Juan el Exarca

John the Exarch (Bulgarian: Йоан Екзарх) was a medieval Bulgarian intellectual, writer and translator, one of the most prominent men of letters who worked in the so-called Preslav Literary School. He is part of a second generation of Bulgarian writers, who were not direct disciples of Cyril and Methodius. There is little information about his life, although his literary work reveals that he had an excellent knowledge of the Greek language. In general, it is generally accepted that he was educated in the Byzantine Empire. The title of "Exarch", with which it is always quoted, has been interpreted in different ways: for some it would be the first archbishop of Bulgaria; others think, perhaps, that he was superior to some monastery.

He translated several Byzantine authors into Bulgarian. During the reign of Vladimir (889-893), he translated part of the book On the Orthodox Faith, by John Damascene (forty-eight books of the hundred that form the third part of the work). His translation, known as The Skies (Nebesa), is the first book of the Slavic literatures that deals with subjects of natural sciences. It contains information on the shape of the Earth, the Moon, eclipses, planets and stars, as well as notions of human anatomy and psychology.

Her most important work, however, is Шестоднев (Shestodnev). The title, in Greek Hexamon, refers to the creation of the world in six days, according to the Genesis account. For the creation of this work, he used material from the book of the same title by Basilio the Great (330-379), together with others by Severiano de Gabala, Theodoretus of Ciro and John Chrysostom, which he expanded with his own opinions. an authentic medieval encyclopedia, which includes information on the most varied disciplines. It supplies many data about the First Bulgarian Empire during the time of Simeon I, on the city of Preslav, the royal palace and the daily life at the time.

He is also credited with several sermons, including a Panegyric of Ascension.

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