Greek Secular and Theological Education in the Middle of the 19th Century and Its Impact on Bulgarian Society

The socio-economic changes that prevailed in the Balkans in the second half of the 18th century and the geographical position of Greece contributed to the rapid economic recovery of the Greeks. This new development embraces not only the economic but also the cultural life of the Greeks – schools are established, the publi cation of books of educational, drama, philosophical and artistic content intensifies. In the first decades of the 19th century, until the Greek Revolution of 1821, several centers of Greek education emerged within the borders of the Ottoman Empire, among which the schools of Smyrna, Chios, Kydonies, and the Danubian Principalities stand out and which contributed particularly to the spiritual recovery of the Bulgarians during that period. After the Greek Revolution and with the establishment of the free Greek state, new educational centers were created. Now the eyes of the Bulgarian youth turn to the Gymnasium of Athens, the Zosimaia School of Ioannina, the University of Athens, the Theological School of Halki, etc. On the basis of the knowledge acquired in these schools and institutions, the further intellectual progress and professional orientation of a generation of Bulgar ians took place. Some of them rose to the highest ecclesiastical offices, while others pioneered letters, sciences, and public life in Bulgaria.