From the book by Afanasy Selishchev “Polog and its Bulgarian population. Historical, ethnographic and dialectological sketches of northwestern Macedonia. Published by the Macedonian Scientific Institute, Sofia 1929.
“The enlightening and people-loving ideas proclaimed in the 18th century by English and French thinkers found a response in Germany and in the Slavic countries. These ideas are at the heart of the revival process of the Western and Southern Slavs, including the Bulgarians. But the content and forms of the process of the Bulgarian revival differed significantly from the corresponding processes among other Slavs. The first Bulgarian revivalists do not receive ideological impulses directly from the West for their activities. They do not communicate with scientists and philosophers in Germany and France. (…)
Through other countries, through neighbors in the northwest, these trends reach them, albeit very rare. Communication with the Serbs of Austria-Hungary, who found themselves closer to Western cultural life, contributed to the penetration of educational ideas into the Bulgarian environment. The first awakeners of the Bulgarian people left the monasteries. The monastic environment, in the person of its best representatives, in the dark times of Turkish and Phanariotic oppression supported the barely smoldering Slavic writing.
From here came the first attempts to write not in a high, albeit distorted Russian-Church-Slavonic language, but in the language of "the simplest Bulgarian". Just as Damascene the Studite (16th century) turned in his instructive words to the Greek folk speech, so, following his example, the Bulgarian monks and lay priests close to them began to use the living Bulgarian speech for writing, first in translations of Damascene's words, and then in other instructive teachings and legends - for collections, called "Damascene". These collections became widespread among Bulgarians in the 17th-19th centuries. The earliest Damascenes were written in Macedonia or by its natives.
The first cry in the spirit of new European trends is heard from the monastery cell - a cry for national awakening and enlightenment, for the protection of the native language, native life. This was the call of Hieromonk Paisiy, who was defeated by Khilandarsky.
"If you do not love the Bulgarians, know your kin and ıazik and ѹchi se in your own way,"
- he persuaded in his "History of the Slavic Bulgarian", completed by him in the Zograf monastery in 1762. He intended it to those scoundrels, “who do not love their kin and azik”, as well as “you who are jealous of the nobility and slishati for their kind, yes you know”. The response to his work by Fr. Paisius soon received it.
In 1765, his History was written off by the Kotlyan young priest Stoyk Vladislavov and put in the church for the benefit of the people. Pop Stoyko, later Bishop Sophronius of Vratsa, was a zealous enlightener of his people. During the years of priesthood, he teaches children to read and write and beautifully rewrites an extensive collection of words and legends (Damaskin), as well as Paisia's "Slavonic Bulgarian History" for the benefit of the soul of the Bulgarian people. (…)
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Enlightening and people-loving ideas were spread both by oral and by reading the "History of the Slavic-Bulgarian" Paisius, collections of Sophronius of Vratsa (mainly his Kyriakodromion). Attempts to disseminate the teachings through a printed book found supporters not only among the clergy, but also among Bulgarian merchants. On commercial matters, they visited outside Bulgaria, went to Budapest and Vienna and other cities. There they could appreciate the value of the printed book. In their state of mind, they remained the same. The insanity and instructiveness of the book were of prime importance to them. Bulgarian traders, mainly from Macedonia, supported the publication of the first Bulgarian books. There were helpers and supporters from among the clergy and other inhabitants.
The first Bulgarian printed books that appeared after the "Week" by Bishop. Sophronia, belonged to two selfless workers in Macedonia - Haji Joachim Daskal Krchovsky and his younger contemporary Hieromonk Kirill Peichinovich. (…)
The direction and content of the activity of x. Joachim and Kirill Peichinovich was Christian-educational, with the aim of only "spiritual benefit". The European educational trend of the time, reflected in the patriotic work of Paisius and in some collections of Bishop. Sophronia, did not affect the Macedonian scribes. They went to meet the demands of the religious and moral life of their fellow countrymen - demands in the spirit of the old ideals of “living the righteous”.
Area of activity x. Joachim - Krchevo, and then Kratovo region. He teaches boys and girls to read and write, compiles instructive books in a language understandable to the common Bulgarian people, and publishes them in Budim. In 1814, his "Tale" about the Last Judgment was published there. Maybe he also owned the "Word of the Inspired Zaradѝ Oȗmiránie", published in the same year.
In 1817, two other books of Joachim were published there: "Ordeals" and "Miracles of the Avenue of the Mother of God," in 1819 the last one: "Various instructives". These books found themselves a warm response among the people. Their publication was a matter of the people. The sponsors were not limited to financial assistance alone, but were directly involved in the appearance of these publications. Some more zealous helpers went to Budim and there they arranged the printing of the soul-saving books of their "daskal" and "confessor" (hieromonk). (…)
How dear the Joachim's books were for the population is evidenced by the following fact: one old woman (the mother of the Kyustendil teacher Vl. Migev), fleeing from Turkish atrocities, fled from Kratovo to Kyustendil and, among her precious objects, brought Joachim's “Miracles of the Mother of God” in her bosom. Books x. Joachim were so deeply rooted in the folk environment that at present, very few copies of them are known."