Methodius (Kusev)

Early years

He was born in September 1838 ^[6] or 1840 ^[4] in the large Bulgarian Macedonian city of Prilep. He is the sixth child in the family of tobacco merchant Jovce and his wife Catherine ^{[7] [8]} . Todor's parents died early. He and his brothers and sister were raised and educated by the inhabitants of the same city ^[6] . His brothers Gorce and Konstantin developed extensive trading activities and wealth. ^[9] . His brother Dame Kusev became a member of the revolutionary organization “Nea Filiki Eteria” created in 1867 ^[10] . His nephew, Georgiy Kusev, became a famous Bulgarian industrialist ^[11] .

Todor received his primary education in his hometown in the private school of Kostadin Dingov, and then studied at the Greek basic school ^[12] . Todor Kusev took part in organizing guild associations in the city, expelling the “Greek lovers” (supporters of the Constantinople Patriarchate) from the Church and the school, and founding the Bulgarian “Nadezhda” center and the Sunday school in his native Prilep in 1867 ^[8] . Kusev became one of the leaders of the Bulgarian church movement in Prilep, being the leader of the party of young people in the Prilep Bulgarian community . When divided with the “Greeks” who built themselves a new church in 1871, Kusev said in his speech in the Bulgarian church: “Let anathema be to a Bulgarian who would help with something to build the Greek church and who would cross its threshold” ( Bulgarian. Anathema, yes to each other, Bulgarian, Coito Bi helped with the construction of the carcass, and Coito Bi attacked Prague п ^[13] ).

Participation in the institution at the Bulgarian Exarchate (1871–1873)

Kusev was a delegate from the Pelagonian diocese at the First Bulgarian Church and People’s Cathedral in Constantinople in 1871. Even at the third preparatory meeting, Kusev substantiated the right of delegates from dioceses in Macedonia and Thrace, not mentioned in the firm on the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchy, to participate in the council. According to Kusev, the Macedonian Bulgarians from the very beginning were involved in the Bulgarian church struggle and have the right to vote in the matter of the arrangement of the Exarchate, into which they will enter ^[14] :

How not to accept them now that they have arrived? Maybe we kick them out? Not! The people will praise us. They are Bulgarians, so we must accept them. The very fact that they came shows that they are Bulgarians, and that they want to be Bulgarians; if someone tells us that they are not Bulgarians, let’s say this: here they are for them.

Original text (Bulgarian)

How did you not get segatas cata? Are we gonna drink? Not! People are not praised. Those sa bolgari, backstage tryabva yes gi reception. Samoto came to them with a show, Th se b'lgari, and Th seek yes b'lgari; Anyway, not a siren, but not a bulgarian, anyway: it’s gi, gi.

The speeches of Kusev and Gavril Krastevich prompted the majority of the participants in the council to approve the adoption of all representatives of the dioceses not mentioned in the firman ^[15] .

Kusev participated in the commission of the council, which introduced changes to the boundaries of the exarchist dioceses ^[16] . He worked on the development of rules and procedures for the management of the Prilep Bulgarian church community, arranged the archive in order, organized the selection of the leadership and the maintenance of the protocol book ^[17] . February 16, 1872 participated in the election of the first Bulgarian Exarch Anfim (Chalykov) . Then Kusev from 1872 to 1873 taught at the Bulgarian school in Constantinople ^[12] . He joined the Exarchist Council, established in December 1873 instead of the disbanded Church and People’s Cathedral ^[18] .

Kusev worked hard on introducing the 10th article of the firm about the Exarchia and sending the Bulgarian metropolitan to the Pelagonian diocese, which was still considered by the local authorities as belonging to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. He motivated his actions in front of the Ottoman government by large-scale abuses in the diocese. Together with Nayden Gerov, he visits the great vizier, who consequently allows the exarch to submit takrir (official appeal) ^[19] . As a result of the actions of Kusev Vysokaya, the governor in Bitola is ordered to reckon with the Bulgarian church hierarchy and those who represent it, and try “so that the Bulgarians would be very satisfied and be protected from father’s bullying and other acts of the [Constantinople] Patriarchate” ^[20] .

