Anthim I.
I. Antim Anthim also I. ( Bulgarian Антим I; * 1816 in Kırklareli / Lozengrad; † December 1, 1888 in Vidin, Bulgaria), born Atanas Mihailov Tschalakow ( Bulg Атанас Михайлов Чалъков ) was a Bulgarian prelate, politician, Exarch and head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and one of the activists of the Bulgarian National Revival. He was also the first chairman of the Bulgarian Parliament and led the constituent meetings to draw up the first Bulgarian Constitution, the Constitution of Turnovo.
Life
Anthim I was born in ostthrakischen Lozengrad, today Kırklareli (Turkey). As a priest, he was ordained in 1837 in Athoskloster Hilandar. He then studied at the most prestigious school for priests in the Ottoman Empire, the Halki seminary, which he completed in 1844. With a scholarship, which he got through the help of the Russian consul in Smyrna, he was able to continue his education at the seminary in Odessa. After some time there, he transferred to the Moscow Theological Academy, which he successfully completed in 1856.
After his return Anthim was formerly a professor and rector of the seminary of Halki. With the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the beginning of the Bulgarian National Revival and the concessions made by the Ottoman side in matters of religion and the struggle for an independent Bulgarian church of Constantinople Ecumenical Patriarchate began.
After the events surrounding the Bulgarian " Easter Special " in 1860 when the Bishop Hilarion Makariopolski in worship, failed to make mention of the Ecumenical Patriarch and he was followed by other Bulgarian clergy in the Ottoman Empire, the Constantinople Patriarch was forced to respond to the Bulgarian claims and Bulgarian employ bishops, who held the fair in Bulgarian and not Greek. In 1861, then Anthim I. was appointed Metropolitan of Preslav. In 1868, he became the Metropolitan of the Eparchy of Vidin, who did not want to bow to the Ecumenical Patriarch himself. However, the movement for the establishment of an independent church could no longer be stopped by the Greek -dominated Ecumenical Patriarchate. 1868 Anthim joined the movement Constantinople and declared its secession from the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
On March 11 of the year 1870, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz was forced to sign a firman ( decree), which foresaw the establishment of an independent, only the Sultan underlying Bulgarian Exarchate. Thus, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church succeeded after centuries of Ottoman rule persists again a limited independence.
On 4 Februarjul. / February 16 1871greg. chose the Council of the Bulgarian Exarchate the Metropolitan of Vidin I. Antim for the first Bulgarian Exarch, after his predecessor Hilarion I was accepted after a protest of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Opel not of Sultan Abdulaziz. For the candidacy of Anthim the Bulgarian population of Constantinople, as well as personalities like Gavril Krastewitsch that Bogoridis and the Russian ambassador sat there, a Graf Ignatiev.
However, the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate and in particular of a Bulgarian school and education system also led to serious tensions with the previously determined, the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople Opel. On 11 Maijul. / May 23 1872greg. , The Cyril and Methodius Day of Remembrance, the Exarch Antim I. explained in the Bulgarian Church of St. Stefan in Constantinople Opel independence from the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
In response, the Constantinople Patriarchate declared at a synod in 1872 the Bulgarian Exarchate schismatic and accused it for the heresy of phyletism. In addition, the Bulgarian church was accused of is bringing about in the form of resident in Istanbul ( Constantinople Opel ) Exarch the uncanonical state that in one and the same city officiated. , Two bishops