Paisii of Hilendar

Born 1722 in Bansko; died July 3, 1798, in Samokov. Ideologist of the 18th-century Bulgarian national liberation movement and historian of the Bulgarian renaissance.

Paisii was a monk of the Hilendar and Zograph monasteries. He wrote the Slavo-Bulgarian History (1762) using Bulgarian manuscripts, a Russian translation of the works of M. Orbini, the Annals of the Catholic monk C. Baronius, and other sources. Paisii’s work, circulated in many manuscript copies throughout Bulgaria during the 18th and 19th centuries, advocated an awakening of national consciousness, a national cultural revival, ecclesiastical independence, and liberation from the Ottoman yoke. It taught love for the Bulgarian fatherland and language. It told of the existence of Bulgarian statehood and culture before the Turkish conquest, giving a detailed account of the history of the first and second Bulgarian kingdoms. Paisii’s History played an important role in awakening and strengthening the national consciousness of the Bulgarian people during their renaissance.