The Assumptionists' Quest For a Religious Leader in The Ottoman Lands: The Bulgarian Uniate Church Movement in Victorin Galabert's Diary (1862-1867)

Abstract

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Bulgarians sought to establish a national church independent from the Greek Patriarchate. This coincided with the expansion of the missionary activities of the Roman Catholic Church in the Ottoman lands through the Assumptionist sect. A member of this sect, the French bishop Victorin Galabert, was sent to Constantinople in 1862 to conduct Catholic missionary work. He was specifically assigned to establish the Bulgarian Catholic-Uniate Church. During his assignment, Galabert kept a diary of his personal experiences and impressions of the places he went and the events he witnessed. His diary, which apparently has never been studied by scholars, offers a close-up view of the Catholic orthodox conflict in Ottoman geography, as well as unique clues as to why efforts to establish a Bulgarian national church failed. The purpose of this study is to reconsider why the attempts to establish an independent Bulgarian national church failed in the 1860s, in the light of the information revealed by Galabert's diary. This study argues that the main reasons for the failure of efforts to establish a Bulgarian national church are the Catholic Church's underestimation of Russian influence in the region, and the problem of trust between the Bulgarians and the Catholic Church.