Diocese of Dorostol

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The Diocese of Dorostol ( Bulgarian Доростолска епархия / Dorostolska Eparchija) is an eparchy (diocese) of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church based in Silistra . The diocese is one of the smallest but one of the oldest in Bulgaria and dates back to 390. Auxentius von Dorostorum , a pupil of Wulfila, is known as the first bishop . The name of the diocese is derived from the ancient name Silistras, Dorostorum .

Today the diocese of Dorostol is divided into three okolii : Silistra , Dulowo and Terwel . The center of the diocese is the Danube town of Silistra (formerly Dorostol). There are around 60 places of worship and two monasteries in the diocese.

history

The diocese is one of the first to be formed in the Bulgarian countries. It was founded around the year 390 and its first bishop was Auxentius (Bulgarian Авксентий), a disciple of St. Wulfila . Christianity took hold in the region before him; 12 Christian martyrs from the beginning of the 4th century are known. The bishops of Dorostol Jacob, Monofil, Iaon and Dultsisim, who participated in ecumenical councils, are known from the 5th and 6th centuries. In the 7th century, with the arrival of the Slavs and Proto-Bulgarians , the diocese was temporarily closed and the relics of the martyrs Dasios , Maximus, Dada, and Quinctilian were brought to Constantinople .

After the Christianization of the Bulgarians in 865, the Diocese of Drastar (the medieval name of Dorostol) was formed as one of the first dioceses of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. In 870, the residence of Bishop Nikolai and the episcopal basilica, which was built on the place of the death of St. Emilian, were completed. In 927 the Bishop of Drastar, Damjan , was made a patriarch and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church a patriarchate.

In 971, Byzantium conquered eastern Bulgaria , and the capital Preslav was successively moved to Serdica , Skopje , Prespa , Bitola and Ohrid . The Bulgarian patriarch Damjan also fled to Ohrid. As a result, the headquarters of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church moved. After the final conquest of Bulgaria in 1018, the diocese of Dorostol, like all former dioceses of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, was ecclesiastically subordinate to the Archbishop of Ohrid and all of Bulgaria in 1020 . In the middle of the 11th century, the bishop of Drastar Leontij was ordained a metropolitan and submitted to the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople . He is succeeded by Bishops Christopher and Leo Chrisianit - a well-known writer and theologian.

After Bulgaria's independence from Byzantine rule in 1186 and the restoration of the Bulgarian Church, Dorostol became the seat of the Patriarch of Tarnovo. They are the names of six bishops of Dorostol from the 14th century: Kiril, Averkij, Teodul, Joseph, Dionysus, Kalinik and Sacharij. After the Turkish-Ottoman invasion in the late 14th century, the Diocese of Drastar-Silistra came under the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Their bishop Kalist attended the Council of Florence in 1439.

From the 15th to the 19th century, the diocese of Dorostol-Silistra was one of the most important dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the parishes on the lower Danube, in Wallachia and Moldavia, were also subordinate to the bishops of Dorostol.

On February 28, 1870, the Ottoman Sultan Abdülaziz approved a Ferman (→ Ferman for the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate ) for the establishment of a Bulgarian ecclesiastical organization in the form of the Exarchate. This enabled the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOK for short) to regain 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 Istanbul (then Constantinople) district of Fener .

On February 23, 1871, the first church and people's council of modern times began with the aim of settling the most important questions for the activities of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the organization and structure. One of the resolutions was the amalgamation of the Diocese of Dorostol with the Diocese of Cherven ( Russe ) under the name of Diocese of Dorostol and Cherven (Bulgarian Доростоло-еервенска епархия). The city of Ruse was chosen as the seat of the new eparchy, which at that time was one of the largest cities in Bulgaria.

During the fifth church and people's council of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on December 17, 2001, it was decided to restore the diocese of Dorostol with its seat in Silistra and to rename the diocese of Cherven into the Diocese of Russe . On October 12, 2003, the Bishop of Trojan Monastery , Ilarion , was ordained Metropolitan of the restored Diocese of Dorostol.

In 2003 some of the relics of Saint Dasius returned to Silistra. Since then - together with the relics of Saint Kyril Aksiopolski, who died a martyr in 304 - they have been kept in the Cathedral of St. Peter and Pavel in Silistra.

Metropolitan Ilarion died on October 28, 2009 and was buried two days later in the crypt of Peter and Pawel Cathedral. The Bishop of Branizi Amwrosij was elected as his successor in January 2010 .

Important church buildings

Leading clergy from 2003

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vlg .: Martyr Maximus at Dorostolum , The Martyrs Dadus, Maximus and Quintilian
  2. ↑ Hans-Dieter Döpmann : “Church in Bulgaria from the beginnings to the present”, Munich, Biblion Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-932331-90-7 .
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.russische-kirche-l.de
  4. ↑ Светият синод избра епископ Амвросий за Доростолски митрополит

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