Diocese of Varna and Veliky Preslav

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The Cathedral of the Dormition of Our Lady in Varna

The Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese of Varna and Veliky Preslav ( Bulgarian Варненска и Великопреславска епархия ) is an eparchy ( diocese ) of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church . The diocese of Varna and Veliky Preslav is now divided into five Okolii : Varna , Dobrich , Prowadija , Shumen and Targovishte . The center of the diocese is the Black Sea city of Varna. 1,051,243 people live in the diocese and there are around 330 houses of worship.

history

On February 28, 1870, the Ottoman Sultan Abdülaziz approved a Ferman ( decree ) establishing a Bulgarian ecclesiastical organization in the form of an exarchate. As a result, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church succeeded in gaining limited independence after centuries of Ottoman rule. As a church organization, the Bulgarian Exarchate was supposed to regulate the religious affairs of the Bulgarians themselves and be subordinate to the Sultan. The boundaries of the dioceses were set out in Article 10 of the Fermans. The seat of the Bulgarian exarch became the St. Stephen's Cathedral in the Istanbul (then still Constantinople) district of Fener .

On February 23, 1871, the first church and people's council began with the aim of settling the most important organizational questions relating to the structure and activities of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Since it was stipulated in Article 10 of Fermans that the city of Varna and 20 villages between it and the northern Romanian coastal city of Constanța should not be transferred to the sphere of influence of the Bulgarian Church, it was decided that the dioceses of Varna and Preslaw, which had previously been under the Jurisdiction of the Greek Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople stood to unite under the name of the Diocese of Preslaw and Varna . Thus, the sphere of influence of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church included the Okolija Varna, Dobrich , Balchik , Mangalia , Prowadija , Shumen , Preslav, Targovishte , Omurtag and villages from the Okolija Sliven and Razgrad. At that time there were around 100 places of worship and around 100 priests in the diocese, all of them without church training.

A year later, the Archimandrite Simeon was ordained Metropolitan of Preslav. A week later on August 27, Simeon was elected Metropolitan of Varna by the Orthodox population of Warna, but they made the condition that the naming of the metropolitan cities be reversed in favor of the larger city of Varna: Diocese of Varna and Preslav . However, the Sultan did not approve of the new demarcation and renaming and only approved the appointment of Simeon as Metropolitan of Preslaw. Thereupon Metropolitan Simeon chose the city of Shumen as his metropolitan seat. The first diocesan council took place in Shumen on February 25, 1873. Since the church was also responsible for the education of the population (compare monastery school in Bulgaria ), Simeon organized a teachers' meeting between April 12th and 16th. Important decisions for improving educational facilities and school schedules were made on it.

After Bulgaria gained independence in the course of the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877–1878 and the administrative reform that was carried out in the new Bulgarian state in 1880, the diocese of Varna and Preslaw included Okolija Varna, Dobrich, Balchik, Prowadija, Shumen, Preslav , Targovishte, Omurtag and Nowo Selo. The Okolija Mangalia was given to Romania and the Romanian Orthodox Church according to the treaties of San Stefano and Berlin . In 1882 the seat of the diocese was moved to Varna.

After the Second Balkan War in 1913 until the Treaty of Craiova in 1940, Bulgaria, and with it the diocese of Varna and Preslaw, lost South Dobruja with the Okolija Dobrich and Balchik to Romania. In the meantime, Metropolitan Simeon died in 1937. His successor was Josif , who held the office until 1988.

At the end of 1952 the diocese of Varna and Preslaw divided into 4 Okolija: Varna, Dobrich, Shumen and Preslaw. On January 1, 1953, the Targovishte-Okolija, as a spin-off of the Shumen-Okolija was created.

From 1988 to 2013 the Most Consecrated Kiril was the head of the diocese. After a resolution of the fourth church and people's council (July 2 to 4, 1997) the diocese was renamed the Diocese of Varna and Velikiy Preslav .

Leading clergy

Important church buildings

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Dieter Döpmann : “Church in Bulgaria from the beginnings to the present”, Munich, Biblion Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-932331-90-7

Web links

Commons : Diocese of Varna and Veliky Preslaw  - collection of images, videos and audio files