2 Leva Paisius of Hilendar

Paisius of Hilendar wrote his Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya in 1762 while a monk at Mount Athos, completing it without access to a proper library — drawing instead on fragmentary sources, earlier Serbian chronicles, and papal records he encountered during travels. The work, a history of the Bulgarian people and church, circulated in manuscript for over a century before its first printing in 1844, passed hand to hand in defiance of Ottoman cultural suppression.

The Bulgarian National Bank has issued several collector gold pieces tied to national awakening figures, and Paisius anchors that canon — his manuscript is held today at the Zograf Monastery on Athos.