St. Clement of Ohrid, Khan/kniaz Boris-Mikhail and Kniaz/tsar Simeon: Historical Aspects

Abstract

Eastern and southwestern Macedonia, as well as southern Albania, became parts of Bulgaria in the first decade of the rule of Khan Boris. After his baptism (864/865) and the establishment of an archbishopric (870; 880), the renewal of the former Byzantine church organization on Bulgaria’s territory began. In the eastern parts, the process unfolded slowly because of the strength of the ruling ethnic Bulgarian class, which was pagan; in the western parts, however, the organization of church eparchies went more easily because the local, predominantly Slavic, population had accepted Christianity centuries earlier. This was exactly the reason why Boris-Mikhail sent the disciples of Cyril and Methodius, who had just arrived (885/886) and were well versed in holding religious services in the Slavonic language, to the remote southwest of the country to carry out the so-called “Slavonic Project.” These disciples (including Clement and his associates—Naum, Konstantin, and other unnamed companions) started training local people to serve as clergymen and formed a church structure in Kutmičevica in order to introduce religious services in the Slavonic language in those regions. When Kniaz Simeon came to power, he continued Boris’s “Slavonic Project,” which thus continued to be focused in the southwestern regions of Bulgaria. On being ordained the first Slavonic bishop, Clement organized his eparchy by ethnic (Slavonic) rather than territorial principles. It was Naum who continued his mission to educate people. Konstantin, for his part, was assigned bishop of Bregalnica when Bulgaria expanded close to Thessaloniki (904) in the early 10th century. Sources suggest that the fourth Slavonic bishop was Marko of Devol, one of Clement’s students, and therefore the question of the existence of a third Slavonic bishop has inevitably been raised. As of recently, scholars have been arguing that this third bishop is to be located in Pelagonija. The existence of these four Slavonic bishops and the location of the territories in which they served undoubtedly suggests that Boris’s “Slavonic Project” had chronological continuity and that it spread during Simeon’s rule to the neighboring Slavonic regions, along the Bregalnica and the surrounding area, and perhaps to Pelagonija as well. Their activities in the aforementioned regions continued at least until the middle of the 10th century.