BULGARIAN NATIONAL CHURCH IN THE
UNITED STATES, THE: There are, according to
moderate calculations, about 25,000 Bulgarians in
the United States and Canada, the immigration of
Bulgarians becoming greater since 1903. They have
settled in large numbers at Granite City and Madison,
Ill.; Hopkins, Mich.; and St. Louis, Mo., and
are scattered also farther westward, while a considerable
number of them are to be found in New
York City, and also in Toronto and parts of northern
Canada. The first Bulgarian church in the United
States was built in 1907 in Madison, Ill., being followed
by those at Granite City and St. Louis. There
are at present three Bulgarian priests in the United
States.
A. A. STAMOULI.
BULGARIANS, CONVERSION OF THE: According
to Jirecek, who follows Schafarik, the Bulgarians
were originally related to the Finns. Jordanis
says that they lived on the shores of the Black
Sea in the fifth century, clashing frequently with
the Ostrogoths in the reign of Theodoric, who,
according to Ennodius, checked their victorious
advance toward the west in 487; Cassiodorus
mentions another victory in 504. But their attacks
were directed also against the Byzantine Empire.
Under Constantine Pogonatus a Bulgarian horde
established itself in 679 between the Danube and
the Balkans, extending their conquests gradually
as far as the mouth of the Save. This territory
seems to have been inhabited by people of Slavic
race, who first gave their language to the conquerors
and then gradually amalgamated with them. The
race formed by this fusion was so strongly pagan
that it resisted, the introduction of Christianity,
which had its martyrs in the first half of the ninth
century. A change set in under Bogoris (c. 852-888),
who in his contests with both Franks and
Greeks held out hopes of a conversion as an inducement
for peace. In 864 he seems to have entered
the Greek Church, and received in return a considerable
slice of territory. In Constantinople his
conversion was considered genuine, and Photius
took pains to instruct him at some length in the
duties of a Christian prince. The Bulgarians were
apparently less delighted, and rose in armed revolt.
The wily barbarian, however, had one eye on the
West, and at the same time sent an embassy to
Pope Nicholas I., with a number of questions on
which he sought enlightenment from Rome. Nicholas
immediately sent two bishops to take possession
of the Bulgarian territory for the Church, and
answered the questions of Bogoris with much more
painstaking seriousness than they deserved. Another
embassy went to Louis the German to ask
that Christian missionaries might be sent. In 867
Louis commissioned Bishop Ermanrich of Passau
and a numerous retinue of priests to set out for the
Danube. Charlemagne followed by raising a large
sum to provide books and church utensils for the
Bulgarians. But all this interest was thrown away.
When Ermanrich reached Bulgaria, he found the
field already occupied by priests from Rome, and
returned to Germany. The communion with
Rome lasted but a few years longer. Bogoris
requested the appointment of Formosus of Porto
(one of the two original Roman missionaries) as
archbishop, and proposed another candidate when
Nicholas declined; when this second nomination
was rejected by Adrian II. he lost patience and
turned to Constantinople. His envoys took part
there in the final session of the Eighth Ecumenical
Council (870), and after its close, in spite of the
protests of the Roman legates, declared that Bulgaria
belonged to the patriarchate of Constantinople.
The Roman clergy were obliged to leave
and the patriarch Ignatius organized the church
by the consecration of a metropolitan and several
bishops. Adrian II. protested (871), but in vain,
and the efforts of John VIII. to reopen the question
were equally fruitless; Bulgaria remained, as,
indeed, its geographical situation demanded, a
part of the Greek Church.
(A. HAUCK.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
C. Jirecek, Geschichte der Bulgaren, Prague,
1878; idem Das Furstentum Bulgarien, ib. 1891; La
Bulgarie chrétienne. Étude historique, Paris, 1861; Légendes religieuses bulgares, traduites par Lydia Schischmanoff,
ib. 1896.
