Letter to Michael, Prince of Bulgaria

Photius wrote to Boris I, whom the heading names by his baptismal name Michael and whom he calls his spiritual son. The first part is doctrine: the creed, in which the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father” (section 4), and an account of each of the seven general councils, for which he promises the place, the number of bishops, those who presided and what was done (5–21). He then tells the prince that what he has done raises him to the deeds of Constantine the Great (24). The rest, sections 25 to 118, is a series of short counsels on prayer, friendship, speech, justice and government.

The letter is undated. It speaks to a ruler already baptized, and is placed here about 865, soon after the baptism. An editor’s note printed under the heading observes that the manuscripts call the text “from the letter”, so that what survives may be an abridgement and not the whole. It shows what the patriarch thought a new Christian ruler needed to be told; it is not a report on Bulgaria.