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123-699: 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. The cathedral church of the eparchy is the Cathedral of the Dormition (Катедрала Успение Богородично), in Bulgaria 's capital Sofia . The incumbent eparch

246-636: A sect or a denomination but simply continuing the Christian church , and, despite their varied origins, by adherence to the Byzantine rite ". Those churches are negatively defined by their rejection of papal immediate and universal supremacy . The seven ecumenical councils recognised by the Eastern Orthodox churches are: Nicaea I , Constantinople I , Ephesus , Chalcedon , Constantinople II , Constantinople III , and Nicaea II . Those churches consider

369-610: A designation for the universality of the Christian Church, centred around Christ. Therefore, the Eastern Orthodox notion of catholicity is not centred around any singular see, unlike the Catholic Church which has one earthly centre. Due to the influence of the Catholic Church in the west, where the English language itself developed, the words "catholic" and "catholicity" are sometimes used to refer to that church specifically. However,

492-660: A dispute about the relation between the divine and human natures of Jesus . Eventually this led to each group anathematising the other. Those that remained in communion with the other patriarchs (by accepting the Council of Chalcedon) are known today as the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria , where the adjective "Greek" refers to their ties to the Greek-speaking culture of the Byzantine Empire. Those who disagreed with

615-417: A group of the faithful not yet large enough or organized enough to be constituted an eparchy or diocese (thus the equivalent of a vicar apostolic ); or a priest or deacon who is appointed by a bishop as his executive representative in various fields of diocesan administration (in the Byzantine Empire, executive exarchs were usually collecting diocesan revenues for local bishops). In the civil administration of

738-615: A special way to honour the saint on whose day they received the sacrament of baptism . It is the most solemn day of the year for all Serbs of the Orthodox faith and has played a role of vital importance in the history of the Serbian people. Slava remains a celebration of the conversion of the Serbian people, which the church blessed and proclaimed a church institution. The missionaries to the East and South Slavs had great success in part because they used

861-810: A union. Two months after, Izvorov arrived in Kukush as an Orthodox bishop, he was called back to Constantinople by the Patriarchate and the Russian diplomatic services. Looking for a way to remain in Macedonia, he first approached some Anglican missionaries, but he did not get any support from them. Only after that, he turned to the Lazarists in Salonica and then to bishop Popov in Constantinople. Another researchers argued that Izvorov

984-587: Is Christo Proykov . Like other Eastern Catholic Churches, the Bulgarian Byzantine Catholic Church ordains married men to the priesthood. Under Knyaz Boris (853–889) the Bulgarians accepted Christianity in its Byzantine form, with the liturgy celebrated in Church Slavonic . For a variety of reasons, Boris became interested in converting to Christianity and undertook to do that at

1107-769: Is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the God-bearer and honoured in devotions . The Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Antioch—except for some breaks of communion such as the Photian schism or the Acacian schism — shared communion with the Church of Rome until the East–West Schism in 1054. The 1054 schism was the culmination of mounting theological, political, and cultural disputes, particularly over

1230-476: Is also defined in the Coptic liturgy, where it is mentioned "He made it [his humanity] one with his divinity without mingling, without confusion and without alteration", and "His divinity parted not from his humanity for a single moment nor a twinkling of an eye." They do not accept the teachings of Eutyches , or Eutychianism . Both the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches formally believe themselves to be

1353-491: Is an accepted version of this page Autocephaly recognized by some autocephalous Churches de jure : Autocephaly and canonicity recognized by Constantinople and 3 other autocephalous Churches: Spiritual independence recognized by Georgian Orthodox Church: Semi-Autonomous: The Eastern Orthodox Church , officially the Orthodox Catholic Church , and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply

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1476-504: Is expressed most fundamentally in scripture and worship, and the latter most essentially through baptism and in the Divine Liturgy . The lines of even this test can blur, however, when differences that arise are not due to doctrine, but to recognition of jurisdiction. As the Eastern Orthodox Church has spread into the west and over the world, the church as a whole has yet to sort out all the inter-jurisdictional issues that have arisen in

1599-638: Is in English Orthodoxy , while the Georgians use the title Martlmadidebeli . The term "Eastern Church" (the geographic east in the East–West Schism) has been used to distinguish it from western Christendom (the geographic West, which at first came to designate the Catholic communion, later also the various Protestant and Anglican branches). "Eastern" is used to indicate that the highest concentrations of

1722-565: Is in common use, just as with its Orthodox counterparts. These Churches are, in general, not identified with a particular liturgical rite. Thus, no fewer than fourteen of them use the same Byzantine Rite , mostly in one or other of only two languages, Greek and Church Slavonic , but they maintain their distinct identities. Because of population shifts, half or so of these Churches have not just exarchates but full-scale eparchies (bishoprics) or even archeparchies (archdioceses) outside their original territory. Eastern Orthodox Church This

1845-504: Is monophysite and prefers the term " miaphysite ", to denote the "united" nature of Jesus (two natures united into one) consistent with Cyril's theology: "The term union ... signifies the concurrence in one reality of those things which are understood to be united" and "the Word who is ineffably united with it in a manner beyond all description" ( Cyril of Alexandria , On the Unity of Christ ). This

