Marko Balabanov was born in 1837 in Klisura, then in Ottoman Bulgaria, in the family of a hodden artisan.

He studied in a monastery school in his home village and then under the patronage of bishop Konstantius of Bursa graduated the Halki seminary.

In 1871, Balabanov was a representative of the Plovdiv Diocese at the first Bulgarian Church–People's Assembly in Istanbul and was elected a secretary of the Holy Synod.

In the autumn of 1876, together with Dragan Tsankov, he toured Europe to present the plight of the Bulgarian people after the bloody suppression of the Bulgaria April Uprising.

[1] Marko Balabanov taught Greek language and literature in 1889–1884 and Roman, Byzantine and Church law in 1892–1902 in Sofia University.