Bishop Epiphany Shanov supported the activities of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).

In 1903 in Macedonia, under his leadership, over 10,000 Uniates lived in 20 villages, 10 churches, 30 priests, including 13 boys' and 9 girls' schools.

Shanov remained head of the Bulgarian Uniate Church during the Balkan wars.

In 1913, Greek soldiers arrested him and he went into exile first to the island of Naxos and then to Trikeri, where he remained until the First World War ended.

In the late summer of 1921 he again asked the Pope in Rome to be released from his duties as Bishop of the Thessaloniki diocese.