Early Christianity (4th century),
Sofia (6th century),
Sofia (5th–6th century),
Nesebar The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has its origin in the flourishing Christian communities and churches established in
Southeast Europe as early as the first centuries of the Christian era. Christianity was brought to the
Thracian lands by the apostles
Paul and
Andrew in the 1st century AD, when the first organised Christian communities were formed. By the beginning of the 4th century, Christianity had become the dominant religion in the region. Towns such as Serdica (
Sofia),
Philipopolis (
Plovdiv), Odessus (
Varna), Dorostorum (
Silistra), and Adrianople (
Edirne) were significant centres of Christianity in the
Roman Empire. The
Monastery of Saint Athanasius, the first Christian monastery in Europe, was founded in
Thrace in 344 by
Saint Athanasius near modern-day
Chirpan,
Bulgaria, following the
Council of Serdica and the
Edict of Serdica. The raids and incursions into the Roman provinces in the 4th and 5th centuries brought considerable damage to the ecclesiastical organisation of the Christian Church in the Bulgarian lands, yet did not destroy it.
Kubrat and
Organa were both baptized together in Constantinople, and from the surviving Christian communities, Christianity made inroads with local Bulgar-Slavic people. By the middle of the 9th century, the majority of the
early Slavs, especially those living in
Thrace and
Macedonia under Eastern Roman rule, were Christianized. The Christian religion also enjoyed some success among the
Bulgar nobility, with recorded conversions among that group. However, it was not until the official adoption of
Christianity by the
First Bulgarian Empire during the reign of
Boris I in 865 that an independent Bulgarian ecclesiastical entity was established.
Establishment Boris I believed that cultural advancement, sovereignty, and the prestige of a Christian Bulgaria could be achieved through an enlightened clergy governed by an autocephalous church. To this end, he manoeuvred between the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Roman Pope for a period of five years until, in 870 AD, the
Fourth Council of Constantinople granted the Bulgarians an autonomous Bulgarian archbishopric. The archbishopric had its seat in the Bulgarian capital of
Pliska, and its diocese covered the whole territory of the
Bulgarian state. The tug-of-war between Rome and Constantinople was resolved by placing the Bulgarian archbishopric under the jurisdiction of the
Patriarch of Constantinople, from whom it obtained its first primate, its clergy, and theological books. Although the archbishopric enjoyed full internal autonomy, the goals of
Boris I were scarcely fulfilled. A
Greek liturgy offered by a
Byzantine clergy furthered neither the cultural development of the Bulgarians nor the consolidation of the Bulgarian Empire; it would have eventually resulted in the loss of both the identity of the people and the statehood of Bulgaria. Following the Byzantine theory of "
Imperium sine Patriarcha non staret", which stated that a close relation should exist between an empire and patriarchate, Boris I greeted the arrival of the disciples of the recently deceased
Saints Cyril and Methodius in 886 as an opportunity. Boris I tasked them with the instruction of the future Bulgarian clergy in the
Glagolitic alphabet and the Slavonic liturgy prepared by
Cyril. The liturgy was based on the vernacular of the early Slavs from the region of
Thessaloniki. In 893, Boris I expelled the Greek clergy from the country and ordered the Greek language to be replaced with the Slav-Bulgarian vernacular.
Autocephaly and Patriarchate Following Bulgaria's two decisive victories over the Byzantines at
Acheloos (near the present-day city of
Pomorie) and
Katasyrtai (near
Constantinople), the government declared the autonomous Bulgarian Archbishopric as autocephalous and elevated it to the rank of
patriarchate at an ecclesiastical and national council held in 919. After Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire signed a peace treaty in 927 that concluded the
20-year-long war between them, the patriarchate of Constantinople recognised the autocephalous status of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and acknowledged its patriarchal dignity. The Bulgarian Patriarchate was the first autocephalous Slavic Orthodox Church, preceding the autocephaly of the
Serbian Orthodox Church (1219) by 292 years and of the
Russian Orthodox Church (1596) by 662 years. It was the sixth patriarchate after the
Pentarchy patriarchates of Rome, Constantinople,
Alexandria,
Antioch, and
Jerusalem. The seat of the patriarchate was the new Bulgarian capital of
Preslav. The patriarch was likely to have resided in the town of Drastar (
Silistra), an old Christian centre noted for its martyrs and Christian traditions.
