Lasar Mladenow

Lasar Dimitrov Mladenov (also written Lazar Dimitrov Mladenov , Bulgarian Лазар Димитров Младенов ; born June 11, 1854 in Bansko , then Ottoman Empire , now Bulgaria ; † March 4, 1918 in Rome , Italy ) was a Bulgarian clergyman . He was a bishop based in Thessaloniki of the United Bulgarian Catholic Church .

Life

Lasar Mladenow was born in the Macedonian city ​​of Bansko, one of the centers of Bulgarian rebirth in the Ottoman Empire. His father Dimitar, who was a priest and teacher, was in close contact with Dragan Zankow , the leader of the union movement among the Bulgarians. Furthermore, his father Dimitar Mladenow wrote regular articles for the Constantinople newspaper Balgarija (bulg. България, Bulgaria).

Due to the difficulties in establishing a Bulgarian church hierarchy independent of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , a union of Bulgarian Orthodoxy with Rome ( Union of Kilkis ) came about in the 19th century .

After graduating from the monastery school , Mladenow switched to the Bulgarian Catholic school in Thessaloniki in order to continue his training at the French Lycée in Pera , Constantinople. He then moved to Paris , where he studied theology . There Mladenow was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Paris .

As a connoisseur of the Oriental question , Mladenow accompanied the French delegation to the Berlin Congress in June 1878 . In the same year he was sent to Constantinople as a teacher at the Lycée in Pera.

When most of the faithful of the Bulgarian Catholic Church returned to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church after the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate (→ Ferman for the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate ) in 1870 , the areas of Thrace and Macedonia in particular remained in the Catholic Union. This development led to the reorganization of the Bulgarian Catholic Church in 1883. So an independent Apostolic Vicariate for Macedonia with seat in Thessaloniki and another for Thrace with seat in Adrianopolis was established. They were under the direction of Lasar Mladonow and Mikhail Mirow . In Constantinople, Nil Isworow remained as apostolic administrator with the title of archbishop. Mladenow himself was ordained bishop on June 12, 1883 by Isworow and appointed by the Pope as Apostolic Exarch of Macedonia and titular bishop of Satala in Armenia .

In 1884 Lasar Mladenow was by Pope Leo XIII. received in Rome and confirmed in his office. Under the leadership of Mladenov and with the support of Rome and the protection of France, the Bulgarian Uniate Church achieved its greatest development in Macedonia. The great resistance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the decree of 1870, according to which the Bulgarian Orthodox Church were to be given eparchies in Macedonia (see Bulgarian-Greek Church Struggle ), contributed to strengthening the position of the Bulgarian Catholic Church.

With the help of the Lazarists, Mladenow was able to rebuild several Bulgarian schools in Macedonia, including the Bulgarian school in Kilkis and a Catholic seminary in Thessaloniki, which also included a grammar school. In 1890 the foundation stone for the Bulgarian Catholic cathedral in Thessaloniki was laid under his leadership. In 1894 Mladenow came into conflict with a Catholic order because of financial scandals and was deposed as bishop. In the same year the Ottoman government withdrew his license ( Berât ) to work in the Ottoman Empire.

In December of the same year, Lasar Mladenov asked the Holy Synod to return to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The application was immediately approved by a decree dated December 8, 1894. In the time that followed, Mladenow sent a circular to the uniate believers to understand his step and to follow him, which a large number of them did. The Union movement in Macedonia could not recover from this blow. Remorseful, Mladenow returned to Catholicism in 1896 and moved to Rome. In Italy he became an advisor to the Catholic Church. At the beginning of the 20th century he was also deputy director of the Vatican Apostolic Library .

Lasar Mladenow died in Rome in 1918.

literature

• Giorgio Eldarov: The Union of Bulgarians with Rome. On the centenary commemoration (1860-1960) in Ostkirchliche Studien, 10, 1961, pp. 3–27

Web links

• Biography on the website of the Apostolic Exarchate of Sofia (Bulgarian)
• Entry on Lasar Mladenow on catholic-hierarchy.org