Contribution to the national liberation struggle (1876–1879)

April 4, 1873 at the insistence of Exarch Anfim Todor Kusev in the Bulgarian church of St. Stephen in Constantinople, Metropolitan Pelagonius Eustathius (Kolov) was tonsured a monk with the name of Methodius. Soon after this, Methodius became a hieromonk in Plovdiv ^[12] . On November 24 of the same year, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and was appointed Protosynkelle Plovdiv Metropolis . In this position he remained until 1880 ^[7] . In his unpublished Memories of the Bulgarian Revival, Methodius describes his stay in Plovdiv and the events of this period ^[21] . While in Plovdiv, Archimandrite Methodius organized the economic life of the diocese with the creation of a mutual assistance fund as opposed to usury ^[22] .

During the April Uprising, Archimandrite Methodius speaks to the Turkish authorities in defense of the uprising villages and prevents a second massacre in Perushtitsa ^[23] . Together with the Metropolitan of Plovdiv Panareth (Mishaykov) , Bishop Levkiysky Gervasiy (Georgiev) and the deacon Maxim (Pelov), he collects information about the bullying of the Bulgarian Christian population during the suppression of the uprising, and sends them secretly to Constantinople in May 1876 ^[12] . At the head of the People’s Commission created by the Exarchate (which includes Konstantin Velichkov , Georgy Tishev , Stefan Panaretov and Ivan Slaveykov ) ^{[24] [25]} , Archimandrite Methodius transmits the evidence collected to diplomatic missions and correspondents of European newspapers in the Ottoman capital ^[7] . The result of this is Edwin Pierce’s article of June 23 in the London-based opposition newspaper The Daily News about the atrocities against the Bulgarians, followed by the Constantinople Conference of Great Powers ^{[26] [12]} .

Methodius was the initiator of the letter of Ekharch Anfim I to the Metropolitan Isidore (Nikolsky) of St. Petersburg, in which Russian Emperor Alexander II wrote on his own hand on August 12, 1876, as a resolution “Bulgaria must be free!” ^[27] . As an intermediary between the Exarchy and the Bulgarian delegates to the Great Powers ^[12] , at the end of August Methodius (Kusev) convinces Marko Balabanov and Dragan Tsankov “to demand autonomy ... Bulgaria with Southern (Thrace) and Western (Macedonia) Bulgaria” ^[28] .

The People’s Commission, headed by Methodius (Kusev), is the basis of the project for the construction of the future Bulgarian autonomous region, which is presented along with a map and ethnographic statistics of proxies of large European states at the Conference of Constantinople (December 23, 1876 - January 20, 1877). Methodius (Kusev) and Georgi Gruev head the collection and processing of statistical information, which was published as an appendix to the French-language journal Le Courrier d'Orient , published in Constantinople, and later in a separate brochure entitled Ethnography of Adrianople, Manastir and Thessaloniki ” ^{[29] [30] [31]} . It contributes to the demonstrative absence of Exarch Anthma I at an official diplomatic reception in the High Port on the occasion of the new Turkish constitution, which expressed the disagreement of the Bulgarians with the half-reform in the Ottoman Empire ^[22] . In secret letters to Plovdiv, Sliven, and Stara Zagora, he urged the Bulgarians not to sign “thank-you addresses” collected by the Ottoman authorities in support of the new constitution, which was contrary to the draft Bulgarian autonomy ^{[32] [33]} .

On April 24, 1877, Archimandrite Methodius took part in the election of a new Bulgarian exarch, Joseph I, to the place of Anfim (Chalykov) expelled by the authorities ^[12] .

