Boris I

(died May 2, 907, Preslave, Bulg.) Khan of Bulgaria (852–89). He resolved to use Christianity to unite his ethnically divided country, and an unsuccessful war with the Byzantines led to his baptism in the Orthodox faith (864). Boris's attempt to enforce mass baptism set off a pagan rebellion, which he quelled, and he helped establish the Bulgarian church.

He sponsored missionaries to foster Slavic learning and the use of the Old Church Slavic language. He abdicated in 889 to become a monk but returned to drive his reactionary son Vladimir from the throne. After installing another son, Simeon I, as khan, Boris went back to his monastery. He was later made an Orthodox saint.