За „седемте съборни църкви“ на княз Борис
The “Seven Cathedral Churches” of Prince Boris

Summary/Abstract: The article looks into the question of the so-called “seven cathedral churches” which according the two reports of the Archbishop of Ohrid Theophylact Prince Bores had built all over the Bulgarian land. On the basis of a study of the term “cathedral church” an attempt is made to reply to the main question which stands in historiography in connection with this problem: whether the expression is of a purely figurative character based on the symbolism of the figure seven of it reflects really the administrative division of the Bulgarian Church, after its establishment. Admitting that the expression in question might have been used in a symbolic sense, on the basis of comparative material extracted mainly from the history of the Western Church, the hypothesis is set forth or rather is supported the opinion that the symbolism founded on texts of the Holy Bible (chiefly the Apocalypse of John and the Proverbs of Solomon) of the figure seven might deliberately have been incorporated in the original administrative structure of the Bulgarian Church.

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