Anthim I

{{More citations needed|date=February 2022}}

{{Infobox Christian leader

| type =

| honorific-prefix =His Holiness

| name = Anthim I

| honorific-suffix =

| title = Bulgarian Exarch

| image = Antim I (1816-1888).jpg

| imagesize =

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| church = Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Bulgarian Exarchate)

| archdiocese =

| province =

| metropolis =

| diocese =

| see = Constantinople

| enthroned = 16 February 1872

| ended = 14 April 1877

| predecessor = Ilarion of Bulgaria

| opposed =

| successor = Joseph I of Bulgaria

| ordination =

| consecration =

| cardinal =

| rank =

| other_post =

| birth_name = Atanas Mihaylov Chalakov

| birth_date =1816

| birth_place = Kırk Kilise, Ottoman Empire

| death_date = December 1, 1888 (aged 72)

| death_place = Vidin, Bulgaria

| buried = Vidin

| nationality = Bulgarian

| religion = Eastern Orthodox Church

| residence = Constantinople, Ottoman Empire

| parents =

| spouse =

| children =

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}}

Anthim I ({{Langx|bg|Антим I}}, secular name Atanas Mihaylov Chalakov, {{Langx|bg|Aтанас Михайлов Чалъков}}; 1816 – 1 December 1888) was a Bulgarian education figure and clergyman, and a participant in the Bulgarian liberation and church-independence movement.{{cite book |last= Detrez|first=Raymond |author-link=Raymond Detrez |title=Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria |chapter=ANTIM I (1816-1888) |place=Lanham, Maryland; Toronto; Oxford |publisher= The Scarecrow Press, Inc. |edition= 2nd |year= 2006 |pages= 13–14}} He was the first head of the Bulgarian Exarchate, a post he held from 1872 to 1877. He was also the first Chairman of the National Assembly of Bulgaria, presiding the Constituent Assembly and the 1st Grand National Assembly in 1879.{{cite book |last=Black |first=Cyril E. |title=The Establishment of Constitutional Government in Bulgaria |place= Princeton, NJ |publisher= Princeton University Press |year= 1943 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.275948 |page= [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.275948/page/n87/mode/2up 79] |via= Internet Archive |access-date= 21 June 2021}}

Anthim I was born in Kırk Kilise (Lozengrad) in Eastern Thrace (today Kırklareli, Turkey) and became a monk in the Hilendar monastery on Mount Athos.{{cite book |last=MacDermott |first= Mercia |author-link= Mercia MacDermott |title= A History of Bulgaria 1395–1885 |place= New York |publisher= Frederick A. Praeger |year= 1962 |accessdate= 21 June 2021 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofbulgari00macd |url-access= registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.36048/page/166/mode/2up 166] |via= Internet Archive }}

He studied in the Halki seminary (on the Princes' Islands near Constantinople), in Odessa as well as in Russia. He graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy (in Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra) in 1856. He was ordained hieromonk by Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret Drozdov.

He was Archbishop of Preslav (from 1861) and then of Vidin (from 1868).{{cite book |editor= Buchan, John|editor-link=John Buchan |chapter= Bulgaria |chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/nationsoftodayne12buch/page/n17/mode/2up|title= Bulgaria and Romania: The Nations of Today; A New History of the World |place= Boston and New York |publisher= Houghton Mifflin Company |year= 1924 |url= https://archive.org/details/nationsoftodayne12buch/page/n5/mode/2up |page=[https://archive.org/details/nationsoftodayne12buch/page/33/mode/2up 33] |accessdate= 20 June 2021 |via= Internet Archive}}

After he unilaterally declared an independent national church of the Bulgarians on May 11, 1872, he was defrocked by the Patriarchal Synod, under whose canonical jurisdiction he had been consecrated bishop. The condemnation was later affirmed at the Council in Constantinople in September the same year.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Bulgaria/History |volume= 4 |last= Bourchier|first= James David |author-link= James David Bourchier | pages = 779–784 }}

He died in Vidin in 1888 and his mausoleum can be found in the yard of the Vidin Archbishopric.