Under pressure from the Ottoman authorities, in April 1877, Archimandrite Methodius set off from Constantinople to Russia. In the Russian-Turkish war that began at the same time, he entered the service of the Russian command in northern Bulgaria ^[12] . Prince Vladimir Cherkassky advised the organizer of the civil administration on Bulgarian-Greek relations . In Tarnovo, Archimandrite Methodius organizes the placement of refugees and preaches against speculators and looters ^[34] . After the Odrinsk truce (January 31, 1878), he spoke to the Russian authorities in defense of the ethnic and territorial integrity of Bulgaria ^[12] .

Archimandrite Methodius participates in the resistance to the Berlin Treaty as one of the leaders of the Unity Plovdiv Committee, which fought for the immediate unification of Eastern Rumelia and the Principality of Bulgaria ^[35] and helped the Kresnensko-Razlozhsky uprising with money and volunteers ^{[36] [37]} .

Efforts to Strengthen Exarchy and Bulgarian Schools in Macedonia (1879–1886)

After the Berlin Treaty, Russia decided to move the headquarters of the Bulgarian Exarchy from Constantinople to the liberated lands. By order of Prince Dondukov-Korsakov, Exarch Joseph went to Plovdiv, questioning the Bulgarian church and educational institutions in the rest under the rule of the Ottoman Empire of Macedonia. In the summer of 1879, Archimandrite Methodius went to Constantinople to oppose Russian intentions. On his initiative, the local Bulgarians call for the return of the Exarch and threaten that otherwise the Macedonian population will seek union with the Catholic Church. The threat was not addressed to the exarch, but to Russian diplomacy in order to prevent the strengthening of the Greek Constantinople patriarchate in Macedonia and the Adrianople vilayet ^[38] . The messengers of Methodius received the consent of the papal vicar bishop Paolo Brunoni to establish a union on the terms of 1860. In this context, archimandrite also meets with the Austrian ambassador Count Ferenc Zichy ^[39] .

As a result of these actions and the personal ultimatum of Methodius in January 1880, Exarch Joseph returned to Constantinople with the consent of Russia. Immediately after this, the union initiative was discontinued ^{[39] [40]} . Methodius was appointed protosynkel of the Bulgarian Exarchy ^{[41] [38]} - a post that he held for the next six years ^[42] . From 1881 to 1883, while the exarch was being treated abroad, Methodius was temporarily managing the Bulgarian exarchate ^[22] . In this capacity, he persuades Russian diplomacy not to seek the abolition of the 1872 schism ^[12] and thus prevents the return of the Bulgarians to the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople ^[43] .

As deputy exarch, Archimandrite Methodius undertakes church enlightenment work in Macedonia and the Adrianople vilayet. According to Bozhil Rainov ^[44] :

three years after the liberation, the exarch lived in the Vasal principality of Bulgaria. The organization of churches, schools and communities was abandoned to the Exarchic Protosynkella, which, fortunately for the Bulgarians, was Archimandrite Methodius. He began working as an exarchist viceroy for the recognition of church communities whose functions were suspended during the Russo-Turkish war. Thanks to his educational activities, Methodius was the first organizer of educational affairs in Turkey and was the unspoken Minister of Education in Macedonia ... All of Macedonia was covered with schools ... In a short time, within two or three years, there was such an upsurge in educational affairs that foreigners were surprised ... All this is connected with Bishop Methodius Kusev.

Original text (Bulgarian)

(c) rub the year of the trace of Liberation, the exarchate more vividly vasalnoto to the Sultan of the Principality of Bulgaria. In the middle of the day, in Cherkva, schools, and the community, leave it at the ecclesiastical protosingel, and coito for golamo Happiness on Bulgari Beshe Archimandrite Metiy. That way, and work as a Kato Ekkarhijskii governor for recognizing on the community, chiito functions as a pendant at the Rusko-Turscat war. Taking advantage of this is enlightening action Metodii e prъv organizer to study business in Turkey and now the Kato secret minister for education in Macedonia ... Tsyala Macedonia se pokri from school ... For a short time, in two or three years, I’m ready to study The case, that is a foreigner and an alien ... Vsichko tová se dzhi on the uncle Metody Kusev

