Bulgaria Bulgaria (pronounced /bʌlˈɡɛəriə/ Bulgarian: България, transliterated: Bulgaria, pronounced [bɤ̞lˈɡarijɐ]), officially the Republic of Bulgaria (Република България, transliterated: Republika Bulgaria, [rɛˈpublikɐ bɤ̞lˈɡarijɐ]), is a country in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: is traditionally a Christian A Christian (pronounced /ˈkrɪstʃən/ ) is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe is the Messiah (the Christ in Greek-derived terminology) prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, and the son of God. Most Christians believe in the doctrine of state since the adoption of Constantinople Christianity The Christianization of Bulgaria was the process by which 9th-century medieval Bulgaria converted to Christianity. It was influenced by the khan's shifting political alliances with the kingdom of the East Franks and the Byzantine Empire, as well as his reception by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Because of Bulgaria's strategic position, in 865, and therefore the dominant confession is being Eastern Orthodoxy The Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church[note 1] and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, asserts that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles almost 2,000 years ago. The Church is composed of several self-governing ecclesial bodies, each of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with some 6.5 million members in the Republic of Bulgaria and between 1.5 and 2.0 million members in a number of European countries, the Americas and Australia. The recognition of the autocephalous Bulgarian Patriarchate by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 927 AD makes. During the Ottoman The Ottoman Empire was a regime that lasted from 1299 to 1923 rule of the Balkans The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains, which run through the centre of Bulgaria into eastern Serbia. The region has a combined area of 550,000 km2 (212,000 sq mi) and a population of 55 million people.[citation needed] Islam Islam (Arabic: الإسلام‎ al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is the monotheistic religion articulated by the Qur’an, a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of their one, incomparable God (Arabic: الله‎, Allāh), and by the Prophet of Islam Muhammad's teachings and normative example (in Arabic called established itself in Bulgaria, while Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called has roots in the country since the Middle Ages The Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in, and Protestantism Protestantism is one of the four major divisions within Christianity together with the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Roman Catholic Church. The term is most closely tied to those groups that separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation arrived in the 19th century.

Despite this plurality of religions, unlike the Western Balkans Bulgaria has not experienced any significant-scale confrotation between Christianity and Islam (as was the case in Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina (pronounced /ˈbɒzni.ə hɜrtsɨˈɡoʊvɨnə/ ( listen) or /ˌhɜrtsɨɡoʊˈviːnə/; Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Bosnian and Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in South-Eastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south,, Kosovo Kosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. The partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo (Albanian: Republika e Kosovës; Serbian: Република Косово, Republika Kosovo), a self-declared independent state, has de facto control over most of the territory, with limited control in North Kosovo. Serbia does not recognise the unilateral, Serbia 2 Titular rulers of Serbia in Hungarian exile claimed Serbian throne until 1540. Belgrade fell to Ottomans only in 1521. Serbia was briefly reestablished by Jovan Nenad 1526–7 and the Republic of Macedonia Coordinates: 41°36′11″N 21°42′54″E / 41.603°N 21.715°E Macedonia (Macedonian: Македонија; English: /ˌmæsɨˈdoʊniə/ mas-i-DOH-nee-ə), officially the Republic of Macedonia (Република Македонија, transliterated: Republika Makedonija [rɛˈpublika makɛˈdɔnija] ( listen)), is a landlocked country in the 1990s and 2000s). The religious communities in the country coexist peacefully. The freedom of religion Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any religion. Freedom of religion is considered by many and the religious equality are included in the Constitution of Bulgaria The Constitution of Bulgaria is the supreme and basic law of the Republic of Bulgaria. The current constitution was adopted on 12 July 1991 by the 7th Grand National Assembly of Bulgaria, and defines the country as a unitary parliamentary republic. It has been amended four times (in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007) and is chronologically the fourth as inalienable rights of every citizen.

In fact, the capital Sofia Sofia (Bulgarian: София, pronounced [ˈsɔfija] ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city by population in the European Union, with 1.4 million people living in the Capital Municipality. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha, and is the administrative, cultural, economic, and educational is known for its so-called "Triangle of Religious Tolerance": the St Nedelya Church, Banya Bashi Mosque and Sofia Synagogue are located within metres of each other in the real centre of the city.

