The Bulgarian church achieves new independence in…

The Bulgarian church achieves new independence in the nineteenth century.

The Ottoman Empire had left the Bulgarian church hierarchy under the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople for four centuries, disregarding the differences between the two Orthodox churches. (The last separate Bulgarian church jurisdiction, the arch- bishopric of Ohrid, was absorbed in 1767.)

Early in the 1800s, few of the Bulgarian church leaders most closely connected with Enlightenment ideas had sought separation from the Greek Orthodox Church but in 1839, a movement had begun against the Greek Metropolitan of Turnovo, head of the largest Bulgarian diocese, in favor of local control.

In 1849 the active Bulgarian community of Constantinople begins pressing Turkish officials for church sovereignty.

Other large Bulgarian dioceses both inside and outside Bulgaria seek a return to liturgy in the vernacular and appointment of Bulgarian bishops.

The first concession comes in 1848, when the Greek patriarch of Constantinople allows one Bulgarian church in that city.