Anthim I

Anthim I (Bulgarian: Антим I, secular name Atanas Mihaylov Chalakov, Bulgarian: Aтанас Михайлов Чалъков; 1816 – 1 December 1888) was a Bulgarian education figure and clergyman, and a participant in the Bulgarian liberation and church-independence movement. He was the first head of the Bulgarian Exarchate, a post he held from 1872 to 1877. He was also the first Chairman of the National Assembly of Bulgaria, presiding the Constituent Assembly and the 1st Grand National Assembly in 1879.

His Holiness Anthim I
Bulgarian Exarch
Church	Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Bulgarian Exarchate)
See	Constantinople
Installed	16 February 1872
Term ended	14 April 1877
Predecessor	Ilarion of Bulgaria
Successor	Joseph I of Bulgaria
Personal details
Birth name	Atanas Mihaylov Chalakov
Born	1816 Lozengrad, Ottoman Empire
Died	December 1, 1888 (aged 72) Vidin, Bulgaria
Buried	Vidin
Nationality	Bulgarian
Denomination	Eastern Orthodox Church
Residence	Constantinople, Ottoman Empire

Anthim I was born in Lozengrad in Eastern Thrace (today Kırklareli, Turkey) and became a monk in the Hilendar monastery on Mount Athos.

He studied in the Halki seminary (on the Princes' Islands near Constantinople), in Odessa as well as in Russia. He graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy (in Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra) in 1856. He was ordained hieromonk by Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret Drozdov.

He was Archbishop of Preslav (from 1861) and then of Vidin (from 1868).

After he unilaterally declared an independent national church of the Bulgarians on May 11, 1872, he was defrocked by the Patriarchal Synod, under whose canonical jurisdiction he had been consecrated bishop. The condemnation was later affirmed at the Council in Constantinople in September the same year.

He died in Vidin in 1888 and his mausoleum can be found in the yard of the Vidin Archbishopric.