Bulgarian Exarchate

The Bulgarian Exarchate (Bulgarian: Българска екзархия, romanized: Balgarska ekzarhiya; Turkish: Bulgar Eksarhlığı) was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was restored in 1953.

The Exarchate (a de facto autocephaly) was unilaterally (without the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarch) decreed by the Ottoman Empire on May 23 [O.S. May 11] 1872, in the Bulgarian church in Constantinople in pursuance of the March 12 [O.S. February 28] 1870 firman of Sultan Abdulaziz.

The foundation of the Exarchate was the direct result of the actions of the most extreme Bulgarian nationalists under leadership of Dragan Tsankov, himself a Catholic, against the authority of the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople in the 1850s and 1860s. In 1872, the Patriarchate was forced to declare that the Exarchate introduced ethno-national characteristics in the religious organization of the Orthodox Church, and the secession from the Patriarchate was officially condemned by the Council in Constantinople in September 1872 as schismatic. Nevertheless, Bulgarian religious leaders continued to extend the borders of the Exarchate in the Ottoman Empire by conducting plebiscites in areas contested by both Churches.

In this way, in the struggle for recognition of a separate Church, the modern Bulgarian nation was created under the name Bulgarian Millet.