1968-516: Is practised by a vicariate of the Antiochian Orthodox church. In keeping with the church's teaching on universality and with the Nicene Creed, Eastern Orthodox authorities such as Raphael of Brooklyn have insisted that the full name of the church has always included the term " Catholic ", as in "Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church". The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church

2091-481: Is recognised by them as primus inter pares ("first among equals"), a title formerly given to the patriarch of Rome. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played an especially prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe . Eastern Orthodox theology is based on the Scriptures and holy tradition , which incorporates

2214-454: Is said to have been somewhat eased after the election of Pope John XXIII on 28 October 1958. 42°41′29″N 23°18′48″E  /  42.6913°N 23.3134°E  / 42.6913; 23.3134 Apostolic Exarchate An exarch ( / ˈ ɛ k s ɑːr k / ; from Ancient Greek ἔξαρχος exarchos ) was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical. In

2337-454: Is the "Orthodox Catholic Church". It is the name by which the church refers to itself and which is issued in its liturgical or canonical texts. Eastern Orthodox theologians refer to the church as Catholic. This name and longer variants containing "Catholic" are also recognised and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Eastern Orthodox writers. The catechism of Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow published in

2460-746: The Apostles travelled extensively throughout the Roman Empire , including Asia Minor, establishing churches in major communities , with the first churches appearing in Jerusalem and the Holy Land , then in Antioch , Ethiopia , Egypt , Rome , Alexandria , Athens , Thessalonica , Illyricum , and Byzantium , which centuries later would become prominent as the New Rome . Christianity encountered considerable resistance in

2583-586: The Bulgarian Uniate Gymnasium at Thessaloniki . Several years later in 1883, he was promoted to Archbishop of all Uniat Bulgarians and went to Constantinople. As of 1883, there were already two apostolic vicars. Bishop Michail Petkov in Adrianople was responsible to Thrace and bishop Lazar Mladenov in Salonica to Macedonia, both subordinated to the archbishop Nil Izvorov in Constantinople. Earlier on

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2706-538: The Catholic Church . In Hungarian, the church is still commonly called "Eastern Greek" ( Hungarian : Görögkeleti ). This identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Eastern Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. In addition, struggles between Rome and Constantinople to control parts of Southeastern Europe resulted in

2829-636: The Christianisation of Bulgaria in 864, the disciples of Cyril and Methodius in Bulgaria , the most important being Clement of Ohrid and Naum of Preslav , were of great importance to the Orthodox faith in the First Bulgarian Empire . In a short time they managed to prepare and instruct the future Bulgarian clergy into the biblical texts and in AD 870 the Fourth Council of Constantinople granted

2952-494: The Eastern Christian Churches ( Eastern Orthodox , Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic ), the term exarch has three distinct uses: a metropolitan who holds the office of exarch is the deputy of a patriarch and holds authority over bishops of the designated ecclesiastical region (thus, a position between that of patriarch and regular metropolitan); or an auxiliary or titular bishop appointed to be exarch over

3075-538: The Eastern Christians which recognise the seven ecumenical councils and usually are in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate , the Patriarchate of Alexandria , the Patriarchate of Antioch , and the Patriarchate of Jerusalem . The Eastern Orthodox churches "are defined positively by their adherence to the dogmatic definitions of the seven [ecumenical] councils, by the strong sense of not being

3198-757: The Greek side. France and the Habsburg Empire supported the Uniats. The support of the Habsburg Empire increased only after 1878. The Ottoman Empire's attitude was ambivalent – sometimes supporting, sometimes opposing the Uniat movement, depending on how it had to balance its own interests in the game with the Great Powers . This is the background of the approaches that some influential Bulgarians made to Rome in 1859–1861, in

3321-713: The Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization emerged as the main Bulgarian factor in the Macedonian and Thracian lands. In the late 1890s, IMARO was extremely anti-Catholic. On its part, the Catholic Church did not support IMARO, because it was against any revolutionary movements in the Ottoman Empire . This attitude changed for a short period of time after the 1903 Ilinden-Preobrazhenie uprising . The Ottoman terror following

3444-553: The Lombard invasion of 568. The exarchate's seat was at Ravenna , whence it is known as the " Exarchate of Ravenna ". Ravenna remained the seat of the Exarch until the revolt of 727 over Iconoclasm . Thereafter, the growing menace of the Lombards and the split between eastern and western Christendom that Iconoclasm caused made the position of the Exarch more and more untenable. The last Exarch

3567-512: The Middle East , which are decreasing due to forced migration driven by increased religious persecution . Eastern Orthodox communities outside Western Asia , Asia Minor , Caucasia and Eastern Europe , including those in North America , Western Europe , and Australia , have been formed through diaspora , conversions , and missionary activity. The Eastern Orthodox Church is defined as

3690-664: The Nicene Creed , and referred to in Orthodox worship, e.g. in the litany of the catechumens in the Divine Liturgy. With the mutual excommunications of the East–West Schism in 1054, the churches in Rome and Constantinople each viewed the other as having departed from the true church , leaving a smaller but still-catholic church in place. Each retained the "Catholic" part of its title, the " Roman Catholic Church" (or Catholic Church) on

3813-517: The Orthodox Church , is the second-largest Christian church , with approximately 230 million baptised members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via local synods . The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the pope of the Catholic Church . Nevertheless, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople

