Information about his early life is scarce. According to the Second Life of Saint Naum, he grew up in
Moesia, which was the Byzantine designation for Bulgaria. According to the
hagiography of
Clement of Ohrid by
Theophylact of Ohrid and some other sources, Naum took part in the historic mission to
Great Moravia together with
Cyril and Methodius, their disciples
Gorazd,
Clement of Ohrid,
Angelar and
Sava and other
Slavic missionaries in 863.
Great Moravia and Lower Panonia For the next 22 years, he worked with Cyril and Methodius and other missionaries in translating the
Bible into
Old Church Slavonic and promoted it in
Great Moravia and
Principality of Lower Pannonia. In 867 or 868 he became a priest in
Rome, ordained along with two other disciples of Cyril and Methodius, Gorazd and Clement of Ohrid, by bishops
Formosus and Gauderic. For the purpose of the mission to Moravia, the missionaries devised the
Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet to match the specific features of the Slavic language. Its descendant script,
Cyrillic, is still used by many languages today. The missionaries also wrote the first Slavic Civil Code, which was used in Great Moravia. However, the missionary work ran into opposition from
German clerics who opposed their efforts to create a Slavic liturgy. By 885, the two main patrons for the missionaries,
Rastislav of Moravia of
Great Moravia and Prince
Koceľ of
Lower Pannonia, as well as Cyril and Methodius had died, and the pressure from the
German Church became increasingly more hostile. After a brief period of imprisonment due to the ongoing conflict with the German clerics, Naum, together with some of the missionaries (including Clement of Ohrid and Angelar) headed to Bulgaria.
First Bulgarian Empire In 886 the governor of
Belgrade, then in
Bulgaria, welcomed the disciples of
Cyril and Methodius. Bulgaria was ruled then by
Knyaz Boris, who converted to
Christianity in 864. After the
christianization the religious ceremonies were conducted in
Greek by a
Byzantine clergy. Fearing growing Byzantine influence Boris viewed the adoption of the
Old Church Slavonic as a way to preserve the political independence of Bulgaria. With such views, Boris made arrangements for the establishment of two literary academies where theology was to be taught in the Slavonic language.
The first of the schools was founded in the capital,
Pliska, and
the second school in
Ohrid, in the region of
Kutmichevitsa. The development of Old Church Slavonic literacy had the effect of preventing the assimilation into the neighboring cultures and promoted the formation of a distinct
Bulgarian identity. Naum moved initially to the capital Pliska together with
Clement,
Angelar and possibly
Gorazd (according to other sources, Gorazd was already dead by that time). In Bulgaria, he spent the next 25 years of his life. Naum was one of the founders of the
Pliska Literary School where he worked between 886 and 893. In 893, shortly after his rise to power, the new Bulgarian ruler
Simeon the Great, summoned an
ecclesiastical council in the new capital
Preslav, where Clement was ordained bishop of
Drembica and
Velika. To replace Clement in Ohrid, Simeon sent Naum, who until then had been active in Preslav. Afterwards, Naum continued Clement's work at Ohrid, another important
centre of Slavic learning. In these years the
Cyrillic script was created in the Preslav literary school, and was adopted in Bulgaria, possibly following Naum's initiative. In 905 Naum founded a monastery on the shores of
Lake Ohrid, which later received his name. He died there in 910 and Clement initiated the process of his canonization. In this way Naum became the first "native" saint of Bulgaria.
Legacy The cults towards him are revered particularly in the region of Ohrid. It spread in the first half of the 18th century with the development of
Moscopole as a center of Orthodox culture and with the development of the
Archbishopric of Ohrid. His name became more popular and reached
Mount Athos and even Vienna. The members of the
Bektashi order also went on pilgrimage to the monastery of Saint Naum, believing their saint
Sarı Saltık to be buried in it. Saint Naum's original feast day was December 23, but in 1727 on the authority of the Archbishop of Ohrid, it was changed to June 20.
St. Naum Peak on
Livingston Island in the
South Shetland Islands,
Antarctica, is named after him. ==References==