The king who led the Bulgarians to become Christian: Who is Boris l?
When he became the ruler in 852, the invasions of the first Bulgarian Khanate in the Balkans continued with all their intensity. However, the fact that the majority of the Slavs in the captured areas were Christians affected the character of the Bulgarian Khanate.
(? – 907) Bulgarian king. He pioneered the Bulgarians to leave paganism and become Christians. His birth is unknown. He died in Preslav on May 15, 907. He is the son of Presivan, nephew, and successor of Malamir. When he became the ruler in 852, the invasions of the first Bulgarian Khanate in the Balkans continued with all their intensity. However, the fact that the majority of the Slavs in the captured areas were Christians affected the character of the Bulgarian Khanate. Among the Bulgarians, besides Slavicization, Christianity also became more and more widespread.
Knyaz Boris I (also Bogoris), venerated as Saint Tsar Boris I (Mihail) the Baptizer (died 2 May 907), was the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire in 852–889. At the time of his baptism in 864, Boris was named Michael after his godfather, Emperor Michael III. The historian Steven Runciman called him one of the greatest persons in history.
Boris I envisaged accepting Christianity as the official religion and Slavic as the official language in order to protect his khanate, which was surrounded by Christian states from all sides, and to create a strong state with the unity of religion and language. In 865, he joined the Orthodox church in Istanbul and made Christianity the official religion of the Bulgarians.
However, the pagan Turkish and Bulgarian Boyars rebelled against this decision. Boris violently suppressed these uprisings. Despite the objections of the boyars, he forced the people to become Christians. In order not to fall under the influence of Byzantium, he tried to make the Bulgarian church a national church connected to Istanbul only in name.
Later, Boris, who accepted Slavic as the official language, translated the Bible into Slavic and accepted the apostles of Cyril and Methodius brothers, who contributed greatly to the conversion of the Slavs to Christianity and created religious literature in the Slavic language.
The Cyrillic alphabet became the official alphabet of the Bulgarians. After making these arrangements, Boris I withdrew to a monastery, leaving the throne to his eldest son Vladimir in 889. However, when Vladimir sided with the Turkish Boyars, who were dissatisfied with Christianity and turned to paganism, he dethroned him and put his younger son, Simeon, who had received religious education in Istanbul, to the throne in 893. Retired to the monastery, he practiced religion until his death.