Very soon, however, the monk-tsar learned that Vladimir Rasate, whom he had appointed ruler, was doing everything possible “to return the newly converted people to pagan rites.”

Boris-Michael could not accept the destruction of everything to which he had devoted his life. In 893, he left the monastery, had Rasate blinded and removed him from the throne.

He then convened an assembly in Pliska, at which he proclaimed his third son, Simeon, ruler, “warning him before everyone that he would suffer the same punishment if he departed from Christianity in any way.”

Thus, instead of becoming the head of the Bulgarian Church, as he had been trained to do, Simeon found himself in the role of ruler.

Before that, however, Boris-Michael proclaimed Preslav the new capital, expelled from Bulgaria all the Greek clergymen whom Rasate had allowed into the country, and appointed Bulgarian clergy in their place.