Fr Stefan Zankov

—by Paul Ladouceur

Archpriest Stefan Zankov (also Tsankov) (1881-1965) was a leading Bulgarian theologian for over half a century. He completed a doctorate in theology in 1905 at the University of Chernovtsy and in 1908 he was ordained to the priesthood. After serving in the Department of Spiritual Education of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, he studied at the University of Zurich, completing a second doctorate in 1918. He was professor of canon law at the Faculty of Theology of the Sofia University St. Clement of Ohrid from 1923 to 1950. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Theology in 1923-1924 and again in 1938-1939, and as Rector of Sofia University in 1940-1941. After World War II, he continued to serve the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, especially on matters of canon law. With the arrival of the communists in power, the Faculty of Theology was removed from Sofia University in 1950 to become the Theological Academy of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, where Dr. Zankov continued to teach canon law. He published a number of books on Orthodoxy and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and he was awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Athens in 1936 and the University of Oxford in 1937.

Dr. Zankov was a pioneer of the ecumenical movement, participating notably at the World Conferences on Faith and Order in Lausanne in 1927 and in Edinburgh in 1937. He was one of the first Orthodox theologians to address non-Orthodox audiences in Western Europe. In the summer of 1927, he delivered a series of lectures in Berlin, published as Das orthodoxe Christendum des Ostens: Sein Wesen und sein gegnwärtige (Berlin, 1928), and translated into English as The Eastern Orthodox Church (London & Milwaukee WI, 1929, 168 p.). He was also closely associated with the St. Sergius Institute in Paris and with the Russian Student Christian Movement (ACER) in France. 

Fr. Stefan Zankov (l.), Elizaveta Skobtsov (Saint Maria of Paris) and Nicholas Berdiaev.
Paris, c. 1930.
Photo: Mother Maria Skobtsov Archives, Paris.

Bibliography (Books)

Патриарх Евтимий: Живот и дейност, София: Синодално издателство, 1906.

Философски поглед върху историята на Полша, София, 1908.

Die Grundlagen der Verfassung der bulgarischen orthodoxen Kirche, Zürich 1918, S. X + 156.

Die Verfassung der bulgarischen orthodoxen Kirche, Zürich 1918, S. XХІІ + 223.

Die Verwaltung der bulgarischen orthodoxen Kirche, Halle 1920, S. XVI + 288.

Das orthodoxe Christendum des Ostens : Sein Wesen und sein gegnwärtige Gestalt, Berlin 1928, S. 148.

The Eastern Orthodox Church (London & Milwaukee WI, 1929, 168 p.

Върху проблема за отношението Църква-държава, София, 1945.

Die Orthodoxe Kirche des Ostens in oekumenischer Sicht, Zürich, 1949.

November 28, 2016