Abstract
In this essay, I investigate the Paulician communities that lived in Ottoman Bulgaria between the 17th and 18th centuries. At the end of the 16th century, a group of Bosnian Franciscans founded a Catholic mission there and began to convert the Paulicians. However, Paulician religious conduct remained tied to ancient customs, traditions and rituals perceived by the missionaries as superstitions. In particular, the vast majority of Paulician converts continued to practise animal sacrifice (commonly known as ‘Kurban’). Catholic missionaries and bishops active in the area tried to manage this controversial custom and sometimes ended up tolerating it. The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, on the other hand, ended up anathematising the tradition as a superstitious and pagan ritual in the second half of the 18th century: did they succeed in achieving these goals permanently?
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