Ohrid Archbishopric , a high-ranking official of the Bulgarian Church, scholar, writer, and enlightener of the Bulgarians and the Slavs On April 5, 972, Byzantine Emperor
John I Tzimisces conquered and burned down
Preslav, and captured Bulgarian
Tsar Boris II. Patriarch Damyan managed to escape, initially to Sredetz (
Sofia) in western Bulgaria. In the coming years, the residence of the Bulgarian patriarchs remained closely connected to the developments in the war between the next Bulgarian royal dynasty, the
Comitopuli, and the
Byzantine Empire. Patriarch Germanus resided consecutively in the medieval Bulgarian cities of Maglen (
Almopia) and Voden (
Edessa) (both in present-day north-western
Greece), and Prespa (in present-day southern
North Macedonia). Around 990, the next patriarch, Philip, moved to
Ohrid (in present-day south-western
North Macedonia), which became the permanent seat of the patriarchate. After the complete defeat of Bulgaria in 1018, Emperor
Basil II Bulgaroktonos ("Bulgar-Slayer") abolished the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and reduced it to the rank of an archbishopric, with its seat in Ohrid. Through special charters (imperial decrees), his government defined its boundaries, dioceses, property, and other privileges. Although the first appointed archbishop (
John of Debar) was Bulgarian, his successors, as well as the higher clergy, were predominantly
Byzantine. The monks and lower clergy, however, remained largely Bulgarian. To a considerable extent, the archbishopric preserved its national character, maintained the Slavonic liturgy, and continued to contribute to the development of Bulgarian literature. The Archbishopric of Ohrid retained its autonomous status under Byzantine, Bulgarian, Serbian, and
Ottoman rule. It continued to exist until its abolition in 1767 by the
Ottoman Empire, which then controlled the region.
Tarnovo Patriarchate , Preslav ceramics, As a result of the successful uprising of the brothers
Peter IV and
Ivan Asen I in 1185/1186, the foundations of the
Second Bulgarian Empire were laid with
Tarnovo as its capital. Following
Boris I’s principle that the sovereignty of the state is inextricably linked to the autocephaly of the Church, the two brothers immediately took steps to restore the
Bulgarian Patriarchate. They initially established an independent archbishopric in Tarnovo in 1186. It required almost 50 years of struggle for this archbishopric to receive recognition and elevation to the rank of a patriarchate according to the canonical order. Following the example of
Boris I, Bulgarian
Tsar Kaloyan manoeuvred for years between the Patriarch of Constantinople and
Pope Innocent III. Finally, in 1203, the latter proclaimed the Tarnovo Archbishop Vassily "
Primate and
Archbishop of all Bulgaria and Walachia." The union with the
Roman Catholic Church continued for well over two decades. Under the reign of
Tsar Ivan Asen II (1218–1241), conditions were created for the termination of the union with Rome and for the recognition of the autocephalous status of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. In 1235, a church council was convened in the town of
Lampsakos. Under the presidency of
Patriarch Germanus II of Constantinople and with the consent of all Eastern patriarchs, the council confirmed the
patriarchal dignity of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and consecrated the Bulgarian archbishop German as patriarch. Following the execution of many leaders of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, it was fully subordinated to the
Patriarch of Constantinople. The millet system in the
Ottoman Empire granted a number of important civil and judicial functions to the Patriarch of Constantinople and the diocesan metropolitans. After the higher-ranking Bulgarian church clerics were replaced by Greek ones at the beginning of the Ottoman period, the Bulgarian population was subjected to double oppressionpolitically by the Ottomans and culturally by the Greek clergy. With the rise of Greek nationalism in the second half of the 18th century, the clergy imposed the
Greek language and a Greek cultural consciousness on the emerging Bulgarian bourgeoisie. They used the Patriarchate of Constantinople to assimilate other peoples. By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the clergy had established numerous schools that taught in Greek rather than Bulgarian and had nearly banned Bulgarian-language liturgy. These actions threatened the survival of Bulgarians as a distinct nation with their own unique national culture. Throughout the centuries of Ottoman domination, Orthodox monasteries were instrumental in the preservation of the Bulgarian language and Bulgarian national consciousness. Especially important were the
Zograph and
Hilandar monasteries on
Mount Athos, as well as the
Rila,
Troyan,
Etropole,
Dryanovo,
Cherepish, and
Dragalevtsi monasteries in Bulgaria. The monks managed to preserve their national character in the monasteries, continuing traditions of the Slavonic liturgy and Bulgarian literature. They continued to operate monastery schools and carried out other educational activities, which managed to keep the flame of Bulgarian culture burning.