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3936-626: The Quinisext Council "shar[es] the ecumenical authority of Constantinople III. "By an agreement that appears to be in place in the [Eastern] Orthodox world, possibly the council held in 879 to vindicate the Patriarch Photius will at some future date be recognized as the eighth [ecumenical] council" by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Western Rite Orthodoxy exists both outside and inside Eastern Orthodoxy . Within Eastern Orthodoxy, it

4059-622: The Russian Orthodox Church . After imperial Russia annexed Georgia (the eastern part in 1801, and the western part in 1810), the ancient Georgian Orthodox Church (autocephalous since 750, whose head was since 1008 styled Catholicos-Patriarchs) was reorganized into the Georgian Exarchate, and the newly appointed Exarch of Georgia (since 1817 always an ethnic Russian) sat in the Russian Holy Synod at St. Petersburg. Since

4182-732: The Slavic population living in the Thracian and Macedonian lands. The movement for union with Rome initially won some 60,000 adherents, but, as a result of the Sultan's establishment in 1870 of the Bulgarian Exarchate , at least three quarters of these returned to Orthodoxy by the end of the 19th century. The clergy's numerous shifts from the Orthodox to the Catholic Church and vice versa should not be viewed only as personal whims. They are symptomatic of

4305-529: The Syriac Orthodox Church from the Byzantine Patriarchate of Antioch . Those who disagreed with the Council of Chalcedon are sometimes called " Oriental Orthodox " to distinguish them from the " Eastern Orthodox ", who accepted the Council of Chalcedon. Oriental Orthodox are also sometimes referred to as "non-Chalcedonians", or "anti-Chalcedonians". The Oriental Orthodox Church denies that it

4428-721: The authority of the pope , between those churches. Before the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, the Church of the East also shared in this communion, as did the various Oriental Orthodox Churches before the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, all separating primarily over differences in Christology . The Eastern Orthodox Church is the primary religious denomination in Russia , Ukraine , Romania , Greece , Belarus , Serbia , Bulgaria , Georgia , Moldova , North Macedonia , Cyprus , Montenegro , one of

4551-514: The divine liturgy , other liturgical texts, and the Gospels along with some other scriptural texts into local languages; with time, as these translations were copied by speakers of other dialects, the hybrid literary language Church Slavonic was created. Originally sent to convert the Slavs of Great Moravia , Cyril and Methodius were forced to compete with Frankish missionaries from the Roman diocese; their disciples were driven out of Great Moravia in AD 886 and emigrated to Bulgaria . After

4674-403: The pentarchy , and other autocephalous and autonomous churches, reflect a variety of hierarchical organisation . It recognises seven major sacraments , of which the Eucharist is the principal one, celebrated liturgically in synaxis . The church teaches that through consecration invoked by a priest , the sacrificial bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. The Virgin Mary

4797-410: The " Nestorian " churches resulted from the reaction of the Council of Ephesus (431), which are the earliest surviving Eastern Christian churches that keep the faith of only the first two ecumenical councils, i.e., the First Council of Nicaea (325) and the First Council of Constantinople (381) as legitimate. "Nestorian" is an outsider's term for a tradition that predated the influence of Nestorius ,

4920-410: The 19th century is titled: The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church ( Russian : Пространный христианский катехизис православныя, кафолическия восточныя Церкви ). From ancient times through the first millennium, Greek was the most prevalent shared language in the demographic regions where the Byzantine Empire flourished, and Greek, being the language in which the New Testament

5043-409: The 20th century, the pentarchy-number principle, already abandoned in the case of Bulgaria (10th century), Serbia (14th century) and Russia (16th century), gave way to the desire of the now politically independent Orthodox nations to see their sovereignty reflected in ecclesiastical autonomy – autocephaly – and the symbolic title to crown it: a 'national' Patriarch. For example, Bulgarian Exarchate

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5166-402: The 530s the Church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) was built in Constantinople under Emperor Justinian I . Beginning with subsequent Byzantine architecture , Hagia Sophia became the paradigmatic Orthodox church form and its architectural style was emulated by Ottoman mosques a thousand years later. Being the episcopal see of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople , it remained

5289-449: The Bulgarian Church was gradually Hellenized: Greek was used in the liturgy, and the bishops were ethnic Greeks . The rise of nationalism in the 19th century brought opposition to this situation. In the 19th century, there were three main Uniat movements in the then Bulgarians populated lands. They were connected to the nationalist emancipation from the Greek -dominated Patriarchate of Constantinople and its pro-Greek influence over

5412-456: The Bulgarians the oldest organised autocephalous Slavic Orthodox Church, which shortly thereafter became Patriarchate. The success of the conversion of the Bulgarians facilitated the conversion of the East Slavs . A major event in this effort was the development of the Cyrillic script in Bulgaria , at the Preslav Literary School in the ninth century; this script, along with the liturgical Old Church Slavonic , also called Old Bulgarian ,

5535-415: The Byzantine Emperor 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

5658-406: The Byzantine Empire the exarch was, as stated above, the imperial governor of a large and important region of the Empire. The Exarchates were a response to weakening imperial authority in the provinces and were part of the overall process of unification of civil and military offices, initiated in early form by Justinian I , which would lead eventually to the creation of the Thematic system by either

5781-413: The Catholic defensor matrimonii ), is called the Exarch. The Oriental Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch currently has under his authority an Exarch in India, known by the ancient title Maphrian , although he is popularly referred to as Catholicos . This is not to be confused with the autocephalous Catholicate of the East , which is also located in India. Historically, there have been a very few cases of

