It is 180 years today since the birth of Exarch Joseph, the first Bulgarian exarch in post-liberation Bulgaria, who ruled the Bulgarian Orthodox church in the course of 38 years.

Exarch Joseph was born on 5 May, 1840 in the town of Kalofer under the secular name of Lazar Yovchev. He studied in Constantinople and later graduated literature and law from the Sorbonne. When he became a monk in 1872 he took the name Joseph. In 1877, when the Russo-Turkish war broke out, he was elected Bulgarian exarch. 

Exarch Joseph I opened a Bulgarian theological seminary in Constantinople, helped build churches, assisted the training of priests, the opening of schools, sending gifted young people to study abroad. In 1902 he was elected honorary member of the Bulgarian Learned Society, later renamed Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.