Bulgarian Exarchate ,
Istanbul In 1762, St.
Paisius of Hilendar (1722–1773), a monk from the southwestern Bulgarian town of
Bansko, wrote a short historical work. It was the first work written in the modern Bulgarian
vernacular and was also the first call for a national awakening. In
History of Slav-Bulgarians, Paisius urged his compatriots to throw off subjugation to the Greek language and culture. The example of Paisius was followed by a number of other
activists, including St. Sophroniy of Vratsa (
Sofroni Vrachanski) (1739–1813), hieromonk Spiridon of Gabrovo, hieromonk
Yoakim Karchovski (d. 1820), and hieromonk
Kiril Peychinovich (d. 1845). Discontent with the supremacy of the Greek clergy started to flare up in several Bulgarian dioceses as early as the 1820s. However, it was not until 1850 that the Bulgarians purposefully struggled against the Greek clerics in a number of bishoprics, demanding their replacement with Bulgarian ones. By that time, most Bulgarian clergy had realized that further struggle for the rights of the
Bulgarians in the
Ottoman Empire could not succeed unless they managed to obtain some degree of autonomy from the
Patriarchate of Constantinople. As the Ottomans identified nationality with religion, and the Bulgarians were Eastern Orthodox, the Ottomans considered them part of the
Rum-Millet, i.e., the Greeks. To gain Bulgarian schools and liturgy, the Bulgarians needed to achieve an independent ecclesiastical organization. The struggle between the Bulgarians, led by
Neofit Bozveli and
Ilarion Makariopolski, and the Greeks intensified throughout the 1860s. In early April 1860, the name of the Ecumenical Patriarch was intentionally omitted during a prayer at Easter in the
Bulgarian St. Stephen Church in Constantinople, which could be seen as a unilateral declaration of Bulgarian ecclesiastical independence. By the end of the decade, Bulgarian bishoprics had expelled most of the Greek clerics. Thus, the whole of northern Bulgaria, as well as the northern parts of
Thrace and
Macedonia, had effectively seceded from the patriarchate. The Ottoman government restored the Bulgarian Patriarchate under the name of the "
Bulgarian Exarchate" by a decree (
firman) of the
Sultan promulgated on February 28, 1870. The original Exarchate extended over present-day northern Bulgaria (
Moesia),
Thrace without the
Vilayet of Adrianople, as well as over north-eastern
Macedonia. After the Christian population of the bishoprics of
Skopje and
Ohrid voted in 1874 overwhelmingly in favor of joining the Exarchate (Skopje by 91%, Ohrid by 97%), the
Bulgarian Exarchate came to control the whole of
Vardar and
Pirin Macedonia. The Bulgarian Exarchate was partially represented in
southern Macedonia and the
Vilayet of Adrianople by vicars. Thus, the borders of the Exarchate included all Bulgarian districts in the
Ottoman Empire. The
Patriarchate of Constantinople opposed the change, promptly declaring the
Bulgarian Exarchate schismatic and its adherents
heretics. Although the status and the guiding principles of the Exarchate reflected the canons, the patriarchate argued that “surrender of
Orthodoxy to ethnic nationalism” was essentially a manifestation of
heresy. The first Bulgarian Exarch was
Antim I, who was elected by the Holy Synod of the Exarchate in February 1872. He was discharged by the Ottoman government immediately after the outbreak of the
Russo-Turkish War on April 24, 1877, and was sent into exile in
Ankara. His successor,
Joseph I, managed to develop and considerably extend the church and school network in the Bulgarian Principality,
Eastern Rumelia,
Macedonia, and the
Adrianople Vilayet. In 1895, the
Tarnovo Constitution formally established the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as the national religion of the nation. On the eve of the
Balkan Wars, in Macedonia and the
Adrianople Vilayet, the
Bulgarian Exarchate had seven dioceses with prelates and eight more with acting chairmen in charge, and 38 vicariates; 1,218 parishes and 1,212 parish priests; 64 monasteries and 202 chapels; as well as 1,373 schools with 2,266 teachers and 78,854 pupils. Between 1915 and 1945, the Church was governed by the
Holy Synod, similar to the
Most Holy Synod of the
Russian Orthodox Church. During
World War II, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church played a significant role in opposing the deportation of Jews from Bulgaria in 1943. At the time, Bulgaria was allied with
