Stefan I. (Exarch)

Stefan I (1931)

Stefan I (born September 19, 1878 in Schiroka Laka , Ottoman Empire ; † May 12, 1957 in Banja , Bulgaria ; actually: Stojan Popgeorgiew Schokow , Bulgarian Стоян Попгеоргиев Шоков ), also called Stefan of Sofia , was a Bulgarian metropolitan and exarch . During the Second World War , he and his colleague Kiril von Plovdiv campaigned against the deportations of Bulgarian Jews by the Nazi regime . For this he was named Righteous Among the Nations .

Life

Stojan Popgeorgiew Schokow grew up in Schiroka Laka (near Smolyan ) as the son of an Orthodox clergyman. He studied theology at Kiev University and later worked as a teacher of philosophy, history and doctrine of the faith. In 1910 he became a priest ordained and was named Stefan. He then studied theology in Geneva and Freiburg . In 1919 he was promoted to Dr. PhD . Three years later he became Metropolitan of the Sofia Christian Community.

Stefan von Sofia was a staunch opponent of National Socialism and spoke out publicly against Bulgaria's entry into the war in 1941. However, his related articles were heavily censored by the Bulgarian press.

When the Law to Protect the Nation was passed in January 1941, the persecution of Jews began in Bulgaria. Stefan preached in his church about the equality of all people and that no one has the right to persecute and hurt Jews. When the Jewish star was introduced in Bulgaria, he went to Prime Minister Bogdan Filov and made him promise that this would not apply to converted Jews. When Stefan disseminated this in writing, Filow denied it and stated that it was only a matter of his private opinion.

In 1943 Stefan stood up for the Jewish residents of Dupnitsa who had been placed under house arrest . Again he stood up for the interests of the Jews with Filow and was able to achieve that the house arrest was lifted. In the same year he campaigned for the Jews in the Jutch Bunar district of Sofia who were persecuted by the nationalist youth organization Brannik .

When the deportations of Bulgarian Jews by the Nazi regime began on March 4, 1943, Stefan tried to visit Tsar Boris III. to intervene, who gave him written confirmation to do everything possible; but he later insisted on the foreign citizenship of the Jews in the occupied territories. On May 24, 1943, a public holiday, he tried to intervene again, but did not get to the Tsar. At the parade on the same day, he openly preached to the assembled government against the persecution of the Jews and again asked that the policy of exclusion be stopped. He was then advised to stay out of political events. When rabbis were arrested and further deportations were announced, he turned to the tsar again. He was then told that he was currently being investigated for behavior that was dangerous to the state.

Now Stefan began to process Jewish conversion requests to Christianity. He approved all 150 applications. He was then informed that these Jews would not be considered Christians by law. He was also threatened that the church in Sofia would be closed. A house search resulted in a total of 386 applications from adults and 104 children being seized.

The situation eased through Metropolitan Neofit, who managed that all applications could stand. He also achieved that these people no longer had to wear the Star of David. National Socialist organizations now agitated against and threatened Stefan, but he remained steadfast until the end of the regime.

After the occupation of Bulgaria by the Red Army , the situation regarding Jewish persecution eased. On January 21, 1945, Stefan was appointed exarch and now bore the title Stefan I. However, this was short-lived because he could not come to terms with the communist system. He was released from office on September 6, 1948 and interned in the village of Banja , where he died on May 12, 1957.

Until the collapse of the socialist system in 1989, Stefan's I mission was forgotten. In 2001 he was posthumously named “Righteous Among the Nations” by the Yad Vashem Memorial .

literature

• Iva Arakchiyska: The Bulgarian Orthoidox Church: Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia and Metropolitan Kyrill of Plovdiv . In: Silent Heroes Memorial Center in the German Resistance Memorial Center Foundation (Ed.): Can a person remain inactive? Help for persecuted Jews in Bulgaria 1940–1944. 1st edition. Lukas, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86732-254-6 , pp. 94-115 .

Web links

Commons : Stefan I  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Iva Arakchiyska: The Bulgarian Orthodox Church: Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia, Metropolitan Kirill of Plovdiv . In: Silent Heroes Memorial Center in the German Resistance Memorial Center Foundation (Ed.): Can a person remain inactive? Help for persecuted Jews in Bulgaria 1940–1944. 1st edition. Lukas, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86732-254-6 , pp. 95-97 .
2. ↑ Iva Arakchiyska: The Bulgarian Orthodox Church: Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia, Metropolitan Kirill of Plovdiv . Lukas, Berlin 2016, p. 96 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Iva Arakchiyska: The Bulgarian Orthodox Church: Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia, Metropolitan Kirill of Plovdiv . Lukas, Berlin 2016, p. 102 .
4. ↑ Iva Arakchiyska: The Bulgarian Orthodox Church: Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia, Metropolitan Kirill of Plovdiv . Lukas, Berlin 2016, p. 103 .
5. ↑ Iva Arakchiyska: The Bulgarian Orthodox Church: Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia, Metropolitan Kirill of Plovdiv . Lukas, Berlin 2016, p. 111-112 .
6. ↑ Iva Arakchiyska: The Bulgarian Orthodox Church: Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia, Metropolitan Kirill of Plovdiv . Lukas, Berlin 2016, p. 112 .
7. ↑ Iva Arakchiyska: The Bulgarian Orthodox Church: Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia, Metropolitan Kirill of Plovdiv . Lukas, Berlin 2016, p. 113 .
8. ^ Stefan, Metropolitan ° - Dictionary definition of Stefan, Metropolitan ° | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary. Retrieved May 5, 2018 . 
9. ↑ Two Bulgarian Clergymen honored as Righteous Among the Nations. Yad Vashem , March 12, 2002, accessed May 5, 2018 .