Banat Bulgarians
The Banat Bulgarians (Banat Bulgarian: Palćene or Banátsći balgare; common Bulgarian: Банатски българи, romanized: Banatski balgari; Romanian: Bulgari bănățeni; Serbian: Банатски Бугари / Banatski Bugari), also known as Bulgarian Roman Catholics and Bulgarians Paulicians or simply as Paulicians, are a distinct Bulgarian minority group which since the Chiprovtsi Uprising in the late 17th century began to settle in the region of the Banat, which was then ruled by the Habsburgs and after World War I was divided between Romania, Serbia, and Hungary. Unlike most other Bulgarians, they are Roman Catholic by confession and stem from groups of Paulicians (who eventually adopted Catholicism) and Roman Catholics from modern northern and northwestern Bulgaria.
Bulgarian-inhabited places in the Banat Bulgarian population
City or town | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Romania: 6,468 (2002) 12,000 (est.) Serbia: fewer than 1,658 (2002) 3,000 (est.) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Banat (Romania, Serbia), Bulgaria, to a lesser extent Hungary, United States | |
| Languages | |
| Banat Bulgarian, common Bulgarian also Romanian (in Romania), Serbian (in Serbia) | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Roman Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bulgarians |
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| Bulgarians Българи |
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Banat Bulgarians speak a distinctive codified form of the Eastern Bulgarian vernacular with much lexical influence from the other languages of the Banat. Although strongly acculturated to the Pannonian region (remote from Bulgaria's mainland), they have preserved their Bulgarian identity; however, they consider themselves Bulgarians among other ethnic groups but self-identify as Paulicians when compared to ethnic Bulgarians.