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History Byzantine Empire Crusades Ecumenical council Great Schism Eastern Christianity refers collectively to the Christian traditions and churches which developed in Greece, the Balkans, the rest of Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, northeastern Africa and southern India over several centuries of religious antiquity. ... Image File history File links HY002563. ... What Up. ... This article is about the medieval crusades. ... In Christianity, an Ecumenical Council or general council is a meeting of the bishops of the whole church convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Traditions Assyrian Church of the East Oriental Orthodoxy Syriac Christianity Eastern Orthodox Church Eastern Rite Catholics The Holy Apostolic and Catholic Assyrian Church of the East under His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV, is a Christian church that traces its origins to the See of Babylon, said to be founded by Saint Thomas the Apostle. ... The term Oriental Orthodoxy refers to the communion of Eastern Christian Churches that recognize only the first three ecumenical councils — the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople and the Council of Ephesus — and rejected the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon. ... Syriac Christianity is a culturally and linguistically distinctive community within Eastern Christianity. ... The Eastern Orthodox Church is a religious organization which claims to be the continuation of the original Christian body, founded by Jesus and his Twelve Apostles. ... The domes of an Ukrainian Catholic parish in Simpson, Pennsylvania This article refers to Eastern Churches in full communion with the See of Rome. ...

Liturgy and Worship Divine Liturgy Iconography The Divine Liturgy is the common term for the eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. ... Iconography usually refers to the design or creation of images and more specifically to the historical study of art which aims at the identification, description and the interpretation of the content of images. ...

Theology Apophaticism - Filioque clause Miaphysitism - Monophysitism Nestorianism - Panentheism Theosis Negative theology - also known as the Via Negativa (Latin for Negative Way) and Apophatic theology - is a theology that attempts to describe God by negation, to speak of God only in terms of what may not be said about God. ... In Christian theology the filioque clause or filioque controversy (filioque meaning and [from] the Son) is a heavily disputed part of the Nicene Creed, that forms a divisive difference between some Christian sects. ... Miaphysitism is the christology of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. ... Monophysitism (from the Greek monos meaning one, alone and physis meaning nature) is the christological position that Christ has only one nature, as opposed to the Chalcedonian position which holds that Christ has two natures, one divine and one human. ... Nestorianism is the Christian doctrine that Jesus existed as two persons, the man Jesus and the divine Son of God, or Logos, rather than as a unified person. ... Panentheism (Greek words: pan=all, en=in and Theos=God; all-in-God) is the view that God is immanent within all Creation or that God is the animating force behind the universe. ... In Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic theology, theosis, meaning divinization (or deification or, to become god), is the call to man to become holy and seek union with God, beginning in this life and later consummated in the resurrection. ... This box: view • talk • edit

The Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church is a Byzantine Rite sui juris particular Church of the Catholic Church. The Byzantine Rite, sometimes called Constantinopolitan, is the liturgical rite used (in various languages) by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches and by several Eastern Rite particular Churches within the Catholic Church. ... The Latin term sui juris means of ones own right. ... A Particular Church , in Roman Catholic theology and canon law, is any of the individual constituent ecclesial communities in full communion with the Church of Rome and thus make up the Catholic Communion. ... The Roman Catholic Church or Catholic Church (see Terminology below) is the Christian Church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, currently Pope Benedict XVI. It traces its origins to the original Christian community founded by Jesus, with its traditions first established by the Twelve Apostles and maintained through...

History

Under Tsar Boris (853-889) 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 971. In 1186 the Bulgarian state regained its independence, and in 1235 the Patriarch of Constantinople recognized the independence of the Bulgarian Church and the right of its leader to the patriarchal title. The Ottoman conquest of 1393 put an end to that patriarchate, whose territory was reunited with that of Constantinople. Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth, and on his life, death, resurrection, and teachings as presented in the New Testament. ... The Byzantine Rite, sometimes called Constantinopolitan, is the liturgical rite used (in various languages) by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches and by several Eastern Rite particular Churches within the Catholic Church. ... Church Slavonic may refer to: Old Church Slavonic language Church Slavonic language This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... For other senses, see Patriarch (disambiguation). ... Map of Constantinople. ...

In the succeeding centuries the Bulgarian Church was gradually Hellenized: Greek was used in the liturgy, and the bishops were ethnic Greeks. The rise of nationalism in the nineteenth century brought opposition to this situation. To end the ensuing conflict and in response to Russian requests, the Sultan decreed on 12 March 1870 the establishment of a Bulgarian Exarchate, independent of the Patriarch of Constantinople, as a result of which the latter excommunicated the Bulgarian Church, a measure not recognized by other autocephalous Orthodox Churches but which was withdrawn only in 1945. Only in 1953 has the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church again taken the title of Patriarch. March 12 is the 71st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (72nd in leap years). ... 1870 (MDCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... In the Byzantine Empire, an exarch was an essentially military viceroy who governed a part of the empire at some remove from the central (oriental) authorities, the Emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Bulgarian: , Bylgarska pravoslavna cyrkva) is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with some 6. ...

This is the background of the approaches that some influential Bulgarians made to Rome in 1859-1861, in the hope that union with Rome would gain their Church the freedom they felt Constantinople was denying them. Pope Pius IX accepted their request and himself ordained Archimandrite Joseph Sokolsky as archbishop for them on 8 April 1861. Pius IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti (May 13, 1792 – February 7, 1878), was Pope for a record pontificate (not counting the Apostle St. ... April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

Though Archbishop Sokolsky, who had won recognition from the Ottoman authorities, was almost immediately removed on a Russian ship and held in Kiev for the remainder of his life, the movement for union with Rome initially won some 60,000 adherents, but, as a result of the Sultan's establishment in 1870 of the Bulgarian Exarchate, at least three quarters of these returned to Orthodoxy by the end of the century.

As a result of the 1912-1913 Balkan Wars and the 1914-1918 First World War, many Bulgarians fled from the territories of present-day Greece and Turkey to what is now Bulgaria. In 1926, an Apostolic Exarchate was established for the pastoral care of the Byzantine Catholics among them. This was arranged largely with the help of Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, who in 1925 was named Apostolic Visitator and, later, Apostolic Delegate for Bulgaria, where he stayed until 1934. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Blessed Pope John XXIII (Latin: ), (Italian: Giovanni XXIII), born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (November 25, 1881 – June 3, 1963), was elected as the 261st Pope of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City on October 28, 1958. ...

Unlike other Communist regimes in eastern Europe, the Communist government that took power in Bulgaria after the Second World War did not abolish the Byzantine Catholic Church, but did subject it to severe restrictions, which are said to have been somewhat eased after the election of Pope John XXIII on 28 October 1958. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... October 28 is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 64 days remaining. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

At the end of 2004, the Apostolic Exarchate of Sofia had some 10,000 Catholics in 21 parishes, cared for by 5 diocesan and 16 religious priests, with 17 other male religious and 41 female religious.

Sources

• Oriente Cattolico (Vatican City: The Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Churches, 1974)
• Annuario Pontificio

The Annuario Pontificio or Pontifical Yearbook is the annual directory of the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church. ...

External links

• Eastern Catholic Pastoral Association of Southern California on the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church
• Catholic Churches