Father

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

 Matey Preobrazhenski ' onMouseout='HidePop("70351")' href="/topics/Matthew_the_Evangelist">Matthew

Matthew the Evangelist

Matthew the Evangelist was, according to the Bible, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the four Evangelists.-Identity:...

 of the Transfiguration

Transfiguration of Jesus

The Transfiguration of Jesus is an event reported in the New Testament in which Jesus is transfigured and becomes radiant upon a mountain. The Synoptic Gospels describe it, and 2 Peter 1:16-18 refers to it....

"; 1828–1 March 1875) was the clerical name of Mono Petrov Seizmonov (Моно Петров Сеизмонов), nicknamed Mitkaloto ("The Wandering One"), Ochmatey or Ochkata, a Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n Orthodox

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

 priest, revolutionary, enlightener and a close friend of Vasil Levski

Vasil Levski

Vasil Levski, born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev, , is a Bulgarian revolutionary and a national hero of Bulgaria. Dubbed the Apostle of Freedom, Levski ideologised and strategised a revolutionary movement to liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman rule...

.

Father Matey was born in the village of Novo Selo near Veliko Tarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred to as the "City of the Tsars", Veliko Tarnovo is located on the Yantra River and is famous as the historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, attracting many tourists...

 in 1828; his two brothers and sister died at an early age. Orphan

Orphan

An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...

ed at age nine, he went to the Dryanovo Monastery

Dryanovo Monastery

The Dryanovo Monastery is a functioning Bulgarian Orthodox monastery situated in the Andaka River Valley, in Bulgarka Nature Park in the central part of Bulgaria five kilometers away from the town of Dryanovo. It was founded in the 12th century, during the Second Bulgarian Empire, and is dedicated...

 to study tailoring. In 1846, he became a neophyte in the same monastery and a monk

Monk

A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

 in the Transfiguration Monastery

Transfiguration Monastery

The Transfiguration Monastery or the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration of God is an Eastern Orthodox monastery located in the Dervent gorge of the Yantra River. It lies near the village of Samovodene, seven kilometres north of Veliko Tarnovo, in central northern Bulgaria...

 in 1848. In 1851, he visited the monasteries on Mount Athos

Mount Athos

Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...

 and after a one-year stay went to Varna

Varna

Varna is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and third-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv, with a population of 334,870 inhabitants according to Census 2011...

, Tulcea

Tulcea

Tulcea is a city in Dobrogea, Romania. It is the administrative center of Tulcea county, and has a population of 92,379 as of 2007. One village, Tudor Vladimirescu, is administered by the city.- History :...

, the Holy Trinity Monastery near Tarnovo and the Troyan Monastery

Troyan Monastery

The Monastery of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God or, as it is more commonly called, the Troyan Monastery is the third largest monastery in Bulgaria...

. He returned to Mount Athos in 1856 and remained there until 1861. He took an interest in reading and studied the books in the monastical libraries; he was also interested in mechanics

Mechanics

Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....

 and attempted to build a sea mill on the coast of the Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

. However, his secular interests were not approved by the brothers of Mount Athos and left the peninsula after a fight; he used a boat to reach the island of Thasos

Thasos

Thasos or Thassos is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea, close to the coast of Thrace and the plain of the river Nestos but geographically part of Macedonia. It is the northernmost Greek island, and 12th largest by area...

.

In the following years, Matey Preobrazhenski travelled to Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, Jerusalem, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Bessarabia

Bessarabia

Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....

 and Wallachia

Wallachia

Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...

. In 1862, he cast off the cassock

Cassock

The cassock, an item of clerical clothing, is an ankle-length robe worn by clerics of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Church, Lutheran Church and some ministers and ordained officers of Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Ankle-length garment is the meaning of the...

 and joined the First Bulgarian Legion

Bulgarian Legion

The Bulgarian Legion was the name of two military bands formed by Bulgarian volunteers and revolutionary workers in the Serbian capital of Belgrade in the second part of the 19th century...

 in Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

, Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

. In the following year he headed a small detachment which entered Bulgaria, fought an Ottoman detachment and won. In the same year he was actively involved in social work: he became a priest again and travelled around the region of Veliko Tarnovo as a precher and book vendor: besides spreading hagiographies

Hagiography

Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...

 and other Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 books, he also carried patriotic books such as Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya

Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya

Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya is a book by Bulgarian scholar and clergyman Saint Paisius of Hilendar...

, O Asenu Pervago, etc. He supported the local population by appointing village teachers, founding community centres (chitalishta

Chitalishte

A chitalishte is a typical Bulgarian public institution and building which fulfils several functions at once, such as a community centre, library and a theatre. It is also used as an educational institution, where people of all ages can enroll in foreign language, dance, music and other courses....

), producing theatrical plays, organising agricultural associations, issuing own books, etc.

In 1869, Matey Preobrazhenski accompanied Vasil Levski on his tour across Bulgaria. Thanks to Father Matey's good relations with the locals, the two were able to establish a number of revolutionary committees, part of Levski's Internal Revolutionary Organisation

Internal Revolutionary Organisation

The Internal Revolutionary Organisation or IRO was a Bulgarian revolutionary organisation founded and built up by Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski in the period between 1869 and 1871. The organisation represented a network of regional revolutionary committees which were governed by a Central...

. From that point on, Father Matey took an active part in the revolutionary work by carrying the organisation's secret mail and weaponry and accompanying Levski and Angel Kanchev

Angel Kanchev

Angel Kanchev Angelov was a Bulgarian revolutionary from Tryavna.Kanchev was born in 1852 in the family of a master-builder. At first he studied in his hometown Tryavna and then in Ruse under the guidance of people like Pencho Slaveykov and Dragan Tsankov...

 on their journeys. In his native village of Novo Selo he built a committee inn to be used by the organisation's members. After Levski's capture and death in 1873, Matey Preobrazhenski continued to work for the Liberation of Bulgaria

Liberation of Bulgaria

In Bulgarian historiography, the term Liberation of Bulgaria is used to denote the events of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 that led to the re-establishment of Bulgarian state with the Treaty of San Stefano of March 3, 1878, after the complete conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire, which...

. He died on 1 March 1875 in his native village, before he could see the work of his life completed with the April Uprising

April Uprising

The April Uprising was an insurrection organised by the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876, which indirectly resulted in the re-establishment of Bulgaria as an autonomous nation in 1878...

 of 1876 and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878.