„We must realize that the church, along with its main task to include people in the Christian faith, had a great role in shaping Bulgaria as a country. "Some of our most interesting historical figures were also leaders of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church," he said in the program "This Sunday". on bTV the historian Assoc. Todor Chobanov.
He pointed out that there are patriarchs who left a very bright mark both in the First Bulgarian Kingdom and in the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, and also after that. According to him, the most popular is Patriarch Euthymius, and not by chance, as he was a unifying figure for the resistance of the Kingdom of Tarnovo against the Ottomans.
„Patriarch Damian is less known, but he actually lived through the hard years of the wars against the First Bulgarian Kingdom – both from the south and from the north. This is the man who inspired Samuil and his brothers to wage war against Byzantium and defend the independence of our country," said Associate Professor Todor Chobanov.
He added that Bulgarian priests played an important role in the revolutionary movement. These are the people who forged the foundation of modern Bulgarian statehood.
„If Grandpa Maxim had to preserve what was at the time of another political regime, then Grandpa Neofit managed to make the final transition in this process and set an example for everyone with his humility,“, also said the theologian Kliment Hristov .
He thinks one was silent and the other – humble and inspiring.
„Grandpa Neophyte was an exceptional person. A person gifted by God with various qualities. A person who inspires people. He will be remembered for the fact that he was able to collect the spiritual remains of the great division that we witnessed in the 1990s,“ explained Associate Professor Todor Chobanov.