Fall of Tarnovo and Its Consequences
In the spring of 1393 the son of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, Celebi, laid siege to the Bulgarian capital Tarnovo with his sizable forces. With Tsar Ivan Shishman out of the city (leading the remnants of his troops to the fortress of Nikopol), Evtimiy was the one entrusted with the defence of Tarnovo, which he led heroically. After a three-month siege the Ottomans captured the capital by assault and possible treason from one of the non Christian neighbourhoods of Tarnovo (described by Gregory Tsamblak several years later) on 17 July 1393.
Joasaph of Bdin, Metropolitan of Vidin, a contemporary of the event, described it as follows: "A great Muslim invasion happened and total destruction was done with this city and its surroundings." According to Gregory Tsamblak, churches were turned into mosques, priests were expelled and substituted with "teachers of shamelessness." 110 noted citizens of Tarnovo and bolyars were massacred, but Patriarch Evtimiy was reprieved and sent into exile in the theme of Macedonia (contemporary Thrace), possibly in the Bachkovo Monastery. He is supposed to have died there in 1402–1404. The Tarnovo Patriarchate thereupon ceased to exist, the Bulgarian church lost its independence and became subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople until 1870.
Patriarch Evtimiy has been canonized and his memory is honoured on the same day as that of his namesake Euthymius the Great, 20 January.
Read more about this topic: Evtimiy Of Tarnovo
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