Bulgarian Archbishop Joseph Sokolovsky and his relationships with Rome and Russia

• Main Author: Kolupaev Vladimir Evgen'yevich
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Modern Humanitarian Researches 2016-04-01
• Series: Studia Humanitatis
• Subjects: Byzantine Catholicrite; Greek Catholics; Uniates; Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church; the hierarchy of the Catholic Church; the Greek Catholicism in the Russian Empire
• Online Access: http://st-hum.ru/en/node/372/

The article gives an outline of a life story of the first Bulgarian Catholic bishop Joseph Sokolsky, who united with the Church of Rome to find a way out of a difficult church-political situation. The situation was provoked as a result of the national liberation movement and the awareness of the Bulgarian National Church in overcoming obstacles on the part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the authorities of the Ottoman Empire confrontation. This confrontation intensified in joining the Church and the political process of the Russian Empire. The article also describes Sokolsky’s arrest and life in Kiev, his participation in the life of the Greek-Catholic communities at the western boundaries of the Russian Empire.