Bogomilist

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A member of a dualist Christian sect that arose in medieval Bulgaria and rejected much of the established church's authority and practice
2. Someone who adhered to the Bogomil movement, a medieval religious group in the Balkans that taught a cosmic struggle between good and evil
3. A adherent of the Bogomil faith, a heretical medieval belief system originating in Bulgaria that viewed the material world as the work of an evil god

Etymology: A bogomilist was a follower of Bogomilism, a dualist Christian movement that appeared in Bulgaria in the 10th century and took its name from the priest Bogomil. The name itself is Slavic: "Bogomil" combines "bog" (god) with "milu" (dear, beloved), so it roughly means "dear to God" or "beloved of God." The movement taught that the material world was created by an evil principle, a view that set it apart from mainstream Orthodox doctrine and later spread influence into Western Europe. The English word is a derived form, built from the movement's name with the suffix "-ist" for an adherent. It came into use in English in the 19th century, when historians and scholars of medieval religion began writing about the movement in detail. Because the sect was known mainly through the writings of its opponents, the term carries a stronger sense of heresy than the believers themselves would have used.