Paisius of Hilendar

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Saint Paisiy of Hilendar
Свети Паисий Хилендарски
Sveti Paisiy Hilendarski
Born1722
Bansko (?), Samokov eparchy (diocese), Ottoman Empire (now Bulgaria)
Diedc. 1773
Stanimaka (now Asenovgrad), Ottoman Empire (now Bulgaria)
Venerated inBulgaria[1]
Feast19 June

Saint Paisius of Hilendar or Paìsiy Hilendàrski (

Petar Bogdan Bakshev in 1667[2] and by Blasius Kleiner in 1761. He is considered the forefather of the Bulgarian National Revival.[3]

Paisius was born in the

Hilandar monastery in 1745, where he was later a hieromonk and deputy-abbot. Collecting materials for two years through hard work and even visiting the Habsburg monarchy, he finished his Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya in 1762 in the Zograf Monastery.[7] The book was the first attempt to write a complete history of Bulgaria and attempted to awaken and strengthen Bulgarian national consciousnesses.[8]

The most famous part of the whole book is the paragraph:

"Oh, you unwise moron! Why are you ashamed to call yourself a Bulgarian and why don't you read and speak in your native language? Weren't Bulgarians powerful and glorious once? Didn't they take taxes from strong Romans and wise Greeks? Out of all the Slavic nations they were the bravest one. Our rulers were the first ones to call themselves kings, the first ones to have patriarchs, the first ones to baptise their people.(...) Why are you ashamed of your great history and your great language and why do you leave it to turn yourselves into Greeks? Why do you think they are any better than you? Well, here you're right because did you see a Greek leave his country and ancestry like you do?"

This more or less signifies the purpose of the author who speaks about the danger of Bulgarians falling victim to the

mendicant friar, he brought his work, which was copied and spread among the Bulgarians. He is thought to have died on the way to Mount Athos near Ampelino (modern-day Asenovgrad
).

First page of Istoriya slavyanobulgarska (Slav-Bulgarian History)

Honour

Paisiy Peak on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after Paisiy of Hilendar.[12]

The saint is portrayed on the obverse of the Bulgarian 2 lev banknote, issued in 1999 and 2005.[13]

References and notes

  1. ^ Всяка година на 19 юни честваме паметта на Св. Паисий Хилендарски.
  2. ^ Bourchier, James David (1911). "Bulgaria/History" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 04 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 779–784, see page 781. The National Revival...
  3. .
  4. ^ MacDermott, Mercia (1962). A History of Bulgaria 1395–1885. New York: Frederick A. Praeger. p. 91. Retrieved 21 June 2021 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ "История на България", Издателство на Българската академия на науките, т. 5, София 1985, с. 128.
  6. , p.85.
  7. ^ Buchan, John, ed. (1924). "Bulgaria". Bulgaria and Romania: The Nations of Today; A New History of the World. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 30. Retrieved 21 June 2021 – via Internet Archive.
  8. .
  9. , p. 75.
  10. , pp. 152-155.
  11. , pp. 821-822.
  12. ^ Paisiy Peak SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica
  13. ^ Bulgarian National Bank. Notes and Coins in Circulation: 2 levs (1999 issue) & 2 levs (2005 issue). – Retrieved on 26 March 2009.