Boris I of Bulgaria

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Boris I or sometimes Boris-Mihail (Michael), Bulgarian: Борис I (Михаил), known also as Bogoris (died May 2, 907) was the ruler of Bulgaria 852–889 and Bulgaria's first Christian monarch. At the time of his baptism in 864, Boris was named Michael after his godfather, Emperor Michael III.

1 Military campaigns
2 Baptism
3 Bulgarian Patriarchate
4 Cyrillic alphabet in Bulgaria
5 References
6 Resources

[edit] Military campaigns

Boris I was the son and successor of Presian I of Bulgaria. At the time of his accession, Boris was engaged in a campaign in Macedonia, and Bulgaria was invaded by the East Franks, who defeated Boris and his Slavic allies in 853. Peace was restored in that quarter by 855, and Boris turned his attention to the tension along the Bulgaro-Byzantine frontier, placing an ultimatum before the imperial government at Constantinople. The crisis was averted, and Boris made an alliance with the King Louis the German of the East Franks against Prince Rastislav of Great Moravia and the ruler of Croatia. The allies achieved some success in 863, but Boris suffered a defeat during his invasion of Serbia at an unspecified point in his reign. In the end the Bulgarian monarch had to conclude peace treaties with both Serbians and Croatians. In spite of various reverses, Boris succeeded in maintaining the territorial integrity of his realm.

[edit] Baptism

For a variety of reasons, Boris became interested in converting to Christianity and undertook to do that at the hands of western clergymen to be supplied by Louis the German in 863. However, late in the same year, the Byzantine Empire invaded Bulgaria during a period of famine and natural disasters. Taken by surprise, Boris was forced to sue for peace and agreed to convert to Christianity according to the eastern rites in exchange for peace and territorial concessions in Thrace. At the beginning of 864 Boris was secretly baptized at Pliska by an embassy of Byzantine clergymen, together with his family and select members of the Bulgarian nobility. With Emperor Michael III as his godfather, Boris also adopted the Christian name Michael. Boris' conversion inspired a reaction by his pagan subjects, including many important notables. Matters came to a head in 865, when Boris was faced with open revolt in all of Bulgaria's administrative districts. Boris ruthlessly suppressed the revolt and executed 52 boyars together with their entire families.

[edit] Bulgarian Patriarchate

At the same time he sought further instruction on how to lead a Christian lifestyle and society and how to set up an autocephalous church from the Byzantine Patriarch Photios.Photios' answer proved less than satisfactory, and Boris sought to gain a more favorable settlement from the Papacy. Boris dispatched emissaires with a long list of questions to Pope Nicholas I at Rome in August 866, and obtained 106 detailed answers, detailing the essence of religion, law, politics, customs and personal faith. The pope temporarily glossed over the controversial question of the autocephalous status desired by Boris for his church and sent a large group of missionaries to continue the conversion of Bulgaria in accordance with the western rite. Bulgaria's shift towards the Papacy infuriated Patriarch Photios who wrote an encyclical to the eastern clergy in 867, in which he denounced the practices associated with the western rite and Rome's ecclesiastical intervention in Bulgaria. This occasioned the Photian Schism, which was a major step in the rift between the eastern and western churches.

In Bulgaria the activities of the papal legate Bishop Formosus (later Pope Formosus) met with success, until the pope rejected Boris' request to nominate Formosus archbishop of Bulgaria. The new Pope Adrian II refused Boris' request for a similar nomination of either Formosus or Deacon Marinus (later Pope Marinus I), after which Bulgaria began to shift towards Constantinople once again. At the Fourth Council of Constantinople in 870 the position of the Bulgarian church was reopened by Bulgarian envoys, and the eastern patriarchs adjudicated in favor of Constantinople. This determined the future of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which was granted the status of an autocephalous archbishopric by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Later in the 870s the Patriarch of Constantinople surrendered Bulgaria to the Papacy, but this concession was purely nominal, as it did not affect the actual position of Bulgaria's autocephalous church.

[edit] Cyrillic alphabet in Bulgaria

In 886 Boris' governor of Belgrade welcomed the disciples of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, who were exiled from Great Moravia into Bulgaria and sent them on to Boris in Pliska. Two of these disciples, Clement of Ohrid and Naum of Preslav who were of noble Bulgarian origin, set up educational centers in Pliska and in Ohrid to further the development of Slavonic letters and liturgy. The alphabet that was originally developed by Cyril and Methodius is known as the Glagolitic alphabet. In Bulgaria Clement of Ohrid and Naum of Preslav however created a new alphabet which was called Cyrilic and was declared the official alphabet of the Bulgarian language during an assembly in 893. In the following centuries this alphabet was adopted by other Slavic peoples. The introduction of Slavic liturgy paralleled Boris' continued development of churches and monasteries throughout his realm.

In 889 Boris abdicated the throne and became a monk. His son and successor Vladimir attempted a pagan reaction, which brought Boris out of retirement in 893. Vladimir was defeated and blinded, and Boris placed his third son, Simeon I of Bulgaria on the throne, threatening him with the same fate if he too apostatized. Boris returned to his monastery, emerging once again in c. 895 to help Simeon fight the Magyars, who had invaded Bulgaria in alliance with the Byzantines. After the passing of this crisis, Boris resumed monastic life and died in 907.

[edit] References

Jordan Andreev, Ivan Lazarov, Plamen Pavlov, Koj koj e v srednovekovna Bălgarija, Sofia 1999.
John V.A. Fine Jr., The Early Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbor, 1983.