Ivan Antonov ( bg, Иван Антонов) was a
Bulgarian revolutionary, an archpriest, and a proponent for the
Bulgarian Exarchate
The Bulgarian Exarchate ( bg, Българска екзархия, Balgarska ekzarhiya; tr, Bulgar Eksarhlığı) was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and th ...
in
Macedonia
Macedonia most commonly refers to:
* North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia
* Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity
* Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...
.
Biography
Ivan Antonov was born in 1882 in the town of
Petrich, today's
Bulgaria, then part of the
Ottoman Empire. He studied in Petrich and later in the Bulgarian Pedagogical School in
Serres. In 1905, he finished the Bulgarian Theological School in
Istanbul with distinctions. The same year he was appointed teacher in Serres.
In 1906, he became a member of the Serres committee of the
Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization (IMARO). Because of betrayal, he was arrested by the authorities and imprisoned in
Edikule, a prison in
Thessaloniki, and later sentenced to life imprisonment on the
Rhodes Island.
In 1908 he was released with an amnesty; on 23 April he was appointed priest in
Vratsa and, on 2 July, chosen president of the Bulgarian municipality of Petrich. As its president, Angelov developed and strengthened the positions of the
Bulgarian Exarchate
The Bulgarian Exarchate ( bg, Българска екзархия, Balgarska ekzarhiya; tr, Bulgar Eksarhlığı) was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and th ...
in the region of Petrich. From 1910 to 1913, Ivan Antonov was a president of the Bulgarian municipality of
Prilep.
After the break of the
Balkan War in 1912, Antonov openly opposed the anti-Bulgarian policy of assimilation of the
Serbian authorities, for which he was arrested, tortured and expelled to Bulgaria in June 1913. At first, he moved with his family to Vratsa, and later in
Lukovit
Lukovit ( bg, Луковит ) is a town in northern Bulgaria, part of Lovech Province. It is situated on both banks of the Zlatna Panega between the Danubian Plain and the foot of Stara Planina. As of December 2009, the town has a population ...
.
Ivan Antonov died in Lukovit in 1928.
References
* Албумъ-алманахъ "Македония". Отдел VI, Табло XL-144, София, 1931.
* Енциклопедия „Пирински край“. Том 1, Благоевград, 1995.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antonov, Ivan
1882 births
1928 deaths
People from Petrich
People from Lukovit
Members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
Bulgarian educators
Bulgarian revolutionaries
Macedonian Bulgarians