Kliment Velički oder Kliment Ochridski? Die Diskussion iiber seinen Bischofstitel und seine Jurisdiktion
Kliment Velički or Kliment Ochridski? The Discussion about His Jurisdiction

Summary/Abstract: Saint Clement is known for his missionary work in the West Bulgarian State. The title given to Clement by the Patriarchate of Constantinople upon the request of the Bulgarian Tsar Symeon was that of bishop of Velitza as testified in historical sources. The title, though, through which he became widely known was Clement of Ohrid. It must be noted that during his era there was no archdiocese of Ohrid. Until the end of the 10th century (Notitiae), there existed only the diocese of Lychnidos. Due to the fact that the Byzantine state considered all territories conquered by the Bulgarian Tsar as potentially Byzantine and would never grant the title of a Byzantine diocese, the Patriarchate preferred to establish a new diocese, the diocese of Velitza. Nonetheless, it is not completely wrong to associate Clement with the archdiocese of Ohrid, because according to the sources his missionary work covered a large part of the later archdiocese of Ohrid with only few exceptions (in the Catalogue of archbishops of Bulgaria his jurisdiction is defined by the phrase “eforan kai to triton meros tis Voulgarikis vasileias egoun apo Thessalonikis, achris Iericho kai Kanninon etoi Tasipiatou”). The archdiocese of Ohrid came about after the dissolution of the state of Samuel by Basil II, who established two themata, the thema of Bulgaria with Skopje as its capital and the thema of Paristrion with Dristra as its capital. In the thema of Bulgaria he established an archdiocese with Ohrid as its seat (the old Lychnidos) under the title archdiocese of Bulgaria

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