Lazar Mladenov
Lazar Dimitrov Mladenov (also Lazar Dimitrov wrote Mladenov, Bulgarian Лазар Димитров Младенов; born June 11, 1854 in Bansko, then Ottoman Empire, today Bulgaria, † 1917 in Rome, Italy) was a Bulgarian cleric. He was bishop of Thessaloniki, the Uniate Bulgarian Catholic Church.
Life
Lazar Mladenov was born in the Macedonian town of Bansko, one of the centers of the Bulgarian Revival in the Ottoman Empire. His father Dimitar, who was a priest and teacher, entertained close contacts with Dragan Tsankov, leader of the Union movement among the Bulgarians. Furthermore, his father Dimitar Mladenov wrote a regular contributor to the Constantinople newspaper Balgarija ( Bulg България, Bulgaria).
Due to the difficulties of establishing an independent by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Opel Bulgarian church hierarchy came in the 19th century to a Union of Bulgarian Orthodoxy with Rome ( Union of Kilkis ).
After the completion of the monastery school Mladenov moved to the Bulgarian Catholic school in Thessaloniki, thereafter his education at the French Lycée in Pera, Constantinople Opel continue. He then moved to Paris, where he studied theology. There Mladenov was consecrated by the Archbishop of Paris to the priest.
As a connoisseur of the Eastern Question Mladenov accompanied in June 1878, the French delegation to the Congress of Berlin. In the same year he was sent as a teacher at the Lycée in Pera to Constantinople Opel.
As 1870 came back after the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate (→ firman establishing the Bulgarian Exarchate ) the most faithful of the Bulgarian Catholic Church back to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, were mainly the regions of Thrace and Macedonia in the Catholic Union. This development led in 1883 to a reorganization of the Bulgarian Catholic Church. So an independent Apostolic Vicariate of Macedonia with headquarters in Thessaloniki and another for Thrace was established with headquarters in Adrianople. They were under the leadership of Lazar Mladonow or Mikhail Mirow. In Constantinople Opel Nile Isworow remained as Apostolic Administrator with the title of archbishop. Mladenov himself was consecrated by Isworow on June 12, 1883, for the Bishop of Thessaloniki.
In 1884 Lazar Mladenov by Pope Leo XIII. received in Rome and confirmed in his position. Under the supervision and with the support Mladenows Rome and the protection of France, the Bulgarian Uniate Church reached its greatest development in Macedonia. Also the large resistance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Opel against the decree of 1870, under which the Bulgarian Orthodox Church dioceses to leave in Macedonia were (see Bulgarian- Greek church struggle ), contributed to the strengthening of the position of the Bulgarian Catholic Church.
Mladenov was able to build with the help of the Vincentians several Bulgarian schools in Macedonia new, including the Bulgarian school in Kilkis and a Catholic seminary in Thessaloniki, which also included a gymnasium. 1890 was placed under his leadership, the foundation stone for the Bulgarian Catholic Cathedral in Thessaloniki. 1894 came Mladenov because of financial scandals in conflict with a Catholic Order and was deposed as bishop. In the same year he the Ottoman government withdrew the permit ( Berat ) for activity in the Ottoman Empire.
Lazar Mladenov asked in December of the same year the Holy Synod for readmission to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The request was immediately approved by a decree of 8 December 1894. In the following time Mladenov called by circular to the Uniate believers to understand his pace and to follow him, which is a huge part did. From this blow the union movement in Macedonia could not recover. Ruefully returned to Catholicism in 1896 Mladenov back and moved to Rome. In Italy he became an adviser to the Catholic Church. Beginning of the 20th century, he was also deputy director of the Vatican Library.
Lazar Mladenov died in 1917 in Rome.