Иоанн, пресвитер, экзарх болгарский

John, presbyter, Bulgarian exarch or viceroy of the Greek metropolitan in the capital of Bulgaria in the 9th-10th centuries, Preyaslavl, was one of the prominent figures in Church Slavonic literature that had just begun to exist. He worked under the patronage of the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon (888–927) and, apparently, took part in the translation from Greek into Church Slavonic of a large number of works by St. fathers, lives, etc., but with his name only two large works have reached us: 1) a translation of selected (most important) chapters of the work on the Orthodox faith of John of Damascus, known in Russian copies under the name “Heaven”, and 2) a semi-translation - a semi-compilation from the works of Basil the Great, Sevirian of Gaval and others. “The Six Days” or a commentary on the story of the Book of Genesis about the six days creations. One can guess that he also more or less owned the translation of 1) Zlatostruya (selected words of St. John Chrysostom), with a poem in honor of Tsar Simeon, and 2) a collection of various articles, also with a poem in honor of Simeon; the oldest copy of this collection, Russian, made in 1073 for the Grand Duke Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, is known under the name “Svyatoslav’s Collection”. Further, with the name “John, Presbyter, Exarch of the Bulgarian” or simply “John the Presbyter”, six original teachings have come down to us: two for the Nativity of Christ, one each for the Epiphany, for the Transfiguration, for the Ascension and for the Gospel text: “The disciple went back to himself, marveling,” written in elegant language according to the model of the words of Chrysostom, here and there with a polemical element (against the Jews), for readers more or less educated. Several other teachings, similar to those just indicated and which have come down to us either with the name of John Chrysostom or without the name of the author, can, with reasonable probability, also be attributed to John the Exarch. There is an indication that the name of John the Exarch in ancient Rus' was referred to as a “book called Composition”, and that in this book was placed, among other things, the story of the Patericon about the miracle of St. Macarius with his wife turned into a horse. Finally, the translation of the Grammar of John of Damascus is allegedly attributed to John the Exarch in later Russian copies, but it undoubtedly does not belong to him. Translations and writings of John the Exarch show that although the latter was a Slav, he was an educated man for his time and knew the Greek literary language very well. His translation of the Greek work on theology was quite understandable for his contemporaries, which distinguishes John the Exarch from a number of other translators of the ancient era of Church Slavonic writing. From the calendar of the Russian Gospel of the XII-XIII centuries. and the Middle Bulgarian Apostle of the 13th century. it is clear that after his death John the Exarch was canonized and that his memory was celebrated according to the first calendar on July 31, and according to the second - on January 31.