Nil Izvorov

Nil Izvorov (Bulgarian: Нил Изворов 1823–1905) was a Bulgarian priest, activist of the Bulgarian National Revival and participant in the struggle for an independent Bulgarian Church. In 1874, as a bishop of the Orthodox Church he became Bulgarian Uniate and Apostolic Administrator of the Bulgarian Uniates in the Ottoman Empire. At the end of his life returned to the Orthodoxy.

Biography

Nil Izvorov was born in Ruse in August 1823 under the name Nikola Dimitrov. In November 1842 he enrolled as a monk in the monastery "Cocosh" in Niculițel where he remained until 1862. From 1863 he was a chairman of the parish council in Ruse. In 1872 he was invited by the Bulgarian Orthodox Exarch in Constantinople, and was ordained in the Episcopal rank in July 1873 with the title Smolenski. Early next year he was sent to Thessalonica to help the building of the structures of Bulgarian Exarchate.

Nil went to Macedonia without the necessary documents, causing protests of the Porte. The Exarchate, which was under pressure agreed to recall Nil, but he refused to obey. This situation was key to his conversion to Uniatism. His refusal was associated with the uncertain status of some Bulgarian municipalities in Macedonia in the process of their separation from the Greek Patriarchate and their switch to the newly formed Bulgarian Exarchate. At this time there was widespread rumor that the Bulgarian Church was preparing an agreement with the Greek Patriarchate, whereby the Exarchate should abandon its positions in Macedonia. The rumor was based on the real position of the Russian ambassador in Constantinople Count Nicholas Ignatiev, who was restrained on the issue of extension of the Bulgarian Exarchate's influence in Macedonia.