On April 3, 1860, the Bulgarians of Constantinople held an action that was one of the high points in the Bulgarian Renaissance struggles - for the first time a church service was held in Bulgarian in Constantinople.
This marked the beginning of the struggle for church independence and the separation of the Bulgarian Church from the Greek Patriarchate.
The day of the Resurrection of Christ was hardly chosen by chance. At that time, the Bulgarians were in acute conflict with Catholic aspirations in the East. They had to maneuver between all the great powers, fight against the powerful patriarchate, the heir to the Byzantine past, and cautiously bypass the Sublime Porte.
The feast of the Resurrection of Christ was particularly suitable for such actions demonstrating independence. In the church of "St. Stephen" in Constantinople, during the church service, Bishop Hilarion Makariopolsky did not mention the name of the Ecumenical Greek Patriarch. In this way, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church separated from the Greek Patriarchate.
In our national calendar, the date April 3 is still a blank field.
Georgi S. Rakovski himself highly appreciates what happened on that day, claiming that in the new Bulgarian calendar, April 3 should be honored as one of the greatest holidays associated with our nationality.
With this statement, Rakovski most likely wanted to draw the attention of Bulgarians to one of the most important days in their new calendar, but after the events that followed in our history, the Bulgarian calendar is filled with very important dates and it seems that this date has not yet found its place.