Bulgarian Exarchate

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Saint Stephen's Cathedral in today's Istanbul (early 20th century).
The Ferman for the establishment of the exarchate

The Bulgarian Exarchate ( Bulgarian Българска Екзархия ) was an independent ecclesiastical organization in Bulgaria and in the Ottoman Empire , which was established by Sultan Abdülaziz , ruler of the Ottoman Empire, on February 28, 1870 due to the Fermans for the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate . This gave the Bulgarian Orthodox Church a limited independence after centuries of Ottoman rule. The Bulgarian Exarchate was a church organization that was supposed to regulate the religious affairs of the Bulgarians themselves and was only subordinate to the sultan. The boundaries of the dioceses were set out in Article 10 of the Fermans. The seat of the Bulgarian exarch was St. Stephen's Cathedral in the Fener district of Istanbul .

The establishment of the Bulgarian exarchate was a preliminary stage to Bulgaria's national independence . It made it possible to hold services in the Bulgarian language and to occupy the bishops' seats that had previously been administered almost exclusively by Greeks by Bulgarians.

prehistory

The establishment of the exarchate was a consequence of the Bulgarian emancipation movement ( Bulgarian rebirth ), which had already started in the 18th century. Some of the leading figures were Paisi Hilendarski , Sophronius von Wraza , the publisher Alexander Exarch (Alexander Stoilow), Neofit Bozweli , Neofit Rilski , Ilarion Makariopolski , Najden Gerow and Petko Slawejkow .

The attempt to replace the Bishop of Wraza in 1824 is seen as the first step . The inhabitants of Samokow (1829) and Skopje (1825) took further steps in this direction by driving out the Greek priests for the Easter service and asking the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to ordain native candidates. In response, however, the Constantinople Patriarch sent Greeks again. The efforts were soon supported by the eparchy of Tarnowo , where Ilarion Makariopolski and Neofit Bozweli, among others, were active. However , a reform decree issued by Sultan Abdülmecid I under pressure from the European powers in 1839 did not change anything; on the contrary, it intensified the striving for independence in the ecclesiastical question. In Vidin in 1840 the Sublime Porte gave in to pressure from the local population and, on the recommendation of the local governor, sent the deacon Dionys to Istanbul, but he died before the episcopal ordination .

In 1844 Bozweli and Makariopolski wrote a letter in which they asked the Sublime Porte, among other things, for permission to appoint bishops elected by the Bulgarian people, to hold the liturgy in Bulgarian, to elect a Bulgarian representative in the government, or to establish a Bulgarian church in Istanbul demanded. As a reaction and above all to pressure from the Ecumenical Patriarch, the two priests were banished to the Hilandar monastery in the monastic republic of Athos . Neofit Bozweli died there in 1848.

The Bulgarian colony living in Istanbul showed first successes in the establishment of its own church. In 1848, Stefan Bogoridi , a senior Ottoman politician of Bulgarian descent, wrote a petition to the Sultan asking for permission to build a Bulgarian church in Istanbul, where the liturgy would be held in Bulgarian and by Bulgarian priests. In 1849, Sultan Abdülmecid I allowed him to build the Bulgarian chapel "Sweti Stefan" in a Ferman. Another Ferman from 1850 legalized the numerous Bulgarian communities there and recognized the Bulgarians for the first time as a nation within the Ottoman Empire.

In the church "Sweti Stefan" Bishop Ilarion Makariopolski performed on April 3rd July. / April 15, 1860 greg. a demonstrative act at the Easter service by omitting the liturgically prescribed naming of the Constantinople Patriarch and instead commemorating "the entire Orthodox episcopate" in prayer. In the ecclesiastical canons this act was equated with the non-recognition of the head of the church, the Constantinople Patriarch. In Bulgaria, too, numerous clergymen followed his example and thus de facto renounced the Ecumenical Patriarchate. For this reason, Ilarion Makariopolski was again (1861–1864) banished to the Hilandar monastery with other priests.

Church dignitaries also supported the national liberation movement that was unfolding at the same time. Monasteries and clergy took part, although for the latter, the clerical garb was no obstacle to taking up arms themselves to fight for national freedom. This is how the monk deacon Ignatij did it by founding a number of revolutionary committees since 1868 (see Internal Revolutionary Organization ) and organizing armed units to which priests and monks belonged. He became known under the name Wasil Lewski . Around 1870/1871 he created the statute of the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee (BRZK). He himself headed one of the committees from the Trojan Monastery before falling into the hands of the Turks.

