International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Trendafil Krastanov
Sofia, Bulgaria;
[e-mail]
Apostolic Diocese to Moravian Archbishops in Illyric St. Methodius, Gorazdus, 
John Exarch and St. Clement, Bishop of Tiberioupolis (893) and Velitza (906) 
in Provincia Bulgaria Occidental
New sources give possibilities to make a hypothesis, that St. Methodius was a Bishop of 
Pannonia on the diocese of Andronicus, an apostle of the 70
th
and after 873 as Archbishop of the 
town Morava in Ilyricum. Because in this time this part of Illyricum was in Bulgarian state, as a 
Methodius is in The Du Cange Catalogue Archbishops of Bulgaria.
A canonic Nota sobre el arzobispada de Bulgaria de Escorial (Tovar 1962, Prinzing 1978) 
demonstrated continuation of the Justiniana Prima as Bulgarian Church similar to Church of 
Cartagena with a primas or прэболии In slavonian or Bulgarian or Slavic language for ὁ πρῶτος, i. 
e. the first. Therefore, “The first Bishop of Bulgarian Language” is first in chronological order (869) 
when Bulgaria is in the diocese of Roman Church (866-870) and as the first primas archbishop of 
the Provincia Illyricum or Provincia Bulgaria occidental St. Methodius after 873-885, followed by 
St. Gorazdus (885-) and by John the Exarch five years after Methodius Interim in Moravia annis 
quinque, interpontificio durante, tandem Johannes Moravus in locum Methodii cooptatus est…
(Бърлиева 1992).
John archbishop of Bulgaria in the end of 9
th
century (Йорданов 2013) consecrated Clement 
as bishop of Tiberiupolis (893) and after them as bishop of Velegrad or Velitza (906) (Cod.Vat. gr. 
2492, f.85v Кръстанов 1999). There are and now memory about same Bishopric Velitza in Papal 
yearbook Vescovati titolari Bela (Velitza), Provincia Bulgaria occidental in Annuario pontificio per 
l’dmmo 1972, p.608.
I suppose that John Exarch “worked in Rome” as diplomat, translator of a Tolkovno evangelie or 
the 40 Homilies for the Gospel to pope Gregori the Great from Latin language in his native Bulgarian 
language, “fidelis” intrusive to pope John the eighth, Exarch, archbishop of Bulgaria and the first 
patriarch of Bulgaria in the time of Symeon (917-927) is made a legend about apostolic continuation 
of the Bulgarian patriarchate similar as the patriarchate of Constantinople, increased from apostles of 
the 70-th and introduced from imperators Constantine the Great and Justinian the First.

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