In Thessaloniki, the exarchized protosinkella was assisted by Naum Spasprostov, who was appointed with his help as a translator to the Russian consulate, and Kosma Prechistansky , elected on his recommendation as chairman of the Bulgarian Solun community ^[45] . Contrary to Kuzman Shapkarev , who insisted on opening a gymnasium in Thessaloniki, Archimandrite Methodius proposes that the training center of Macedonia be located in its geographical center - the city of Prilepe, which is famous for its active Bulgarian population. In 1881, Methodius and the secretary of the Exarchy, Dobri Ganchev, decided to create a gymnasium in Prilep ^[46] . Their intention was disrupted by Shapkarev, who kept the notification letters to the Prilep community and persuaded the leadership of the Exarchia to choose Thessaloniki. The Bulgarian Solunsky male gymnasium was officially founded in October 1881, and the following year it was solemnly consecrated by Archimandrite Methodius ^[12] .

Theological Education (1886–1892)

In 1886, Archimandrite Methodius went to study in Russia as a scholar of the Troyan Mother of God-Assumption Monastery . Until 1888 he studied at the Kiev Theological Seminary , and then until 1892 - at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy ^{[7] [47]} . On October 7 of the same year, he became rector of the newly created Tsaregradsky Theological Seminary ^[4] . He remained in office until the beginning of 1894 ^{[7] [48]} .

Activities at the head of the Stara Zagora Diocese (1894–1922)

In 1894, Archimandrite Methodius was appointed interim manager of the new Starozagorsky diocese . On April 24 of the same year he was consecrated bishop of Velichi, and later that same year he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan ^[12] . July 14, 1896 was elected the first Bulgarian Metropolitan of Starozagorsky by a complete majority of the Holy Synod ^{[12] [49] [50] [7]} .

As the Starozagorsky Metropolitan Methodius was constantly engaged in the improvement of his diocese. On February 28, 1895, Methodius Starozagorsky planted the first saplings of the beautiful Ayazmoto Park, establishing a forest park named after Prince Boris-Mikhail (Ayazmoto). Two months later, he laid the foundation of the Church of St. Theodore of Tyrone ^[12] . In 1896 he founded the Starozagorsky charitable committee of St. John the Merciful ^[49] , at the head of which he remained until his death ^[8] .

Metropolitan Methodius participates in a number of patriotic initiatives. In 1895, together with Elijah Georgov, Georgy Pavlichev and Georgy Kapchev, he joined the delegation, which, on behalf of the Macedonian Committee in Ploiesti, asked the Russian government for assistance in implementing the reforms promised by the Berlin Congress in Macedonia ^[51] . In 1898, he organized the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the death of Haji Dimitar and his detachment on Mount Buzludzha. He lays and consecrates the foundation of the future monument and chapel on the frontal place of the Chetniks ^[12] . In 1902, Metropolitan Methodius opposed the plans that the Shipka monastery should be consecrated only by Russian clergy ^[52] and consecrated the temple-monument of the Nativity of Christ at Shipka ^[7] .

Metropolitan Methodius developed a broad anti-socialist activity in his diocese. He tried to discredit socialist teachers, accusing them of anti-Bulgarian actions. In 1899, he was the chief editor of the newspaper “Selected” ( defense ), published in Stara Zagora , which fought against godlessness and socialism, and was also distinguished by anti-Semitism ^[53] . In 1901, the local socialist Ivan Kutev responded with an anti-clerical pamphlet, “Vladyka Methodius Kusevich before a public court” ^{[54] [55]} and began publishing the newspaper “Temporary List” campaigning against Metropolitan Methodius ^[56] . Dissatisfied with the reaction of church government, in the period from 1904 to 1920, Metropolitan Mefodiy headed more than 20 criminal cases against Ivan Kutev, Nikolai Gabrovsky, Georgiy Bakalov , Evtima Dabev and other socialists. Most of the cases ended in failure for the Metropolitan, but he did not give up and wrote a series of protest letters to the Holy Synod, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Confessions, and other institutions ^[49] .

