Petar Parčević

Petar Parchevich
Ecclesiastical coat of arms of Petar Parchevich
Born	c. 1612 Chiprovtsi, Ottoman Empire (now Bulgaria)
Died	23 July 1674 Rome, Papal States (now Italy)
Occupation	Roman Catholic archbishop, diplomat, scholar

Petar Parchevich (Bulgarian: Петър Парчевич, pronounced [ˈpɛtɤr ˈpartʃɛvitʃ]; Croatian: Petar Parčević) or Petar Mihaylov Parchev (Петър Михайлов Парчев) (c. 1612–23 July 1674) was a Bulgarian Roman Catholic archbishop, diplomat, scholar, baron of Austria and one of the architects behind the anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising.

A native of Chiprovtsi and one of Bulgaria's most educated people of the 17th century, Parchevich was among the leaders of the Bulgarian Roman Catholics. His numerous diplomatic visits to the royal courts of Europe were mostly in an attempt to garner support for an anti-Ottoman uprising in Bulgaria, which he did not live to witness. Nevertheless, his efforts in defending Christianity earned him a noble title from the Austrian emperors, and he took up several important positions within the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy.

Petar Parchevich was born circa 1612 in Chiprovtsi to an influential Parchevich (Parčević) family, having Croatian roots and being the ancestral house of the House of Pejačević, a notable and distinguished Croatian noble family in the 18th and 19th century. Chiprovtsi was then a Catholic-populated town in the northwestern Bulgarian lands under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. In the 17th century, Chiprovtsi was a rich merchant town in its cultural heyday. Like many Bulgarians from Chiprovtsi at the time, Parchevich was sent to be educated in Italy. Having studied in Rome and Loreto, he returned to Bulgaria in 1643 as a doctor of theology and canon law, which made him one of the most educated Bulgarians of his age.