Formation and Early Years of Ilarion of Lovech and Kyustendil

The article presents unfamiliar facts from the early years, the education and ministry of Ilarion Lovchansky and Kyustendil in Elena cell and the Hilendar convent, the Kapinovo Monastery “St. Nicholas”, his teachers and spiritual masters. It clarifies his birth year and his lecturers in Elena. The article also makes more precise the chronology of obedience and his consecration in deacon rank, the exact year of his going to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Veliko Turnovo and the time of his initial ministry until 1841 when he became the coadjutor to the bishop Neophyte Byzantium