5904-435: The Catholic Church. The first known use of the phrase "the catholic Church" ( he katholike ekklesia ) occurred in a letter written about AD 110 from one Greek church to another ( Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans ). The letter states: "Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, there is the universal [katholike] Church." Thus, almost from the beginning, Christians referred to

6027-441: The Caucasus, but after his transfer to another post in the spring of 1920 no new exarch was appointed. On 28 February 1870 the twenty-year-old struggle between Greeks and Bulgarians for control of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria culminated when the Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz created an independent Bulgarian ecclesiastical organization, known as the Bulgarian Exarchate . The Orthodox Church in Bulgaria had now become independent of

6150-425: The Christian Church as the "one, holy, catholic (from the Greek καθολική, 'according to the whole, universal' ) and apostolic Church". The Eastern Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same early church. A number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim: the Roman Catholic Church , the Anglican Communion , the Assyrian Church , and the Oriental Orthodox . In

6273-428: The Christian Church is "universal", unseparated, and comprehensive, including all who share that faith. Orthodox bishop Kallistos Ware has called that "simple Christianity". That is the sense of early and patristic usage wherein the church usually refers to itself as the "Catholic Church", whose faith is the "Orthodox faith". It is also the sense within the phrase "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church", found in

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6396-437: The Church of the West, the Catholic Church, and the Eastern Byzantine churches, now the Orthodox. There were doctrinal issues like the filioque clause and the authority of the Roman Pope involved in the split, but these were greatly exacerbated by political factors of both Church and state, and by cultural and linguistic differences between Latins and Greeks. Regarding papal supremacy , the Eastern half grew disillusioned with

6519-415: The Eastern Orthodox Church presence remain in the eastern part of the Christian world, although it is growing worldwide. Orthodox Christians throughout the world use various ethnic or national jurisdictional titles, or more inclusively, the title "Eastern Orthodox", "Orthodox Catholic", or simply "Orthodox". What unites Orthodox Christians is the catholic faith as carried through holy tradition . That faith

6642-420: The Eastern Orthodox position. They are the Synods of Constantinople, in 1484 , 1583, 1755 , 1819, and 1872 , the Synod of Iași in 1642, and the Pan-Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem in 1672 . Another council convened in June 2016 to discuss many modern phenomena, other Christian confessions, Eastern Orthodoxy's relation with other religions and fasting disciplines. Constantinople is generally considered to be

6765-422: The Eastern Orthodox view, the Assyrians and Orientals left the Orthodox Church in the years following the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431) and the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451), respectively, in their refusal to accept those councils' Christological definitions. Similarly, the churches in Rome and Constantinople separated in an event known as the East–West Schism , traditionally dated to

6888-449: The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. There are additional Christian churches in the east that are in communion with neither the Catholic Church nor the Eastern Orthodox Church, who tend to be distinguished by the category named " Oriental Orthodox ". While the Eastern Orthodox Church continues officially to call itself "Catholic", for reasons of universality , the common title of "Eastern Orthodox Church" avoids casual confusion with

7011-400: The Emperor Heraclius or Constans II . After the dissolution of the Western Empire in the late fifth century, the Eastern Roman Empire remained stable through the beginning of the Middle Ages and retained the ability for future expansion. Justinian I reconquered North Africa, Italy, Dalmatia and finally parts of Spain for the Eastern Roman Empire. However, this put an incredible strain on

7134-424: The Empire's limited resources. Subsequent emperors would not surrender the re-conquered land to remedy the situation. Thus the stage was set for Emperor Maurice to establish the Exarchates to deal with the constantly evolving situation of the provinces. In Italy the Lombards were the main opposition to Byzantine power. In North Africa the Amazigh or Berber princes were ascendant due to Roman weakness outside

7257-434: The Georgian part of the Exarchate. The Russian Orthodox Church and its exarch Platon (Rozhdestvensky) kept their jurisdiction over non-Georgian parts of the Caucasian region, and for those territories the Caucasian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was created in the summer of 1917, with metropolitan Platon as Exarch of the Caucasus. In the spring of 1918, he was succeeded by metropolitan Cyril (Smirnov) as new Exarch of

7380-563: The Greek-dominated Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople . The Bulgarian Exarch, who resided in Constantinople, became the most famous bearer of the title of exarch; his adherents throughout region were called exarchists , as opposed to the Greek patriarchists . The ensuing struggle, waged especially in Macedonia , was not only religious but had a conspicuous political dimension of a contention between competing Greek and Bulgarian national aims. For more information see Bulgarian Exarchate and Bulgarian Orthodox Church . In 1921, eparchies of

7503-483: The Holy Spirit maintains the unity and consistency of holy tradition to preserve the integrity of the faith within the church, as given in the scriptural promises. Orthodoxy asserts that its shared beliefs, and its theology, exist within holy tradition and cannot be separated from it, and that their meaning is not expressed in mere words alone; that doctrine cannot be understood unless it is prayed; and that it must also be lived in order to be prayed, that without action,

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7626-412: The Levant. A number of influential schools of thought had arisen, particularly the Alexandrian and Antiochian philosophical approaches. Other groups, such as the Arians , had also managed to gain influence. However, their positions caused theological conflicts within the church, thus prompting the Emperor Constantine to call for a great ecumenical synod in order to define the church's position against

