Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church

Coordinates: 42°41′29″N 23°18′48″E / 42.6913°N 23.3134°E / 42.6913; 23.3134
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church
Classification
Congregation for the Oriental Churches
RegionBulgaria
LiturgyByzantine Rite
HeadquartersCathedral of the Dormition Sofia, Bulgaria
Congregations21
Members10,000
Ministers21
Official websitehttp://www.kae-bg.org
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Archbishop Joseph Sokolsky, November 1872. Source: Bulgarian Archives State Agency
Raphael Popov (1830–1876), Bulgarian Byzantine-Catholic Bishop
Headquarters of the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church in Sofia, Bulgaria

The Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church

liturgical usage is that of the Byzantine Rite in the Bulgarian language. The Church is organised as a single eparchy — the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Sofia
.

Structure

At the end of 2004, the Apostolic Exarchate of Sofia numbered 10,000 Catholics in 21 parishes, under the care of five diocesan and sixteen religious priests, with 17 other male religious and 41 female religious. The church was elevated from an

Apostolic Exarchate to a full eparchy by Pope Francis on 12 October 2019.[1] The cathedral church of the eparchy is the Cathedral of the Dormition (Катедрала Успение Богородично Катедрала Успение Богородично), in Bulgaria's capital Sofia. The incumbent eparch is Christo Proykov
.

Like other Eastern Catholic Churches, the Bulgarian Byzantine Catholic Church ordains married men to the priesthood.[2]

History

Middle Ages

Under

Alexios III Angelos recognized his imperial title and promised him patriarchal recognition. In 1235 the Patriarch of Constantinople recognized the independence of the Bulgarian Church and the right of its leader to the patriarchal title. The Ottoman conquest of 1393 put an end to that patriarchate, whose territory was reunited with that of Constantinople. In the succeeding centuries the Bulgarian Church was gradually Hellenized: Greek was used in the liturgy, and the bishops were ethnic Greeks
.

Uniat movements

The rise of

Great Powers
.

First Uniat movement

This is the background of the approaches that some influential

Kukush and Constantinople.[5] In 1859, Kukush citizens wrote a letter to the Pope, in which they acknowledged his administrative and spiritual leadership. In return, they demanded that no changes should be introduced to their Eastern rites of worship and that they would be the ones to choose their bishops and lower clergy, with the approval of the Pope. The letter stated that the teachers at the church schools are to be chosen by the domestic clergy and the education is to be pursued in the Bulgarian language
and its "national alphabet". In 1861,
Adrianople. At the same year a Bulgarian Uniate Gymnasium at Adrianople was founded.[6] The First Uniat movement spread into several towns and villages in Macedonia and Thrace, but they did not yield any concrete results. The reasons for the failure of the First Uniat movement could be found in the political character of the movements, rather than in the population's deep religious devotion. The people demanded its domestic clergy. They received it first through the Patriarchate, and then through the Bulgarian Exarchate
, which was finally established in 1870.

Second Uniat movement

The Second Uniat movement started again in

High Porte
cancelled his accreditation as Bishop on the demand of the French Consul in Salonica in 1894, Mladenov turned also to the Bulgarian Exarchate. Then he returned to the Uniate Church. Nevertheless, this was the end of his career, he stayed in a monastery until the end of his life.

Third Uniat movement

By the end of the 19th century, the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church in

Adrianople region, where the whole Thracian Bulgarian population was put to total ethnic cleansing by the Young Turks' army.[9] As a result of the 1912–1913 Balkan Wars and the 1914–1918 First World War, many Bulgarians fled from the territories of present-day Greece, North Macedonia and Turkey to what is now Bulgaria
.

Bulgarian Uniate Church after the First World War

In 1926, an Apostolic Exarchate was established in

Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the Communist government that took power in Bulgaria after World War II did not abolish the Byzantine Catholic Church, but did subject it to severe religious persecution which is said to have been somewhat eased after the election of Pope John XXIII
on 28 October 1958.

Past primates and history of the Church

See also

Notes

  1. Latin: Ecclesiae Graecae Catholico Bulgarica), sometimes called, in reference to its Byzantine Rite
    , the Bulgarian Byzantine Catholic Church

References

  1. ^ Sofiaglobe.com - "Pope Francis elevates Bulgaria’s Sofia exarchate to an eparchy – Vatican", published 12 October 2019, retrieved 9 June 2023
  2. ISBN 978-1-4443-3361-9
    .
  3. ^ John Fine, The Early Medieval Balkans, p. 118-119.
  4. ^ C-tin C. Giurescu, Dinu C. Giurescu, Istoria românilor din cele mai vechi timpuri până astăzi, Bucharest, 1975, p.184
  5. ISBN 0-19-820514-7
    , p. 74–77.
  6. ^ Българите в най-източната част на Балканския полуостров – Източна Тракия, Димитър Войников. 2. Спомен от детството. „Коралов и сие", 2009 г.
  7. ^ National Claims, Conflicts and Developments in Macedonia, 1870–1912 by Basil C. Gounaris, p. 186.
  8. ^ Ivo Banac, "The Macedoine" in "The National Question in Yugoslavia. Origins, History, Politics", pp. 307–328, Cornell University Press, 1984, retrieved on September 8, 2007.
  9. The Destruction of Thracian Bulgarians in 1913", Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, State printing house, 1918. On-line publication of the phototype reprint of the first edition of the book in Bulgarian here
    , retrieved on September 8, 2007 (in Bulgarian "Разорението на тракийските българи през 1913 година", Българска академия на науките, София, Държавна печатница, 1918 г.; II фототипно издание, Културно-просветен клуб "Тракия" – София, 1989 г., София).

Sources

  • Frazee, Charles A. (2006) [1983]. Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the Ottoman Empire 1453–1923. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • A concise history of the Bulgarian Uniate Church (From its official site, in Bulgarian)
  • M. Spinka, A History of Christianity in the Balkans (Chicago, Ill. 1933)
  • V. N. Zlatarski, Istoră na Bŭlgarskata Dŭrzhava, 3 v. in 4 (Sofia 1918–40)
  • D. Tsuchlev, Istorîâ na Bŭlgarskata Tsŭrkva, 2 v. (Sofia 1910—)
  • S. Tsankov, Die Bulgarische Orthodoxe Kirche seit der Befreiung bis zur Gegenwart (Sofia 1939). i. sofranov, Histoire du mouvement bulgare vers l'Église catholique au XIX e siècle (Rome 1960)
  • A. Cronia, Saggi di letteratura Bulgara antica (Rome 1936)
  • R. Roberson, The Eastern Christian Churches: A Brief Survey, 6th ed (Rome 1999).

External links

42°41′29″N 23°18′48″E / 42.6913°N 23.3134°E / 42.6913; 23.3134

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