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August 08, 2007, 3:11 PM BG, 12:11 PM GMT

History and Religion

Published on April 11, 2007 at 12:13 PM BG

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147 years since Bulgarian church secession from Istanbul Patriarchate

The loss of the independence of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, after Bulgaria fell under Turkish rule, led to the so-called national church struggles, which went on for five decades. The Bulgarians fought for an independent church, where divine worship would be conducted in a language easy to comprehend as well as to have their own bishops. The religious struggles were sparked off by a Greek move to restore what was once the glorious past of the Byzantine Empire at the expense of the cultural heritage of the southern Balkan Christians. The Bulgarians hated to be made to follow Greek manners and fashions, to receive their education in Greek and have church services given in Greek. One thing leading to another the Bulgarian Christians rebelled and drove away the Greek bishops. The Easter Campaign of 3 April 1860 brought about a formal break-up with the Greek Patriarchy, based in Tzarigrad, present-day Istanbul. Ten years later the Turkish government interfered in the religious confrontation after it became aware the Greek patriarchy was never going to honour the demands of the Bulgarians.
10 years later on 27 February/11 March 1870, on the eve of the millenary anniversary of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Sultan Abdul Azis, the then Sovereign of Turkey, issued a royal edict, licensing the constitution of a self-governing Bulgarian church as an Exarchate, semi-tributary to the Patriarchy in Constantinople. This most important document effectively recognized the existence of the Bulgarian state and set down its ethnic boundaries. The Bulgarians re-emerged on the political scene in Europe and the Exarchate was an institution, recognized both by Turkey’s Sovereign and the Great Powers that should represent and protect the Bulgarian people. The Exarchate was not a separate institution in itself; it was an eighty-three-year long period in the development of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Bulgaria, from 1870 to 1953, when its status of a patriarchy was restored.”
The Turkish Sovereign edict was drafted by a mixed body of Bulgarians and Greeks, it was not anti-canonical, the Turks had had no part in it, except to present it in formal writing and put the royal seal on it. And yet, the Greeks felt very strongly about it. Why?
“The Greek Patriarchy refused to recognize the royal edict because of Article 10 of that document, which laid down the territorial boundaries of the Bulgarian Exarchate. They encompassed huge swathes of land, populated by ethic Bulgarians in Myzia, Thrace, Macedonia, Adrianople Bulgaria, etc. All bishoprics with mixed population in Macedonia and Andrianople would be attached to the Bulgarian Exarchate after polls are taken in the respective areas. Should two thirds of the population say they wanted to go over to the Exarchate, the Turkish government would then sanction it. Two polls, taken in 1873 in the Skopje and Ohrida bishoprics, revealed that ethnic Bulgarians were in greatest numbers and that over 90% of the population desired to join the Bulgarian Exarchate. The latter scared both Greeks and Turks and hence the Turkish government banished all and any polls. Interestingly, the Bulgarian exarchate in Macedonia and Adrianople Thrace, set up no fewer than 1863 schools, offering education to some 30 000 pupils. The exarchate was thus instrumental in preparing the captive Bulgarian population in the then Ottoman Empire, to join by its own resources the free Bulgarian Princedom. Regrettably, the national catastrophe that came in the wake of the Balkan wars in the early 20th c. dramatically disabled the cause Exarch Jossif had so ardently pursued all his life. He had been left with no option but to transfer the seat of the Exarchate to Sofia in late 1913. However, being a wise diplomat and politician, the Exarch engineered to leave behind an Exarchate office to take care of Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire.”
“The developments, related to the Bulgarian Exarchate, cemented Bulgaria’s deep-running European roots”, reads a declaration of the National Assembly of Bulgaria, adopted on the occasion of the 135th anniversary of the Exarchate. The motto of the religious struggles of the Bulgarians “Freedom in order, diversity in unity” has its present-day dimension. The second half of the motto is today a EU motto. The great cause of freedom binds us to safeguard our national identity as an equal and worthy member of a united Europe. The creation of the Exarchate had been no gift, it had been the result of long years of dedication on the part of the Bulgarian people, who won its spiritual and religious freedom entirely on its own”, reads the declaration.