[3] He remained in office, becoming the first Archbishop of Ohrid, after the fall of the First Bulgarian Empire to Byzantium.
[4] When in 1018 Emperor Basil II managed to conquer Bulgaria, he issued a decree to downgrade the Patriarchate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to the Archbishopric of Ohrid, which remained autocephalous and corresponded to the newly formed theme of Bulgaria.
John was chosen to be the first Archbishop of Ohrid by Basil II.
[5][6] According to 17th-century French historian du Cange, John was born in a village around the town of Debar in today North Macedonia and had been a hegumen in a Debar monastery.
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