A few years later, after the Ecumenical Patriarch had rejected numerous project proposals, a Ferman issued by Sultan Abdülaziz on February 28, 1870 enabled the establishment of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the form of an exarchate .

Establishment of the exarchate

The church council of 1871

The establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate guaranteed the Bulgarian Church a certain autonomy, but according to Article 3 of the Fermans of 1870, the exarch elected by the Bulgarians had to be confirmed by the Sultan and the Patriarch. According to Article 4, the exarch had to name the patriarch in the service and should continue to receive the myron ( anointing oil ) from the patriarch according to Article 7 . At the beginning of 1871, an assembly of representatives of the clergy and laypeople met in Istanbul for a synod , which passed an exarchate statute ( Ustaw ). On January 31, Jul. / February 12, 1871 greg. the church council (synod) elected the metropolitan (bishop) of the diocese Lovetsch Ilarion I as exarch. However, when it was not confirmed by the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Synod met again and agreed on a new candidate who was then accepted by the Patriarch. On February 4th jul. / February 16, 1871 greg. the council elected the metropolitan of Vidin Antim I as the first Bulgarian exarch.

The territory of the Bulgarian Exarchate

Up to the Balkan Wars of 1912/1913, the Bulgarian exarchate comprised 23 eparchies ( dioceses ) in Bulgaria , Thrace and Macedonia :

Vidin , Wraza , Lovech , Veliko Tarnovo , Russe , Silistra , Varna and Preslav , Sliven , Stara Sagora , Plovdiv , Sofia , Samokow , Kyustendil , Skopje , Debar , Bitola , Ohrid , Veles , Strumitsa and Newrokop . Further areas could be added according to Article 10 of the Fermans of 1870 if the Bulgarian population there represented a 2/3 majority of the total population. The heads of the eparchies, the metropolitans (archbishops) were appointed by a decree of the Ottoman sultan, a so-called berât .

In 8 eparchies , only one Bulgarian clergyman was able to represent the church interests due to the pressure of the Greek and Serbian populations that belonged to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The establishment of the dioceses in the Macedonian Ohrid, Veles, Bitola, Newrokop and Skopje, secured by sultan's advisors , did not take place until 1890, as a result of the moderate policy towards the Ottoman Empire of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Stefan Stambolow . Until then, the Patriarchate of Constantinople was able to prevent this.

In the early years the Bulgarian Church was almost devoid of any educated national clergy and had very few places of worship. Even before the liberation of Bulgaria, the first theological school was opened in the Peter and Paul Monastery near the city of Lyaskovets in 1874 . The Exarchate further opened a priests' school in Prilep in 1885 , which was moved to Ohrid in 1886 . A spiritual school was established in Adrianople in 1883 , moved to Istanbul as a spiritual seminary in 1893 and to Plovdiv in 1915 . In 1895 another spiritual school was opened in Samokow , which was soon moved to Sofia as a spiritual seminary .

The establishment of the Bulgarian exarchate, and in particular a Bulgarian school and education system, also led to severe tensions with the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople, which had dominated up to that point. On May 11th, July / 23 May 1872 greg. , on Cyril and Method Memorial Day, the Exarch Antim I declared independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Bulgarian Church in Constantinople. In response, at a synod in 1872, the Constantinople Patriarchate declared the Bulgarian Exarchate to be schismatic and accused it of heresy of phyleticism . In addition, the Bulgarian Church was accused of bringing about the uncanonical situation in the form of the exarch residing in Istanbul (Constantinople) that two bishops officiated in one and the same city.

The national liberation movement that developed in the following years was also supported by the church. More than forty names of clergymen are known who took part in the unsuccessful uprising of Stara Sagora in 1875. A number of monasteries were also involved in the preparation and implementation of the April uprising of 1876.

