On 10 May, 1953, the third ecclesiastical and national council in Sofia declared the Bulgarian Orthodox church a Patriarchate - from an Exarchate.
The Metropolitan Bishop of Plovdiv Cyril was elected patriarch after a 560-year break. In the years that followed, the Bulgarian Patriarchate was recognized by all Orthodox churches. On 27 July, 1961, the Patriarchate of Constantinople also officially recognized the Patriarchate of Bulgaria.
After the fall of Tarnovo under Ottoman rule in 1393, the independent Bulgarian church was done away with and was subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It was only in 1870 that Sultan Abdulaziz, under pressure by the Bulgarians, signed a firman on the establishment of a Bulgarian Exarchate and the independent Bulgarian church was restored.
Photos: Bulgarian Patriarchate, BTA
A reproduction of Petar Bogdan's manuscript "On the Antiquity of the Fatherland and on Bulgarian Affairs" - the first treatise on the history of Bulgaria, written almost a century before the famous "Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya" (Slav-Bulgarian..
Every year, on the eve of the Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Bulgarian alphabet, enlightenment, culture and Slavic literature - May 24 - a Bulgarian delegation led by the President of Parliament or the Head of State is received by the Pontiff of..
Ninety years ago, on 19 May 1934, the Zveno political movement and the Military League staged a bloodless coup in Bulgaria. In the name of modernising the country, the so-called "national revival", they suspended the Tarnovo Constitution , banned the..
The big marble statue found recently in the ancient town of Heraclea Sintica has been moved to the History Museum in Petrich. Archaeologists..
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski is to play host to more than 300 scholars from all over the world at the traditional international conference of the..
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