republic - Prague
    • Turkey - Edirne, Istanbul (see Sweti Stefan Church )
  • US-America, Canada and Australia (foreign diocese, seat in New York ), led by Archbishop Joseph:
    • Australia - Macquarie Fields, Adelaide, Melbourne
    • Canada - Toronto and Brampton (Ontario), Montreal (QC)
    • USA - Florence (KY), Nashville (IN), Steelton (PA), Santa Rosa (CA), Sterling Heights (MI), Allston (MA), East Syracuse (NY), Madison (IL), Indianapolis (IN), Harper Woods (MI), Dearborn (MI), Los Angeles (CA), Hudson (OH), Kodiak (AK), Salem (VA), Boscobel (WI), Brookline (MA), Phoenix (AZ), Des Plaines ( IL), Fairlawn (OH) and New York (NY)

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Bulgarian Orthodox Church  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The official website of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
  2. a b c d e f Comati, 2003, p. 88, p. 90, p. 93, p. 95
  3. a b c d e f Hösch / Nehring / Sundhaussen, 2004, p. 496
  4. ^ Härtel / Schönfeld: Bulgaria , 1998, p. 41
  5. ^ A b "Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe" p. 421
  6. ^ Härtel / Schönfeld: Bulgaria , 1998
  7. a b c d Härtel / Schönfeld: Bulgaria , 1998, p. 44
  8. ^ Günter Prinzing : Ohrid . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 6, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-8906-9 , Sp. 1376-1380. (here col. 1378).
  9. ^ Döpmann, 2006.
  10. Hösch / Nehring / Sundhaussen, 2004, p. 485
  11. a b Döpmann, 2006, p. 60
  12. ^ Gerhard Ecker: Bulgaria. Art monuments from four millennia from the Thracians to the present. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1984, p. 17.
  13. ^ Rudolf Grulich: The Uniate Church in Macedonia, 1856-1919. Würzburg 1997.
    Marlene Kurz: Christians under Islamic rule: the zimmi administration in the Ottoman Empire. In: Thede Kahl, Cay Lienau (Hrsg.): Christians and Muslims: Interethnic Coexistence in Southeast European Periphery Areas. LIT Verlag, Münster 2009, p. 96.
    Friedrich Heyer: The Catholic Church from 1648 to 1870. Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963, p. 189ff.
  14. a b Dunja Melcic: The war in Yugoslavia: Handbook history, course and consequences. 2007, p. 142.
  15. Fictional Adanir: The Macedonian Question. Their creation and development. 1979, p. 54 ff.
  16. Момчил Методиев: Между вярата и компромиса. Българската православна църква и комунистическата държава (1945–1989 г.). Verlag Siela, Sofia 2010 ( excerpts from the book ).
  17. Orthodox "Trinity Monastery"
  18. Bulgarian Orthodox Church elects delegates for council for patriarchal election, Radio Bulgaria, January 13, 2013
  19. ^ Bulgaria: Difficult choice of patriarchs ( Memento from February 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Vatican Radio, February 17, 2013; Election of Bulgarian Patriarch Candidates Reaches Stalemate , February 16, 2013; The church council elects the new patriarch , mediapool.bg, February 24, 2013; Neofit is the new patriarch (Bulgarian), Dnevnik.bg, February 24, 2013
  20. ^ Structure of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
  21. ^ Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Central and Western Europe
  22. Organization of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Australia, USA and Canada