В коя година патриарх Калист отговаря на въпроса на българските монаси? 1355 или 1361?
In which year did Patriarch Kallistus answer the question of the Bulgarian monks? 1355 or 1361?

Summary/Abstract: The second half of the 14th century marked events that intertwined the interests and actions of the Bulgarian and Constantinople Patriarchates in the field of interchurch relations in the East. Two of these events disrupted the good relationship between the two ecclesiastical institutes. The first was the recognition of the patriarchal title of the Serbian church head by the Bulgarian patriarch, the second was the intervention of the Bulgarian church in the Russian-Lithuanian church dispute in the middle of the 14th century. It is in the light of these events that the question of the date of Patriarch Kallist‘s letter to two unnamed Old Bulgarian monks is raised. When tracing the Russian-Lithuanian dispute over the dominant in the election of the metropolitan of Kyiv and all Russia and the location of his throne, the events related to the election of monk Theoctistus come to the fore. Constantinople refused to place Theoctistus on this throne. However, when he sought assistance from Tarnovo, he was elected Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Russia, and this happened before the summer of 1354. The event provoked the reaction of Patriarch Philoteus (1253-1355), who rejected it as illegal. The reason was that his ordination, carried out by the Tarnovo patriarch Theodosius, was in violation of the order established by the Eastern churches. This had a negative impact on Bulgarian-Byzantine church relations for a short period. In this case, Constantinople qualified as illegal the actions of the Patriarchate of Tarnovo. In the light of this incident, the article examines the reaction of Patriarch Callistus (1350–1353, 1355–1363) to the letter of two Bulgarian monks, from which it is clear that the Constantinople Patriarch questioned the complete independence of the Turnovo Patriarchate. In order to make the explanation of his reaction more thorough, evidence is used, which illustrates the personal, disapproving attitude of Callistus towards Theodosius of Turnovo. In the context of the events of the 1340s – 1350s, concerning the politics of the Church of Tarnovo and the reaction of Constantinople, expressed through the attitude of two of its church leaders, the article expresses the opinion that the letter of Callistus is from 1355, and not from 1361, a date deduced by codicological means.

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