7749-476: The Patriarchate of Jerusalem is "Exarch of the Holy Sepulcher". The Mexican Orthodox parishes in five deaneries (Mexico City, D.F., State of Mexico, State of Jalisco, State of Veracruz and State of Chiapas) of the Orthodox Church in America are governed as the "Exarchate of Mexico", currently under the leadership of Bishop Alejo of Mexico City. The third officer of the court of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople , who examines marriage cases (analogous to

7872-426: The Pope's centralisation of power, as well as his blatant attempts of excluding the Eastern half in regard to papal approvals. It had previously been the case that the emperor would have a say when a new Pope was elected, but towards the high Middle Ages, the Christians in Rome were slowly consolidating power and removing Byzantine influence. However, even before this exclusionary tendency from the West, well before 1054,

7995-437: The Roman Empire , mostly because its adherents refused to comply with the demands of the Roman state—often even when their lives were threatened—by offering sacrifices to the pagan gods. Despite persecution, skepticism, and initial social stigma, the Christian Church spread, particularly following the conversion of Emperor Constantine I in AD 312. By the fourth century , Christianity was present in numerous regions well beyond

8118-449: The Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine were reorganized as the Ukrainian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church , headed by patriarchal exarch with seat in Kyiv. The Ukrainian Exarchate existed until 1990 when it was granted a higher degree of ecclesiastical autonomy within the Moscow Patriarchate. In 1989, an autonomous Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church was formed, with jurisdiction over eparchies in Belarus . During

8241-501: The Uniate Church. Nevertheless, this was the end of his career, he stayed in a monastery until the end of his life. By the end of the 19th century, the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church in Macedonia was based in Kukush with Epiphany Shanov as Bishop after Mladenov 's excommunication in 1895. The other Vicariat was that of the Thrace . It was led by Mihail Mirov , who was proclaimed as also Administering Bishop of all Uniat Bulgarians , with sead in Constantinople as of 1907. In 1893,

8364-444: The archbishop for Bulgarian Catholics of the Byzantine rite on 8 April 1861. The new archbishop was associated with the Bulgarian nationalist cause. However, we was recognized in his new capacity by the Sublime Porte . However, he was almost immediately removed on a Russian ship and held in Kiev for the remainder of his life. By June 1861, there was no-one in Constantinople who could perform the Bulgarian Uniate services. This situation

8487-403: The areas where they arose, before they grew significant enough to require an ecumenical council. There are seven councils authoritatively recognised as ecumenical by the Eastern Orthodox Church: There are also two other councils which are considered ecumenical by some Eastern Orthodox: In addition to these councils, there have been a number of other significant councils meant to further define

8610-603: The auspices of a single universal empire, was formulated in the legislation of Emperor Justinian I (527–565), especially in his Novella 131 (De regulis ecclesiasticis etc., caput III), and received formal ecclesiastical sanction at the Council in Trullo (692), the name "patriarch" became the official one for the heads of major autocephalous churches, and the title of "exarch" was further demoted by naming all metropolitans as "patriarchal exarchs" in their ecclesiastical provinces. The advance of Constantinople put an end to privileges of three older, original exarchates, which fell back to

8733-490: The centre and the "cradle of Orthodox Christian civilisation ". From the mid-5th century to the early 13th century, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe. Eastern Christian culture reached its golden age during the high point of the Byzantine Empire and continued to flourish in Ukraine and Russia, after the fall of Constantinople . Numerous autocephalous churches were established in Europe: Greece, Georgia, Ukraine, as well as in Russia and Asia. In

8856-414: The church and of the church by God), especially in worship, yield the pair "correct belief" and "true worship". Together, these express the core of a fundamental teaching about the inseparability of belief and worship and their role in drawing the church together with Christ. All Slavic churches use the title Pravoslavie ( Cyrillic : Православие ), meaning "correctness of glorification", to denote what

8979-1017: The civil title of Exarch granted by the civil authority to prelates of the Latin Church , as when Emperor Frederick I named the Archbishop of Lyon as Exarch of Burgundy in 1157. However, the ecclesiastical title of Exarch has disappeared in the Western Catholic Church, being replaced by the terms " Primate " (ranking above metropolitan archbishop) and " Apostolic Vicar " (ranking below suffragan bishop). Jus novum ( c.  1140 -1563) Jus novissimum ( c.  1563 -1918) Jus codicis (1918-present) Other Sacraments Sacramentals Sacred places Sacred times Supra-diocesan/eparchal structures Particular churches Juridic persons Philosophy, theology, and fundamental theory of Catholic canon law Clerics Office Juridic and physical persons Associations of

9102-725: The clergymen and the Euharistinki sisters who had found refuge in Bulgaria earlier, returned to Macedonia and Thrace and resumed their work until the end of the war, when Bulgaria lost this territories again. Unlike other 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

9225-881: The coastal cities. The problems associated with many enemies on various fronts (the Visigoths in Spain, the Slavs and Avars in the Balkans, the Sassanid Persians in the Middle East, and the Amazigh in North Africa) forced the imperial government to decentralize and devolve power to the former provinces. The term Exarch most commonly refers to the Exarch of Italy, who governed the area of Italy and Dalmatia, still remaining under Byzantine control after