Contents

Demographics

The Rila Monastery The Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila, better known as the Rila Monastery is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situated in the northwestern Rila Mountains, 117 km (73 mi) south of the capital Sofia in the deep valley of the Rilska River at an elevation of 1,147 m (3,763 ft) above sea level. The monastery is has been a centre of Bulgarian Orthodoxy since its establishment in the 9th century The 15th-century Banya Bashi Mosque, the last remaining active mosque in Sofia Rousse Ruse is the fifth-largest city in Bulgaria with a population of 166 991 (by current address). Ruse is situated in the northeastern part of the country, on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu, 300 km from the capital Sofia and 200 km from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is the most significant Bulgarian river port,'s Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Paul The Evangelical church in Varna Varna is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and in Northern Bulgaria, second-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and 92th-largest in the European Union, with a population of 365,804 (500,502 in Varna Province) The Sofia Synagogue

According to the Bulgarian census of 2001 regarding ethnicity and religion the most numerous religious groups in the country are:

Religious group Population Percentage
Bulgarian Orthodox Christians 6,552,751 82.64%
Muslims 966,978 12.20%
Roman Catholic Christians 43,811 0.55%
Protestant Christians 42,308 0.53%
Other 14,937 0.19%
Does not self-identify 283,309 3.57%
Not shown 24,807 0.31%
Total 7,928,901 100%

Orthodox Christianity

Main article: Orthodoxy in Bulgaria

By far the dominant religion in Bulgaria is the Orthodox Christianity, professed by the prevalent ethnic group, the Bulgarians The Bulgarians are a South Slavic people, generally associated with the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian language. Emigration has resulted in Bulgarian minorities or immigrant communities in a number of other countries, who are adherents of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with some 6.5 million members in the Republic of Bulgaria and between 1.5 and 2.0 million members in a number of European countries, the Americas and Australia. The recognition of the autocephalous Bulgarian Patriarchate by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 927 AD makes. Other Orthodox churches represented in the country by minorities are the Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church ; or The Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: Русская Православная Церковь (Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov), or Московский Патриархат (Moskovskiy Patriarkhat) (the latter designation being another official name) since 1943, Поместная Российская Православ, Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Romanian Orthodox Church The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch. Its jurisdiction covers the territory of Romania, with dioceses for Romanians living in nearby Moldova, Serbia and Greek Orthodox Church The Church of Greece , part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the autocephalous churches which make up the communion of Orthodox Christianity. Its canonical territory is confined to the borders of Greece prior to the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, with the rest of Greece being subject to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of.

Christianity was established in the First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 681 by the Bulgars. At the height of its power it spread between Budapest and the Black Sea and from the Dnieper River in modern Ukraine to the Adriatic Sea under Boris I Boris I or sometimes Boris-Mihail (Bulgarian: Борис I (Михаил)), also known as Bogoris (died 2 May 907) was the ruler of Bulgaria 852–889. At the time of his baptism in 864, Boris was named Michael after his godfather, Emperor Michael III in the middle of the 9th century, although it has had its roots in the Balkans since the 1st century and the mission of Apostle Paul Paul of Tarsus, also called Saint Paul, Paul the Apostle, or the Apostle Paul, (Ancient Greek: Σαούλ , Σαῦλος (Saulos), and Παῦλος (Paulos); Latin: Paulus or Paullus; Hebrew: שאול התרסי‎ Šaʾul HaTarsi (Saul of Tarsus) (c. 5 - c. 67), was a Jew who called himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles". According to. The rise of the Bulgarian Empire made the Bulgarian Orthodox Church autocephalous in 919, becoming the first new Patriarchate to join the initial Pentarchy Pentarchy is a term in the history of Christianity for the idea of universal rule over all Christendom by the heads of five major episcopal sees, or patriarchates, of the Roman Empire: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The idea came about due to the political and ecclesiastical prominence of these five sees, but the concept. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is the oldest among the Slavic Orthodox Slavic Orthodox Churches are to be found in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Srpska and Macedonia, and they traditionally employ the Church Slavonic language in their liturgy churches and has considerably influenced the rest of the Slavic Orthodox world by means of its rich literary and cultural activity in the Middle Ages, as well as by the invention of the Cyrillic alphabet Cyrillic script is an alphabet developed in the 9th century in Bulgaria, and used in the Slavic national languages of Belarusian, Bulgarian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Ukrainian, and in the non-Slavic languages of Moldovan, Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Tuvan, and Mongolian. It also was used in past languages of Eastern in Bulgaria.