Nazi Germany and had adopted anti-Jewish legislation under the
Law for Protection of the Nation. As deportation preparations proceeded in
Plovdiv and other cities, Metropolitan
Cyril of Bulgaria intervened with local civil and police authorities and maintained contact with representatives of the Jewish community. He sent a protest telegram to Tsar
Boris III of Bulgaria and declared that he would lie down on the railway tracks in order to physically block deportation trains if the deportations were carried out. Concurrently, Metropolitan
Stefan I of Bulgaria addressed formal appeals to the royal court and government institutions, calling for the revocation of deportation measures and framing his opposition in religious and ethical terms. He also expressed willingness to provide shelter to Jews within church properties, including monasteries.
Second restoration of the Bulgarian Patriarchate Conditions for the restoration of the Bulgarian Patriarchate and the election of a head of the Bulgarian Church were created after
World War II. In 1945, the schism was lifted, and the Patriarch of Constantinople recognised the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Church. In 1950, the Holy Synod adopted a new statute, which paved the way for the restoration of the patriarchate. In 1953, it elected the Metropolitan of Plovdiv,
Cyril, as Bulgarian patriarch. , the late
Patriarch of Bulgaria and
Metropolitan of Sofia. After the death of Patriarch Cyril in 1971, the Metropolitan of
Lovech,
Maxim, was elected patriarch and led the Church until his death in 2012. On 10 November 2012, Metropolitan Cyril of Varna and Veliki Preslav was chosen as interim leader to organize the election of a new patriarch within four months. At the church council convened on 24 February 2013, the Metropolitan of
Ruse,
Neophyt, was elected patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, receiving 90 votes against 47 for Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovech.
Under Communism (1944–1989), the Bulgarian Orthodox Church operated under significant state control. During the early postwar years, the Church was deprived of jurisdiction over marriage, divorce, the issuance of birth and death certificates, and other functions that had both religious and civil significance. Religious education, including catechism and church history, was removed from school curricula, and anti-religious propaganda was promoted. The period from 1947 to 1949 marked the most intensive phase of state pressure on the Church. Bishop Boris was assassinated, Egumenius Kalistrat, administrator of the
Rila Monastery, was imprisoned, and other clergy were killed or prosecuted on political grounds. Clergy who refused to support the regime's policies were removed, and Exarch Stefan was banished after co-authoring a book in 1948 considered anti-Communist. From the late 1940s until the end of Communist rule in 1989, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the
Bulgarian Communist Party, along with State Security, maintained a closely interdependent relationship. Eleven of the fifteen members of the Holy Synod were later revealed to have cooperated with
State Security. The state also supported the elevation of the exarchate to the rank of patriarchate in May 1953. A 1970 commemoration highlighted the historical jurisdiction of the exarchate, which had included Macedonia and Thrace in addition to present-day Bulgaria prior to
World War I. In 2013, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by a Bulgarian deputy due to its role in the rescue of Jews during
World War II. It was the first religious institution to receive such a nomination. Along with the wider Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church did not initially recognize the autocephaly of the
Macedonian Orthodox Church, following its unilateral declaration in 1967. However, after the
Ecumenical Patriarchate and
Serbian Orthodox Church restored communion with the Macedonian Church in May 2022, the Bulgarian Church followed on 22 June 2022. Patriarch Neophyte died at a hospital in Sofia on 13 March 2024, at the age of 78, following a lung illness that had lasted for several months. On 30 June 2024, at the Patriarchal Electoral Church–People's Council in Sofia, Metropolitan
Daniil was elected Patriarch of Bulgaria and Metropolitan of Sofia. ==Canonical status and organization==