Reflection of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and its Results on the Diocese, the Material Condition and the Prospects for Development and Governance of the Bulgarian Exarchate

The article presents mainly the negative consequences for the Bulgarian Exarchate as a result of the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire in 1877–1878 and the treaties signed after it. Legitimately guaranteeing national unity in the 1870s, after the war the first all-Bulgarian institution fell into a state of crisis. Hundreds of churches were looted and destroyed, entire regions and parts of dioceses passed under foreign administrative and church governance, confusion arose among the higher clergy as to whether the Exarchate Statute of 1871 was still in force and how the Bulgarian Orthodox Church would self-govern in the future. The diocese of the Bulgarian Church was fragmented, and within the borders of four countries, and it was through it that Bulgarian national unity was institutionally ensured until then. Problems arose in the governance of the Exarchate. For years, a separate statute for the governance of the church in the principality was not adopted, and the Exarchate Statute of 1871 was valid only for the dioceses in the Ottoman Empire, which for a long time – until the 1890s – remained without Bulgarian hierarchs. Supported by some influential politicians, although he was only the chairman of the “supreme spiritual authority” – the Holy Synod, after 1878 Exarch Joseph sought to govern alone – not as the first among equals, but as the “head” of the church. This eventually led to church-administrative division and the establishment in complete contradiction to the 1879 constitution of two separate synods in 1908 – in the principality and in the Ottoman state. During the war, the two theological schools ceased their activities, and after 1878 the restored Peter and Paul Seminary encountered constant difficulties and was closed by the regency in 1886. Thus, for a long time the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was left without a local theological school preparing educated ministers of the church.