Certificate of Appointment ( Berât ) for Ilarion, Metropolitan of Nevrokop (1894)

Exarch Antim I also played a decisive role in the interests of his people. For example, he presented the envoys of the great powers in Istanbul with several memoranda on Turkish acts of violence. During the international conference of Constantinople in 1876/1877 he tried several times to point out the rights of the Bulgarian people. This appearance and his pro-Russian attitude cost him the exarch's throne before the Russo-Ottoman War . April 12th July / April 24, 1877 greg. he was dethroned and exiled to Asia Minor, and other Bulgarian bishops were anathematized . Instead of Antims, jul. / May 4, 1877 greg. the then Metropolitan von Lovetsch to Exarch Josef I.

After the liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, the exarchate shared its tasks. While the Exarch in Istanbul was responsible for the areas of Eastern Rumelia and Macedonia, the Holy Synod was responsible for the Principality of Bulgaria, which was created after the Berlin Congress . In the Constitution of Tarnowo adopted by the constituent people's assembly in 1879, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOK) designates the predominant church and the Holy Synod the supreme spiritual authority of the BOK (Articles 38 and 39).

Due to the defeats and territorial losses of Bulgaria in the 2nd Balkan War and in the First World War , the exarchate was reduced to the national borders of Bulgaria. The national currents " Russophilia " (pro-Russian) and "Russophobia" (pro-Western) were also found in the ranks of the dignitaries. In the internal church conflicts, the two groups tried to play off each other in order to raise a greater influence in the population. Because of these internal conflicts, the church synod was unable to appoint an exarch between 1915 and 1953 (with one exception for exarch Stefan I ). During this period the presidents of the ecclesiastical Holy Synod ruled as head of the exarchate, but not with the rank of exarch.

As the first Orthodox Church, the Romanian took full sacramental communion with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in 1922, which is equated with recognition. The others followed. In 1945 the Ecumenical Patriarch lifted the schism declared in 1872 after pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church . Due to internal conflicts, however, it was not until 1953, after the election of Kiril, that the rank of exarch could be raised to that of patriarch .

In 1953, the Bulgarian Exarchate was merged into the restored independent Bulgarian Patriarchate .

Exarchs

literature

  • Edgar Hösch: History of the Balkan countries: from the early days to the present , CH Beck, 2008, p. 152/53, p. 175ff
  • Ernst Reinhardt: The Origin of the Bulgarian Exarchate , R. Berger Verlag, 1912
  • Fikret Adanir : The Macedonian question: its origin and Development , 1979, p. 57 ff
  • Fikret Adanır: The founding of the Bulgarian exarchate in The Macedonian Question , Volume 20 of Frankfurter Historische Abhandlungen, p. 42 ff
  • Gerhard Müller (Ed.): Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Volume 10, Issues 1–2, Walter de Gruyter, 1977, p. 436 ff
  • Hans-Dieter Döpmann : “ Church in Bulgaria from the beginnings to the present ”, Munich, Biblion Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-932331-90-7
  • Gunnar Hering : The Conflict of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Bulgarian Exarchate with the Porte 1890. (1988)
  • Ioannis Zelepos : The ethnicization of Greek identity, 1870-1912: State and private actors against the background of the "Megali Idea" , Volume 113 of Southeast European Works, Verlag Oldenbourg, Wissenschaftsverlag, 2002, p. 271
  • Jansen, Christian / Borggräfe, Henning: Nation- Nationality- Nationalism . Volume 1 of Historical Introductions, Campus Verlag, 2007, p. 167ff
  • Church in the East Volume 24/1981, Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, p. 68ff
  • Constantin Jireček : History of the Bulgarians , Georg Olm Verlag, 1977 (Orig .: F. Tempsky Verlag, Prague, 1876)
  • Lexicon on the history of Southeast Europe , p. 141, p. 225
  • Petar Angelow: Istorija na Balgarija (from the Bulgarian history of Bulgaria). SOFI-R, Sofija 2003, Volume 1: ISBN 954-638-121-7 , Volume 2: ISBN 954-638-122-5
  • Nikolaj Ovtscharow: History of Bulgaria. Brief overview , Lettera Verlag, Plovdiv, 2006, ISBN 954-516-584-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Döpmann, 2006, p. 55 - p. 70.
  2. ^ C. Jireček: History of the Bulgarians
  3. ↑ Döpmann, 2006, p. 51.
  4. ^ RJ Crampton: A Concise History of Bulgaria . 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, January 9, 2006, ISBN 978-0-521-61637-9 , pp. 137ff.