Spiridon Gabrovski (1740;

Gabrovo Gabrovo ( bg, Габрово ) is a town in central northern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Gabrovo Province. It is situated at the foot of the central Balkan Mountains, in the valley of the Yantra River, and is known as an internatio ...

– 1824;

Rila monastery The Monastery of Saint John of Rila, also known as Rila Monastery "Sveti Ivan Rilski" ( bg, Рилски манастир „Свети Иван Рилски“), is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situate ...

), also known as Spiridon Rilski, was a Bulgarian clergyman and

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

of the

Bulgarian National Awakening The Bulgarian National Awakening ( bg, Ранно възраждане) is the initial period of the Bulgarian National Revival in the history of Bulgaria, from the Treaty of Karlowitz to the Ottoman coups of 1807–08. During this historical per ...

in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. Gabrovski was born in Gabrovo in 1740. He worked on

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penins ...

, spending many years in the

Zograf monastery The Saint George the Zograf Monastery or Zograf Monastery ( bg, Зографски манастир; el, Μονή Ζωγράφου, ''Moní Zográphou'') is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos (the "Holy Mountain") i ...

and the

Hilandar monastery The Hilandar Monastery ( sr-cyr, Манастир Хиландар, Manastir Hilandar, , el, Μονή Χιλανδαρίου) is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos in Greece and the only Serbian monastery there. It wa ...

. Between 1747 and 1763, due to disagreement between the Bulgarian and Serbian monks there, he settled in the

Pantokrator Monastery '' '' tr, Zeyrek Camii'' , image = Molla Zeyrek Camii.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption =The mosque viewed from north east. From left to right, one can see the apses of the ''Church of Christ Pantocrato ...

, with his spiritual father, the hermit

Paisius Velichkovsky Saint Paisius Velichkovsky or Wieliczkowski (''Paisie de la Neamţ'' in Romanian; Паисий Величковский in Russian; Паїсій Величковський in Ukrainian; 20 December 1722 – 15 November 1794) was an Eastern Orthodo ...

. In 1763, together with Velichkovsky, they left Mount Athos and went to

Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...

with 64 other monks. In 1779, the group settled in the

Neamț Monastery The Neamț Monastery ( ro, Mănăstirea Neamț) is a Romanian Orthodox religious settlement, one of the oldest and most important of its kind in Romania. It was built in the 15th century, and it is an example of medieval Moldavian architecture. ...

near

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...

. Spiridon Gabrovski used the library of the monastery to supplement his knowledge and in 1792 he managed to complete a ''"Short history of the Bulgarian Slavic people"''. The book contains a wealth of factual material freely used by Father Spiridon. Spiridon approached the so-called

Illyrism The Illyrian movement ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Ilirski pokret, Илирски покрет; sl, Ilirsko gibanje) was a Yugoslavism, pan-South-Slavic cultural and political campaign with roots in the early modern period, and revived by a group of young Cr ...

, which declares the ancient Illyrians, to be

early Slavs The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central and Eastern Europe and established the foundations for the S ...

. Spiridon tried to legitimize the

Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely understo ...

("Illyrians") through

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

, presented entirely in a positive light. Alexander defeated the "Illyrian" king

Perun In Slavic mythology, Perun (Cyrillic: Перýн) is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, iris, eagle, f ...

, but included the ''Illyrians'' in his army and even gave the two sons of Perun the power over Macedonia itself, and he himself established his capital in Babylon. In 1794, after the death of Paisius Velichkovsky, he left the Neamt monastery and settled finally in the

, where he died in 1824.Two "Greek" images in the history of the monk Spiridon, in Bulgarian

References

{{Reflist Bulgarian historians Bulgarian writers 1740 births 1824 deaths 18th-century Bulgarian people 19th-century Bulgarian people 19th-century Eastern Orthodox bishops 18th-century Eastern Orthodox clergy