Islam

Main article: Islam in Bulgaria

Islam is the largest minority religion in Bulgaria. It is professed by the Turkish minority, the Muslim Bulgarians (Pomaks) and most of the Roma The Roma in Bulgaria are the country's second largest minority and third largest ethnic group . According to the 2001 census, there were 370,908 Roma in Bulgaria, equivalent to 4.7% of the country's total population, making Bulgaria the European country with the highest percentage of Roma. Experts' unofficial estimates, however, have the Roma. The former two are concentrated in the Rhodopes, a massif in southern Bulgaria, but are present in clusters in other parts of the country, e.g. the Turks in the Ludogorie region and the Pomaks in the Rhodopes and some villages in northern Bulgaria.

Islam arrived with the Ottoman Turkish The Ottoman Turks were the subdivision of the Ottoman Muslim Millet (today Turkish people) that dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. Reliable information about the early history of the Ottomans is scarce. According to some sources (references needed), the leader (khan) of the Kayi tribe of the Oguz Turks, Ertugrul, left Persia in the conquest of the Balkans in the 14th-15th century. Turkish notables settled in the larger cities (Plovdiv Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria with a population of 381,110. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC. It is the administrative center of Plovdiv Province in southern Bulgaria and three municipalities (Plovdiv, Maritsa and Rodopi) and Bulgaria's Yuzhen tsentralen, Sofia, Varna Varna is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and in Northern Bulgaria, second-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and 92th-largest in the European Union, with a population of 365,804 (500,502 in Varna Province), etc.), while peasants from Anatolia Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the western two-thirds of the Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, Georgia to the northeast, the Armenian Highland to the east, Mesopotamia to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea arrived in the Ludogorie and the Rhodopes. Many Orthodox Christians and Paulicians Paulicians were an Adoptionist group, also accused by medieval sources as Gnostic and quasi Manichaean Christian. They flourished between 650 and 872 in Armenia and the Eastern Themes of the Byzantine Empire. According to medieval Byzantine sources, the group's name was derived after the third century Bishop of Antioch, Paul of Samosata converted to Islam, often voluntarily due to the peculiarities of the Ottoman millet The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult production environments such as those at risk of drought system, but sometimes forcefully. After the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878 many of the Muslims left Bulgaria, but others chose to remain.

Today, Muslims form the majority in Kardzhali Province and Razgrad Province (mainly Turks) and Smolyan Province (mainly Pomaks).

Catholic Christianity

Main article: Roman Catholicism in Bulgaria

Roman Catholicism has its roots in Bulgaria and the Middle Ages. It was spread among the Bulgarians by Bulgarianized Saxon The Saxons were a confederation of Old Germanic tribes. Their modern-day descendants in Lower Saxony and Westphalia and other German states are considered ethnic Germans (the state of Sachsen is not inhabited by ethnic Saxons; the state of Sachsen-Anhalt is, though, in its northern and western parts); those in the eastern Netherlands are ore miners in northwestern Bulgaria (around Chiprovtsi) and by missionaries among the Paulician and Bogomil Bogomilism is the Gnostic dualistic sect, the synthesis of Armenian Paulicianism and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church reform movement[citation needed], which emerged in Bulgaria between 927 and 970 and spread into Byzantine Empire, Kievan Rus', Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Italy and France sectarians, as well as by Ragusan The Republic of Ragusa, or Republic of Dubrovnik, was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia (today in southernmost Croatia), that existed from the 14th century AD until the year 1808. It reached its commercial peak in the 15th and the 16th centuries, under the protection of the Ottoman Empire, before being conquered by merchants in the larger cities.

Today the bulk of the Roman Catholic population of Bulgaria lives in Plovdiv Province, centred around Rakovski, as well as in some villages in northern Bulgaria. The Banat Bulgarians are a Bulgarian minority in Romania Romania (pronounced /roʊˈmeɪniə/ roe-MAY-nee-ə; dated: Rumania, Roumania; Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] ( listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, north of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta and Serbia 2 Titular rulers of Serbia in Hungarian exile claimed Serbian throne until 1540. Belgrade fell to Ottomans only in 1521. Serbia was briefly reestablished by Jovan Nenad 1526–7 adhering to Roman Catholicism. Besides Bulgarians, among the Roman Catholics are also many foreigners.

The Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church Under Tsar Boris the Bulgarians accepted Christianity in its Byzantine form, with the liturgy celebrated in Church Slavonic. His successor Symeon the Great (893-927) proclaimed an autonomous Bulgarian patriarchate in 917, which won recognition from Constantinople in 927 and lasted until the fall of the first Bulgarian Empire in 1018. In 1186 the, a Byzantine Rite The Byzantine Rite, sometimes called the Rite of Constantinople or Constantinopolitan Rite is the liturgical rite used currently by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches and by the Greek-Catholic Churches (Eastern Catholic Churches which use the Byzantine Rite). The rite developed in the city of Constantinople (now Istanbul). It is the second largest church united with Rome, was formed in the 19th century as part of the Bulgarian church struggle in order to counter the influence of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and has some 10,000 members today.

Protestant Christianity

Main article: Protestantism in Bulgaria

Protestantism in its various forms only arrived in the 19th century because of missionaries, mainly from the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language. Today it is a quickly growing confession, with membership having doubled from 1991 to 2001. Half of the Protestants in Bulgaria are newly-converted Roma, while the other half are for the most part Bulgarians.

Armenian Apostolic Christianity

The majority of the 10,832 Armenians in Bulgaria are members of the Armenian Apostolic Church The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church. The Armenian Apostolic Church traces its origins to the missions of Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus in the 1, which has an eparchy in the country based in Sofia. Most Armenian Apostolics live in Plovdiv, Sofia, Varna or Burgas Burgas is the third-largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast with population 210,260. It is also the fourth-largest by population in the country, after Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna. It is the capital of Burgas Province and an important industrial, transport, cultural and tourist centre.

Judaism

Main article: History of the Jews in Bulgaria

Despite its low number today (1,363), Bulgaria's Jewish population has exerted considerable cultural influence on the country in the past and is still of importance today. The Jews in Bulgaria are concentrated in the larger cities, mostly in the capital Sofia.

Buddhism

Main article: Buddhism in Bulgaria

Religious freedom

Main article: Freedom of religion in Bulgaria

The Constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the law prohibits the public practice of religion by unregistered groups. The Constitution also designates Eastern Orthodox Christianity as the "traditional" religion. There were some reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice. Discrimination, harassment, and general public intolerance, particularly in the media, of some religious groups remained an intermittent problem.

See also

References

Religion in Europe
Sovereign states

Albania · Andorra · Armenia1 · Austria · Azerbaijan1 · Belarus · Belgium · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Bulgaria · Croatia · Cyprus1 · Czech Republic · Denmark · Estonia · Finland · France · Georgia1 · Germany · Greece · Hungary · Iceland · Ireland · Italy · Kazakhstan2 · Latvia · Liechtenstein · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Macedonia · Malta · Moldova · Monaco · Montenegro · Netherlands · Norway · Poland · Portugal · Romania · Russia2 · San Marino · Serbia · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Turkey2 · Ukraine · United Kingdom (England • Northern Ireland • Scotland • Wales)
States with limited recognition

Abkhazia1 · Kosovo · Nagorno-Karabakh1 · Northern Cyprus1 · South Ossetia1 · Transnistria
Other entities European Union
Dependencies, autonomies, other territories

Adjara1 · Adygea · Akrotiri and Dhekelia · Åland · Azores · Bashkortostan · Chechnya · Chuvashia · Crimea · Dagestan · Faroe Islands · Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina · Gagauzia · Gibraltar · Guernsey · Ingushetia · Jan Mayen · Jersey · Kabardino-Balkaria · Kalmykia · Karachay-Cherkessia · Republic of Karelia · Komi Republic · Madeira · Isle of Man · Mari El · Mordovia · Nakhchivan1 · North Ossetia-Alania · Republika Srpska · Svalbard · Tatarstan · Udmurtia · Vojvodina
1 Partially or entirely in Asia, depending on the border definitions. 2 Transcontinental country.

Categories: Bulgarian people | Religion in Bulgaria

 

The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Tue Jul 27 11:41:05 2010. [ refresh local cache ]
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.

[Hide]▼
'Religion In Bulgaria' Blogs
Bulgarian PM gives minister Bozhidar Dimitrov final warning after ...
sofiaecho.com
Bulgarian PM gives minister Bozhidar Dimitrov final warning after ...

Petar Kostadinov

hu, 07 Jan 2010 10:16:00 GM

in . religion. we do have a lot of common things which might help us to understand and respect each other. Never the less, if Turkey is accepted to the alliance, could become on of the bigger supporter of . Bulgaria. in the EU parliament. ...

Google Blogs Search: Religion in Bulgaria,
Tue Jul 27 11:41:06 2010
[Hide]▲