Kiril Peychinovich

Peychinovich was born in the large Polog village of Tearce in the Ottoman Empire (present-day North Macedonia) in 1771. He studied in the nearby village of Lešok. Together with his father Peychin and his uncle Dalmant, he went to Mount Athos, at the monastery of Hilandar, where all three became monks. In 1801, he became abbot of Marko's Monastery near Skopje. He had the neglected monastery restored. After visiting his father and uncle in Hilandar, he left the monastery and returned to his native village with the goal to restore the monastery of St. Athanasius in Lešok. In 1818, he moved to the monastery, which he restored with funding from the Serbian prince Miloš Obrenović. Here he opened a school and made an attempt to create a printing house. Peychinovich developed educational activities, guiding and encouraging younger monks to education, delivering sermons, and writing books. He assisted Theodosius of Sinai in restoring his printing house in Thessaloniki with funds, which had been burnt down. Peychinovich died on 12 March 1845 in the Lešok Monastery and was buried in the churchyard. ==Works and views==

Peychinovich authored three books, two printed and one manuscript (Zhitie i Sluzhba na Tsar Lazar), all three devoted to religion. Peychinovich wrote in the Tetovo dialect and with less Church Slavonicisms than fellow contemporary Yoakim Karchovski. His Sermon for the Holidays (Slovo za praznicite) was written in a vernacular with a high amount of Turkisms, although there are many Church Slavonic words. According to Slavist Peter Hill, his purpose was to promote religious works among believers, thus Peychinovich's aims were religious, rather than linguistic. With his teachings, he wanted, among other things, to protect his readers from so-called superstition, i.e. from non-Christian mythical beliefs and rituals. Per Blaže Koneski, he and his contemporaries lacked a clear sense of national belonging. It was printed in 1816 in Budapest. Apart from defining his language as Bulgarian, he defined the region he lived in as Lower Moesia. At the end of the book, he honoured Serbian saints Simeon and Sava. In the third letter, Peychinovich wrote that he dared to address the Serbian prince "because of spiritual love and our Serbian fatherland". The book was sent to Kragujevac to be printed, The Metropolitanate of Belgrade also disliked the simple terms that Peychinovich used about divine matters. At the beginning of 1836, Peychinovich was informed that his book will not be published. Epitaph In 1835, Peychinovich composed an epitaph for himself, which was engraved on his tombstone. (Tearce is his birth Prechista and Hilendar monasticism Leshok is his upbringing Under the slab his resting From his own departure Until the second coming of Christ I beg you, his beloved brothers Whoever wants to read this Say that God would forgive him Because at the grave worms visited him) Овде лежи Кирилово тело У манастир и у Лешок село Да Бог за доброе дело (Here lies Kiril's body At the monastery and at the village of Leshok May God be for a good deed) ==Legacy==

In 1934, the village of Burumli in Ruse Province, Bulgaria, was renamed Peychinovo in his honour. Peychinovich is considered as part of the Bulgarian National Awakening. He is considered an ethnic Macedonian and a founder of modern Macedonian literature in North Macedonia. In Serbia, he is considered as a Serbian cleric and writer. Peychinovich's remains were reburied four times. His grave was partially damaged during the armed conflict in 2001 but it was renewed. The original tombstone is kept in his memorial room in Lešok Monastery. In October 2022, he was canonised by the Macedonian Orthodox Church as a saint under the name Kiril Lešočki, setting 25 March as the day of celebration. ==References and notes==