9348-519: The continuation of the true church. In the ninth and tenth centuries, Christianity made great inroads into pagan Europe, including Bulgaria (864) and later Kievan Rus' (988). This work was made possible by Cyril and Methodius of Thessaloniki , two brothers chosen by Byzantine emperor Michael III to fulfil the request of Rastislav of Moravia for teachers who could minister to the Moravians in their own language. Cyril and Methodius began translating

9471-451: The conversion of some churches to the Catholic Church, which then also used "Greek Catholic" to indicate their continued use of the Byzantine rites. Today, only a minority of Eastern Orthodox adherents use Greek as the language of worship. "Eastern", then, indicates the geographical element in the church's origin and development, while "Orthodox" indicates the faith, as well as communion with

9594-490: The dogmatic decrees of the seven ecumenical councils , and the teaching of the Church Fathers . The church teaches that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission , and that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles . It maintains that it practises the original Christian faith, as passed down by holy tradition. Its patriarchates , descending from

9717-645: The entire region of the Caucasus fell under Russian rule, the jurisdiction of the Georgian Exarchate was expanded, encompassing the territories of modern-day Georgia , Armenia and Azerbaijan . On 7 April 1917, the Georgian Patriarchate was restored for the Archbishops of Mtsheta and Tbilisi, with the style Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, and the title Exarch of Georgia was extinguished, but only for

9840-465: The expansion, leaving some areas of doubt about what is proper church governance. Moreover, as in the ancient church persecutions, the aftermath of persecutions of Christians in communist nations has complicated some issues of governance that have yet to be completely resolved. All members of the Eastern Orthodox Church profess the same faith, regardless of race or nationality, jurisdiction or local custom, or century of birth. Holy tradition encompasses

9963-638: The failure of the uprising prompted the Bulgarian Exarchate and the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church alike to embark on the same mission: helping the people to cope with the tragedy. However, this rapprochement was short-lived. After 1903, the IMARO revolutionaries and the Exarchate continued to act against the Catholic Church. The immediate effect of the partition of Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars

10086-568: The faithful Pars dynamica (trial procedure) Canonization Election of the Roman Pontiff Academic degrees Journals and Professional Societies Faculties of canon law Canonists Institute of consecrated life Society of apostolic life In Eastern Catholic Churches (of Eastern tradition but in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope ), the ecclesiastical title of Exarch

10209-519: The fall of the First Bulgarian Empire in 1018. In 1186 the Bulgarian state regained its independence. Pope Innocent III had written to tsar Kaloyan , inviting him to unite his church with the Catholic Church , as early as 1199. Wanting to bear the title of Emperor and to restore the prestige, wealth and size of the First Bulgarian Empire , Kaloyan responded in 1202. In this political maneuver, he requested that Pope Innocent III bestow on him

10332-562: The findings of the Council of Chalcedon were the majority in Egypt. Today they are known as the Coptic Orthodox Church , having maintained a separate patriarchate. The Coptic Orthodox Church is currently the largest Christian church in Egypt and in the whole Middle East. There was also a similar, albeit smaller scale, split in Syria ( Patriarchate of Antioch ), which resulted in the separation of

10455-704: The followers of Catholicism of the Eastern Rites had a joint hierarchy. In 1884 Izvorov went back to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church . The personality of Bishop Mladenov was not less controversial than that of Bishop Izvorov. After the 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

10578-642: The foreign powers’ game that the clergy got involved after the June 1878 Berlin Treaty , which left Macedonia and Thrace within the Ottoman Empire (after it had been given to Bulgaria with the March 1878 San Stefano Treaty ). Thus, in the interplay between the Orthodox and the Uniat doctrine, Bulgaria supported the Orthodox Exarchate, and Russia supported Bulgaria . The Greek-dominated Patriarchate of Constantinople supported

10701-471: The fourth century onwards led to the calling of ecumenical councils . In the Orthodox Church, an ecumenical council is the supreme authority that can be invoked to resolve contested issues of the faith. As such, these councils have been held to resolve the most important theological matters that came to be disputed within the Christian Church. Many lesser disagreements were resolved through local councils in

10824-464: The good connections between the Catholic Church and the Bulgarian kings in medieval time. The First Uniat movement originated in two centers: Kukush and Constantinople. 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

10947-594: The growing, often widely diverging, philosophical and theological interpretations of Christianity. He made it possible for this council to meet not only by providing a location, but by offering to pay for the transportation of all the existing bishops of the church. Most modern Christian churches regard this synod, commonly called the First Council of Nicaea or more generally the First Ecumenical Council , as of major importance. Several doctrinal disputes from

11070-646: The hands of Western clergymen to be supplied by Louis the German in 863. However, late in the same year, the Byzantine Empire invaded Bulgaria during a period of famine and natural disasters. Taken by surprise, Boris was forced to sue for peace and agreed to convert to Christianity according to the eastern rites. His successor Symeon the Great (893–927) proclaimed an autonomous Bulgarian Patriarchate in 917, which won recognition from Constantinople in 927 and lasted until

11193-573: The hope that union with Rome would gain their church the freedom they felt Constantinople was denying them. The leading figure of the Uniat movement was the Bulgarian merchant Dragan Tsankov , who had the support of Catholic France . He published the newspaper "Bulgaria" in Constantinople , in which he advocated a union with the Pope . It criticized Russia for its negative stance on the Bulgarian "church question" and published historical documents on