Metropolitan Methodius waged an active struggle against the Catholic propaganda that appeared in his diocese. In 1899, he published his brochure, Attempts at Catholic Propaganda in Art. Zagora ”, in which he argued that Bulgarianness and Orthodoxy are connected, that is, true Bulgarians can only be Orthodox ^[57] .

In 1904, for controversial and unclear reasons, the Holy Synod removed Metropolitan Methodius from the administration of the Starozagorsky diocese ^[12] . This happens after a conflict with Prince Ferdinand in connection with the Ayazmoto dispensation. Ferdinand misinterpreted the request of the Metropolitan for financial assistance and asked the park for himself. After Methodius refused him on the grounds that the park was made for the people, the prince and the government encouraged a group of priests to file a complaint to the Synod about the abuse of the metropolitan associated with the park. Under pressure, the Synod deprives Methodius of administrative rights in the diocese ^[58] , without appointing a new metropolitan.

However, Metropolitan Methodius and King Ferdinand maintained close relations. During the wars of Bulgaria for national unification from 1912 to 1918, they maintained voluminous confidential correspondence in which the metropolitan gave recommendations to Ferdinand regarding military actions and state affairs ^[59] .

After the First World War, Methodius Kusev tried to influence the winners, seeking a just peace. March 14, 1919, he appealed to US President Woodrow Wilson with an appeal not to allow the final separation of Macedonia and Dobrogea from Bulgaria in a future peace treaty ^[60] .

Metropolitan Methodius died in his house on November 1, 1922, exactly two years after his Synodal rehabilitation. He is buried in Stara Zagora, in the Ayazmoto park, not far from the church of St. Theodore of Tyrone ^{[7] [12] [8]} .

In 1895, he published in Kazanlak his work “Parenting in the spirit of Christianity or atheism”, in which he points out that upbringing and education play a central role in shaping a person, for its part upbringing is a process that develops and continues continuously ^[61] . In the brochure, Metropolitan Methodius defends the positive effects of religious education and leads a sharp controversy with the socialists ^[62] . According to Methodius, the specific form of government is not crucial for maintaining a just society, but the high morality and faith of individual citizens. Also, ownership is an indisputable part of human life. In his criticism of socialism, he defines the spread of atheistic ideas as the greatest evil for modern man. According to him, the materialistic attitude to life leads to destruction and turns godless socialism ^[61] into “the seedman of depravity, moralist, the enemy of social welfare and undermining the foundation of state power” ^[63] .

He expressed his opinion that atheistic education creates a corrupt and tyrannical intelligentsia. According to him, increasing the authority of an individual should be the ultimate goal of education, in contrast to the socialist ideas of turning people into a homogeneous mass and proletariat ^[61] .

After the occupation of Serbia and Greece by most of Macedonia during the Balkan War in 1912, Methodius Kusev published a book in Chirpan “Macedonia among its inhabitants only Serbs do not have”. The book is based on a discussion about the nature of the Macedonian population, which Kusev held in January 1890 in St. Petersburg with Serbian diplomat George Simic. According to Bulgarian sources, Methodius so convincingly rejected the Serbian claims to members of the Russian Imperial Geographical Society, which caused the resignation of the future Prime Minister of Serbia from the post of ambassador to Russia ^[64] . Almost a quarter of a century later, the theses of this debate were supplemented in the book by ethnographic, historical and geographical arguments about the annexation of Western Macedonia to Bulgaria ^[65] . It settled the Bulgarian Slavic population of Macedonia and condemned the "oppressive and repugnant behavior" of the new Serbian authorities in Vardarsky Macedonia , who sought to declare the Macedonian Bulgarians Serbs. According to Metropolitan Methodius, and "before Exarchia, before the revival of the Bulgarians, the Slavic population in Macedonia was called the Bulgarians ... [and, consequently,] and Western Macedonia, it was required to join Bulgaria" ^[66] .

