Boris I of Bulgaria
Boris I or sometimes
Boris-Mihail (Michael),
Bulgarian:
Борис I (Михаил), known also as
Bogoris (died
May 2,
907) was the ruler of
Bulgaria 852–
889 and Bulgaria's first
Christian monarch. At the time of his
baptism in
864, Boris was named Michael after his godfather, Emperor
Michael III.
Boris I was the son and successor of
Presian I of Bulgaria. At the time of his accession, Boris was engaged in a campaign in
Macedonia, and Bulgaria was invaded by the East Franks, who defeated Boris and his Slavic allies in
853. Peace was restored in that quarter by
855, and Boris turned his attention to the tension along the Bulgaro-Byzantine frontier, placing an ultimatum before the imperial government at
Constantinople. The crisis was averted, and Boris made an alliance with the King
Louis the German of the East Franks against Prince
Rastislav of
Great Moravia and the ruler of
Croatia. The allies achieved some success in
863, but Boris suffered a defeat during his invasion of
Serbia at an unspecified point in his reign. In the end the Bulgarian monarch had to conclude peace treaties with both Serbians and Croatians. In spite of various reverses, Boris succeeded in maintaining the territorial integrity of his realm.
For a variety of reasons, Boris became interested in converting to Christianity and undertook to do that at the hands of western clergymen to be supplied by
Louis the German in
863. However, late in the same year, the
Byzantine Empire invaded Bulgaria during a period of famine and natural disasters. Taken by surprise, Boris was forced to sue for peace and agreed to convert to Christianity according to the eastern rites in exchange for peace and territorial concessions in
Thrace. At the beginning of
864 Boris was secretly baptized at
Pliska by an embassy of Byzantine clergymen, together with his family and select members of the Bulgarian nobility. With Emperor
Michael III as his godfather, Boris also adopted the Christian name Michael. Boris' conversion inspired a reaction by his pagan subjects, including many important notables. Matters came to a head in
865, when Boris was faced with open revolt in all of Bulgaria's administrative districts. Boris ruthlessly suppressed the revolt and executed 52 boyars together with their entire families. At the same time he sought further instruction on how to lead a Christian lifestyle and society and how to set up an autocephalous church from the Byzantine Patriarch
Photios.
Photios' answer proved less than satisfactory, and Boris sought to gain a more favorable settlement from the
Papacy. Boris dispatched emissaires with a long list of questions to
Pope Nicholas I at Rome in August
866, and obtained 106 detailed answers, detailing the essence of
religion,
law,
politics,
customs and personal
faith. The pope temporarily glossed over the controversial question of the autocephalous status desired by Boris for his church and sent a large group of missionaries to continue the conversion of Bulgaria in accordance with the western rite. Bulgaria's shift towards the Papacy infuriated Patriarch Photios who wrote an encyclical to the eastern clergy in
867, in which he denounced the practices associated with the western rite and Rome's ecclesiastical intervention in Bulgaria. This occasioned the
Photian Schism, which was a major step in the rift between the eastern and western churches.
In Bulgaria the activities of the papal legate Bishop Formosus (later
Pope Formosus) met with success, until the pope rejected Boris' request to nominate Formosus archbishop of Bulgaria. The new
Pope Adrian II refused Boris' request for a similar nomination of either Formosus or Deacon Marinus (later
Pope Marinus I), after which Bulgaria began to shift towards Constantinople once again. At the
Fourth Council of Constantinople in
870 the position of the Bulgarian church was reopened by Bulgarian envoys, and the eastern patriarchs adjudicated in favor of Constantinople. This determined the future of the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which was granted the status of an autocephalous archbishopric by the
Patriarchate of Constantinople. Later in the
870s the Patriarch of Constantinople surrendered Bulgaria to the Papacy, but this concession was purely nominal, as it did not affect the actual position of Bulgaria's autocephalous church.
In
886 Boris' governor of
Belgrade welcomed the disciples of
Saint Cyril and
Saint Methodius, who were exiled from
Great Moravia into Bulgaria and sent them on to Boris in
Pliska. Two of these disciples,
Clement of Ohrid and
Naum of Preslav, set up educational centers in
Pliska and in
Ohrid to further the development of Slavonic letters and
liturgy. The alphabet originally developed by Cyril and Methodius came to be known as the
Glagolitic alphabet and was adopted by other
Slavic peoples. The introduction of Slavic liturgy paralleled Boris' continued development of churches and monasteries throughout his realm.
In
889 Boris abdicated the throne and became a monk. His son and successor
Vladimir attempted a pagan reaction, which brought Boris out of retirement in
893. Vladimir was defeated and blinded, and Boris placed his third son,
Simeon I of Bulgaria on the throne, threatening him with the same fate if he too apostatized. Boris returned to his monastery, emerging once again in c.
895 to help Simeon fight the
Magyars, who had invaded Bulgaria in alliance with the Byzantines. After the passing of this crisis, Boris resumed monastic life and died in
907.
* Jordan Andreev, Ivan Lazarov, Plamen Pavlov,
Koj koj e v srednovekovna Bălgarija, Sofia 1999.
* John V.A. Fine Jr.,
The Early Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbor, 1983.
*http://www.bulgaria.com/history/rulers/boris1.html