11316-594: The imperial crown. Kaloyan also wanted the Papacy to recognize the head of the Bulgarian Church as a Patriarch . The pope was not willing to make concessions on that scale, and when his envoy, Cardinal Leo, arrived in Bulgaria, he anointed the Archbishop Vasilij of Tărnovo as Primate of Bulgarians . Kaloyan only received Uniate crown, but not imperial. Meanwhile, in an attempt to foster an alliance with Kaloyan,

11439-455: The issues go as deep as the schisms. The depth of this meaning in the Eastern Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word " Orthodox " itself, a union of Greek orthos ("straight", "correct", "true", "right") and doxa ("common belief", from the ancient verb δοκέω-δοκῶ which is translated "to believe", "to think", "to consider", "to imagine", "to assume"). The dual meanings of doxa , with "glory" or "glorification" (of God by

11562-474: The jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Constantinople. Metropolitans-exarchs of Ephesus tried to resist the supreme jurisdiction of Constantinople, but eventually failed since imperial government supported the creation of a centralized Patriarchate. When the proposed government of universal Christendom by five patriarchal sees (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, known as the pentarchy ), under

11685-451: The late Roman Empire and early Byzantine Empire , an exarch was a governor of a particular territory. From the end of the 3rd century or early 4th, every Roman diocese was governed by a vicarius , who was titled "exarch" in eastern parts of the Empire, where the Greek language and the use of Greek terminology dominated, even though Latin was the language of the imperial administration from

11808-575: The main religious sects in Albania , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Kosovo , Lebanon , a significant sect in Syria , Iraq and other countries in the Middle East . Roughly half of Eastern Orthodox Christians live in the post Eastern Bloc countries, mostly in Russia. The communities in the former Byzantine regions of North Africa , the Eastern Mediterranean are among the oldest Orthodox communities from

11931-455: The more prominent dictionary sense given for general use is still the one shared by other languages, implying breadth and universality, reflecting comprehensive scope. In a Christian context, the Christian Church, as identified with the original church founded by Christ and his apostles, is said to be catholic (or universal) in regard to its union with Christ in faith. Just as Christ is indivisible, so are union with him and faith in him, whereby

12054-633: 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. The Second Uniat movement started again in Kukush . In 1874, Nil Izvorov , the Bulgarian Orthodox bishop of Kukush, wrote a letter to the Bulgarian Uniat Bishop in Constantinople, Raphael Popov , saying that

12177-455: The one hand, and the " Orthodox Catholic Church" on the other, each of which was defined in terms of inter-communion with either Rome or Constantinople. While the Eastern Orthodox Church recognises what it shares in common with other churches, including the Catholic Church, it sees catholicity in terms of complete union in communion and faith, with the Church throughout all time, and the sharing remains incomplete when not shared fully. Paul and

12300-405: 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, archimandrite Joseph Sokolsky led a delegation to Rome, where he was received by Pope Pius IX . The pope ordained him as

12423-586: The origin of which might lie in certain sections of the School of Antioch or via Nestorius' teachers Theodore of Mopsuestia or Diodore of Tarsus . The modern incarnation of the " Nestorian Church " is commonly referred to as "the Assyrian Church" or fully as the Assyrian Church of the East . The church in Egypt ( Patriarchate of Alexandria ) split into two groups following the Council of Chalcedon (451), over

12546-576: The people's native language rather than Greek , the predominant language of the Byzantine Empire, or Latin , as the Roman priests did. Perhaps the greatest legacy of their efforts is the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the largest of the Orthodox churches. In the 11th century, what was recognised as the Great Schism took place between Rome and Constantinople , which led to separation between

12669-460: The prayer is idle, empty, and in vain, and therefore the theology of demons. The Eastern Orthodox Church considers itself to be both orthodox and catholic. The doctrine of the Catholicity of the Church , as derived from the Nicene Creed , is essential to Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology . The term Catholicity of the Church ( Greek Καθολικότης τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ) is used in its original sense, as

12792-478: The provincial level up until the 440s (Greek translations were sent out with the official Latin text). In Greek texts, the Latin title is spelled βικάριος ( bikarios ). The office of exarch as a governor with extended political and military authority was later created in the Byzantine Empire , with jurisdiction over a particular territory, usually a frontier region at some distance from the capital Constantinople . In

12915-667: The same year Izvorov was promoted to be the Administering Bishop of all Uniat Bulgarians , directly subordinated to the Apostolic Delegate in Constantinople. After that he resumed his duties in Macedonia. That year, he became active once again in Central Macedonia , based at Kukush. In one five-year period, there were 57 Catholic villages, whilst the Bulgarian uniate schools in the Vilayet of Thessaloniki reached 64, including

13038-413: The state of ordinary metropolitan sees. Local ecclesiastical development in some regions also included the title of exarch. Since the Church of Cyprus was declared autocephalous (431), its Primate received the title of Exarch of Cyprus. On a similar principle the Archbishop of Mount Sinai and Raithu is an exarch, though in this case, as in that of Cyprus, modern Eastern Orthodox usage generally prefers

13161-531: The title "Archbishop". In modern ecclesiastical practice of the Eastern Orthodox Church , the title of exarch was often used to designate the highest hierarchical office under the rank of patriarch. When Russian Patriarch Adrian of Moscow died in 1700, Emperor Peter the Great abolished the patriarchal office and appointed Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky as exarch and head of the Most Holy Synod of

