Bulgarian Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Constantinople

The Bulgarian Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Constantinople (informally Constantinople of the Bulgarians) was the first missionary, pre-diocesan jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church sui iuris (Eastern Catholic of Byzantine Rite in Bulgarian language). As Apostolic Vicariate it was exempt, i.e. directly dependent on the Holy See, and entitled to a titular bishop. It was created in 1861 and reorganized in 1883.

Since the Union of Kukush in 1859, there was a movement among Bulgarians who converted from Eastern Orthodoxy to Eastern Catholicism for creation of a particular ecclesiastical jurisdiction. On April 14, 1861 in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, Bulgarian Byzantine-Catholic archimandrite Joseph Sokolsky was consecrated Archbishop, and appointed apostolic vicar for the Catholic Bulgarians of the Byzantine Rite in Ottoman Empire. Upon his return to Constantinople, he was accepted in that capacity by the authorities of Ottoman Empire, but in the summer of the very same year he was detached for Russia, never to return to his post. He died in 1879.

When it became obvious that Joseph Sokolsky will not be returning from Russia, one of his closest associates - Bulgarian Byzantine-Catholic priest Raphael Popov was recognized in 1864 as "Patriarchal Vicar and popular leader of the Bulgarians united with the Roman Catholic Church" by the Ottoman authorities. On March 28, 1865 he was appointed Apostolic Administrator (pro tempore) of the Bulgarian Byzantine-Catholic Church and its vicariate in Constantinople. He was ordained a bishop on November 19, 1865 in the cathedral church "St. John Chrysostom" in Constantinople. Later he transferred his offices to Edirne and continued serving until his death on February 23, 1876.

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