The Church

Between the Danube and the Balkans, the church developed alongside medieval Bulgarian states whose territories changed over time. Its history spans the First Bulgarian Empire, conventionally dated 681–1018, and the Second Bulgarian Empire, established from 1185. From 1018 to 1185, the lands were under Byzantine rule, and the Bulgarian church continued in a different form.

Christianity was already present in parts of the region before Boris I adopted it as the religion of his state. But the conversion of the ruler in the ninth century began a new effort to build a church that could serve a politically diverse population and give Bulgaria standing among Christian powers. The resulting institutions were shaped by rulers, bishops, clergy and monks, as well as by competition between Constantinople and Rome.

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Conversion and the choice of church authority

When Boris began his rule in 852, Bulgaria’s diplomatic position was affected by its relations with the East Frankish kingdom, Great Moravia and the Byzantine Empire. Rome and Constantinople were also competing to bring Slavic peoples into their religious spheres. For Boris, Christianity offered a shared religious framework for a state with varied traditions, as well as a way to negotiate with powerful Christian neighbours. Choosing a church authority, however, also meant deciding which outside power might gain influence within Bulgaria.

After conflict with Byzantium, Boris agreed to peace in 863 and accepted Christianity from Constantinople. He was baptized in 864, taking the Christian name Michael; some accounts associate the broader official adoption with 865. Byzantine clergy then worked to convert the population. The process met resistance among aristocrats who opposed the new religion and the destruction of pagan sanctuaries. A revolt involving opponents from the state’s administrative regions was suppressed. Accounts report the execution of 52 leading boyars, though they differ over whether punishment extended to their families.

Boris did not simply accept the church arrangements offered by either Rome or Constantinople. In 866, he sent Pope Nicholas I questions about Christian practice and the organisation of a Bulgarian church. The pope’s responses and the missions between Bulgaria, Rome and Constantinople formed part of a longer effort by Boris to secure a senior Bulgarian church leader and limit external control. In 870, a council in Constantinople established a Bulgarian archbishopric under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople. It had internal autonomy, but was not yet fully independent. Its archbishop was to be chosen from among the bishops with the Bulgarian ruler’s approval.

Language, clergy and the first patriarchate

The church’s language and the training of its clergy mattered to Boris’s plans. Byzantine clergy initially used Greek in worship, while Boris sought a church better able to serve the Bulgarian population in a Slavic language. In 886, he received followers of the missionaries Cyril and Methodius and directed them to teach future clergy. Their work supported Slavic worship and learning, including at literary schools in Pliska and Ohrid. In 893, Boris expelled the Greek clergy and ordered the Slavic-Bulgarian vernacular to replace Greek in church use.

Under Simeon, the Bulgarian church claimed patriarchal standing as the ruler pursued imperial rank. Constantinople recognised the patriarchate in the peace settlement of 927. A patriarch headed a self-governing church with its own bishops, while recognition by another major church strengthened its place within the wider Orthodox world.

Byzantine advances disrupted the church’s established centres before the First Empire’s defeat. In 971, the Byzantines captured Preslav, and the Bulgarian patriarch’s residence moved west as the conflict continued. Around 990, the patriarchal seat settled at Ohrid. After Bulgaria’s defeat in 1018, Emperor Basil II abolished the patriarchate and reduced the church to an archbishopric based at Ohrid. Imperial charters defined its territory, dioceses, property and privileges. The archbishopric retained a measure of autonomy and continued Slavic worship and literary work. Its first appointed archbishop, John of Debar, was Bulgarian; later senior clergy were predominantly Byzantine, while monks and lower clergy remained largely Bulgarian.

Tarnovo and the restored patriarchate

The uprising led by Peter IV and Ivan Asen I in 1185–1186 established the foundations of the Second Bulgarian Empire, with Tarnovo as its capital. The rulers moved to restore an independent Bulgarian church, first establishing an archbishopric there in 1186. Gaining recognition from other churches took decades. The dispute concerned not only rank but also the relationship between Bulgarian rulers and the competing centres of Christian authority.

Kaloyan’s negotiations with Pope Innocent III led to a coronation and recognition of Archbishop Basil as primate in 1204. Rome understood this as acceptance of papal authority, while Kaloyan continued to seek imperial rank and a patriarchate. Worship retained its eastern rites. The agreement placed Tarnovo in a recognised relationship with Rome without removing the differences over the titles each side was prepared to grant.

Under Ivan Asen II, improved relations with the Byzantine successor court at Nicaea opened a route to Orthodox recognition. A council at Lampsacus in 1235, presided over by Patriarch Germanos II and supported by the eastern patriarchs, recognised the Bulgarian patriarchate. Joachim I became its first patriarch. The church settlement accompanied the political alliance between Bulgaria and Nicaea.

Dioceses, rulers and religious learning

A patriarchate governed through bishops responsible for dioceses, districts of church authority. Bishops supervised clergy and worship within their sees, while the senior church leadership took part in relations with the court. Appointments, estates and jurisdiction mattered because they determined who could organise religious service and draw on its supporting resources.

Church life also involved monastic communities and learning. Boris himself spent the last years of his life as a monk. Monks from Byzantine and Bulgarian sides took part in the council at Lampsacus, showing that monastic figures could be involved in high-level church affairs as well as religious life. In the fourteenth century, the Tarnovo Literary School developed under the patriarchate. Patriarch Evtimiy and other scholars were associated with a flourishing of religious and theological writing, alongside architecture and painting.

The Tarnovo patriarchate also participated in relations beyond the Bulgarian realm. In 1346 its patriarch joined in the elevation of the Serbian archbishop to patriarchal rank, alongside Serbian and Ohrid church leaders. Such cooperation could support a ruler’s new imperial claims while provoking disagreement over authority within the Orthodox world.

Ottoman conquest and the end of the patriarchate

The Ottoman capture of Tarnovo in 1393 brought the patriarchate’s independent organisation to an end. Patriarch Evtimiy was sent into exile, and the following year the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople authorised a metropolitan to serve at Tarnovo. By about 1416, the former patriarchate’s territory had been fully subordinated to Constantinople. This marked the end of the medieval Tarnovo patriarchate, after earlier changes had already reshaped the church in the First Bulgarian Empire and during Byzantine rule.