13284-518: The title "exarch" in order to emphasize their precedence and primatial status over other metropolitans within local political dioceses. The Council of Chalcedon (451), which gave special authority to the see of Constantinople as being "the residence of the emperor and the Senate", in its canons spoke of diocesan "exarchs", placing all metropolitans in dioceses of Asia, Thrace and Pontus (including metropolitans-exarchs of Ephesus, Heraclea and Caesarea) under

13407-470: The understandings and means by which that unity of faith is transmitted across boundaries of time, geography, and culture. It is a continuity that exists only inasmuch as it lives within Christians themselves. It is not static, nor an observation of rules, but rather a sharing of observations that spring both from within and also in keeping with others, even others who lived lives long past. The church proclaims

13530-459: The usurper emperor Phocas in 610. Phocas had revolted under emperor Maurice who had appointed Heraclius' father as exarch of Africa. The exarchate proved both financially and militarily strong, and survived until the Arab Muslim conquest of Carthage in 698. The term 'exarch' entered ecclesiastical language at first for a metropolitan (an archbishop) with jurisdiction not only for the area that

13653-521: The will of the people in Macedonia was to join the Bulgarian Uniat Church. After that he sent a letter to the Pope as well, asking him for a union. His attempt of a union was successful, and in the same year he held services in his new capacity of a Uniat Catholic bishop. There are several interpretations of the reasons behind this union. Some authors stress Izvorov's personal motivation to go for

13776-425: The world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. Hagia Sophia has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world ", and architectural and cultural icon of Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox civilisation , and it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture". There are

13899-493: The year 1054, although it was more a gradual process than a sudden break. To all these churches, the claim to catholicity (universality, oneness with the ancient Church) is important for multiple doctrinal reasons that have more bearing internally in each church than in their relation to the others, now separated in faith. The meaning of holding to a faith that is true is the primary reason why anyone's statement of which church split off from which other has any significance at all;

14022-527: Was arranged largely with the help of Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII , who in 1925 was named Apostolic Visitator and, later, Apostolic Delegate for Bulgaria, where he stayed until 1934. During the Second World War Bulgaria occupied the bigger part of Macedonia and Western Thrace . In 1941, the Uniat parishes went under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Exarchate in Sofia. Many of

14145-491: Was declared official in Bulgaria in 893. The work of Cyril and Methodius and their disciples had a major impact on the Serbs as well. They accepted Christianity collectively along familial and tribal lines, a gradual process that occurred between the seventh and ninth centuries. In commemoration of their baptisms, each Serbian family or tribe began to celebrate an exclusively Serbian custom called Slava (patron saint) in

14268-475: Was his as a metropolitan, but also over other metropolitans within local political dioceses . Since imperial vicarius (governor of a political diocese) was often called "exarch" in eastern, Greek-speaking parts of the Empire, it became customary for the metropolitans of the diocesan capitals ( Ephesus in the Diocese of Asia , Heraclea in the Diocese of Thrace and Caesarea in the Diocese of Pontus ) also to use

14391-574: Was killed by the Lombards in 751. A second exarchate was created by Maurice to administer northern Africa, formerly a separate praetorian prefecture , the islands of the western Mediterranean and the Byzantine possessions in Spain . The capital of the Exarchate of Africa was Carthage . An emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, Heraclius , was the son of the exarch of Africa before Heraclius replaced

14514-609: Was not happy with his own position in the Exarchate, but added that the population too was not happy with the division of the local dioceses by the Patriarchate and the Bulgarian Exarchate and mistrusted both of them. That is why the ordinary people had an interest to join the Catholic Church . Historical sources show that the Ottoman government banned Izvorov from entering Kukush for several years. Bishop Popov took over his duties in Kukush, but in 1876 he died under unknown circumstances. In

14637-461: Was not remedied until 1863 when Raphael Popov was elected as bishop centred in Adrianople . At the same year a Bulgarian Uniate Gymnasium at Adrianople was founded. 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

14760-569: Was put to total ethnic cleansing by the Young Turks ' army. 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 . In 1926, an Apostolic Exarchate was established in Sofia for the pastoral care of the Byzantine Catholics in Bulgaria among them. This

14883-509: Was raised to the rank of Patriarchate in 1953. In the Eastern Orthodox Church , the office of exarch can be also given to a special deputy of a Patriarch , with jurisdiction over a community outside the home territory of the Patriarchate. Thus, in the United States there are Exarchs representing, among others, the Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian and Jerusalem Patriarchs. The style of the Exarchs of

15006-407: Was the anti-Bulgarian campaign in areas under Serbian and Greek rule. The Serbians expelled Bulgarian churchmen. The Greeks burned Kukush, the center of Bulgarian politics and culture. Bulgarian language was prohibited, and its surreptitious use, whenever detected, was ridiculed or punished. The Ottomans managed to keep the Adrianople region, where the whole Thracian Bulgarian population

15129-524: Was written, was the primary liturgical language of the church. For this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as "Greek" (in contrast to the "Roman" or "Latin" church , which used a Latin translation of the Bible), even before the Great Schism of 1054. After 1054, "Greek Orthodox" or "Greek Catholic" marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople, much as "Catholic" did for communion with

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