After the defeat in Bulgaria in the Inter-Allied War in 1913, in 1914, Metropolitan Methodius published the book The Pogrom of Bulgaria. Culprit, ”in which he accuses Russian politics of“ the first national disaster ” ^[67] . He reproaches his acquaintances with Bulgarian politicians who in vain believe in Russian support ^[68] .

In 1915, he said to Peter Karchev : “I was a Russophile since childhood, but I always understood that Russian interests did not always coincide with ours, with Bulgarian ones. We need our politicians to understand these things, and if they understand them well, they will never be sad when they see that we have not received support from Russia. If our politicians were well aware that it was natural at some point to show differences in our interests with this great country, they would not expect its support, they would take timely measures and not push their country towards unhappiness. ” ^[69]

Exarch Joseph (Yovchev) takes into account Methodius' merits in the academic affairs in Macedonia, but accuses him of setting politicians in Sofia and Plovdiv against himself with his "violence ... and generosity of embezzlement" and that he is trying to lead the Exarchy itself. On October 25, 1884, the exarch wrote in his diary the following result: “he proved that placed under command, he with his dexterity and energy, is useful, but on his own he makes many mistakes and does not have the seriousness and ability to play that role, to which he aspires ” ^[70] .

Dobri Ganchev wrote about Metropolitan Mephorie: “This is inexorable Methodius. She doesn’t stop at anything when it comes to a common cause ... Methodius’s willpower is made of steel. Indefatigable, no obstacles stop her. Even common sense. In the eyes of stooped people, he seems crazy ... Patriotism in Methodius transcends the mind. Is his love for Macedonia popular fanaticism? Search for Bulgarians in Albania, in Epirus, in Prizren lands. The Bulgarian village should not remain outside the borders of the native church. Cruel to savagery and to religious and popular opponents, a shirt from behind gives to those who stretch their hands to him ... In my eyes, Methodius Kusevich is a medieval type fanatic. Such are most of his contemporaries, the Macedonians. They died in an unbearable struggle. Along with this, they destroyed Bulgaria ” ^[71] .

Describing his activities after the Berlin Treaty and the Kresna-Razlozko uprising, Patriarch Kirill of Bulgaria highly appreciates the contribution of Methodius to the preservation of the Exarchate with the center in Constantinople, as a defender of the Bulgarian population in the Ottoman Empire: “This very brave and enterprising prilepchanin did not allow events to outperform him, but he wanted to create them himself, knowing ... the political situation in Macedonia, in which one could expect not only opposition from the Turks and Greeks, but also disorientation from the side of the most Gara population <...> The Bulgarian population of Macedonia was severely persecuted, prisons were full, and large groups of Macedonian exiles were already in Anatolia. Archimandrite Methodius realized that in such an environment it is necessary to act quickly decisively and create facts with which the Turkish government, in spite of everything, could not very easily cope with ” ^[72] .

Methodian nephew Vladimir Kusev, chairman of the National Committee of the Union of Macedonian Brotherhoods and founding member of the Macedonian Scientific Institute, who published a biography of the metropolitan in the journal "Macedonian Pregled" ("Macedonian Review") ^[73] .

Dimitar Talev immortalized young Todor Kusev in his novel Iron Lamp under the name of Lazar Glaushev ^[74] , which describes a real uprising event that Kusev raised in his youth against the Greek priests in Prilep ^{[17] [75]} .

The men's chamber choir "Metropolitan Methodius Kusev", created in Stara Zagora in 1989, and a boulevard in the city of Stara Zagora, where his monument was also erected, was named after Methodius (Kusev). Ayazmoto Park was renamed in his honor. For his services to the city and its citizens, at the end of 2000, Metropolitan Methodius was awarded the posthumous club “Open Society” with the title “Person of the Millennium”.