Background
Nathanael was born as Nesho (Nedyalko) Stoianov (Stankov) Boykikev or village of Kučevište, near Skopje, then Ottoman Empire.
Nathanael was born as Nesho (Nedyalko) Stoianov (Stankov) Boykikev or village of Kučevište, near Skopje, then Ottoman Empire.
He studied at Kučevište monastery, and in 1835 went to study in Samokov.
Nathanael is considered ethnic Macedonian in the Republic of Macedonia. In 1837 Boykikev become a monk in Zograf Monastery, named Nathanael. One year later he went to Chişinău, to study in the local theological school.
He continued his education in the Theological Seminary in Odessa, Russia.
In 1840-1841 he took part in translating of "Christian Mirror", printed in Moscow in 1847. Nathanael published the book "A friendly letter by Bulgarian to Greek" in 1853 (Prague, Church Slavonic language).He was a ministry of Dobrovets monastery in Moldova in 1854-1869.
In 1863 along with Ivan Seliminski arhimandrit Nathanael was a Bulgarian delegate in Moravia in the celebration of 1000 years of work of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Nathanael published in 1865 "Slav-Bulgarian primer" (Bucharest) and "Incident in Skopje Eparchy" (Brăila), which describes antigreek clerical and cultural movement of the Bulgarians in Northern Macedonia.
Nathanael was Bulgarian bishop in Ohrid in 1874-1880.
He was also one of the leaders in the Kresna-Razlog Uprising. Nathanael was bishop of Lovech from 1880 to 1891, and from 1891 until his death was Mitropolitan of Plovdiv.
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences]
Nathanael was a full member of the Bulgarian Learned Society (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences).