John of Debar ( bg, Йоан Дебърски;

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

1018–1037) was an 11th-century

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

man. He was a bishop under Emperor Samuel of Bulgaria. According to

Srđan Pirivatrić Srđan Pirivatrić ( sr-Cyrl, Срђан Пириватрић) is a Serbian historian and diplomat. Biography He was born in 1966 in Belgrade. In 1984, Pirivatrić completed his secondary education, and in 1990 he graduated from the Belgrade Un ...

he became the last Bulgarian patriarch David in 1016. He remained in office, becoming the first Archbishop of Ohrid, after the fall of the

First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire ( cu, блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ, blagarysko tsesarystviye; bg, Първо българско царство) was a medieval Bulgar- Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Europ ...

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' cont ...

.Пириватрич, Сърджан. Самуиловата държава. Обхват и характер. София, Издателска група "АГАТА-А", 2000. , с. 197, 233-234 When in 1018 Emperor

Basil II Basil II Porphyrogenitus ( gr, Βασίλειος Πορφυρογέννητος ;) and, most often, the Purple-born ( gr, ὁ πορφυρογέννητος, translit=ho porphyrogennetos).. 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar S ...

managed to conquer Bulgaria, he issued a decree to downgrade the Patriarchate of the

Bulgarian Orthodox Church The Bulgarian Orthodox Church ( bg, Българска православна църква, translit=Balgarska pravoslavna tsarkva), legally the Patriarchate of Bulgaria ( bg, Българска патриаршия, links=no, translit=Balgarsk ...

to the Archbishopric of Ohrid, which remained autocephalous and corresponded to the newly formed

theme of Bulgaria The Theme of Bulgaria () was a province of the Byzantine Empire established by Emperor Basil II after the conquest of Bulgaria in 1018. Its capital was Scupi (or Skoupoi) and it was governed by a strategos. The local inhabitants were ''Bulgaria ...

. John was chosen to be the first Archbishop of Ohrid. According to 17th-century French historian

du Cange Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange (; December 18, 1610 in Amiens – October 23, 1688 in Paris, aged 77), also known simply as Charles Dufresne, was a distinguished French philologist and historian of the Middle Ages and Byzantium. Life Educate ...

, John was born in a village around the town of Debar in today

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

, and had been a hegumen in a Debar monastery.Du Cange. Familiae augustae Byzantinae, I. 174-175. He remained head of the Archbishopric until his death in 1037.

References and notes

10th-century births 1037 deaths 11th-century Byzantine people 11th-century Bulgarian people Archbishops of Ohrid People from Debar Municipality People from medieval Macedonia Byzantine people of Slavic descent {{EasternOrthodoxy-bishop-stub