Background
He was born in Bansko, Bulgaria, to Dimitar Poparabadzhiev, a Bulgarian Exarchate priest and a teacher.
He was born in Bansko, Bulgaria, to Dimitar Poparabadzhiev, a Bulgarian Exarchate priest and a teacher.
Mladenov attended a French Catholic school in Thessaloniki, graduated from highschool in Turin and attended the French college in Constantinople.
Dimitar wrote for the newspaper Bulgaria and corresponded with Dragan Tsankov, who would become the fist Liberal Prime Minister of the country. After his spiritual education in Paris, he was ordained by the Archbishop of Paris. In June 1878, he was part of the French delegation to the Congress of Berlin.
Later that year, he was sent to teach at the Saint Benedict college in Constantinople, preferred a priestly vocation and began to serve in Thessaloniki.
In early 1884, he was invited to a personal meeting with Pope Leo XIII in Rome, who confirmed the appointment of the young bishop of Apostolic vicar for Catholic Bulgarians in Macedonia, based in Thessaloniki. During his episcopal ministry in the late 1880s, Unia in Macedonia reached its apogee.
Thanks to his energy and the financial backing he received from the Church, Mladenov was able to provide several initiatives with grants, found several schools in his diocese and started working on a highschool in Kilkis, which he wasn"t able to finish. In 1890, his initiatives paved the way for the founding of the Bulgarian Catholic cathedral as his bishop"s seat.
In 1894, financial scandals and affairs caused conflicts between several Catholic factions, and eventually led to his departure from the Episcopal department at the end of October 1894.
The application was approved as a decree on 8 December of that year. Initially, he served as an advisor on Eastern affairs Retaining that title, he was appointed assistant manager of the Vatican Library at the beginning of the 19th century.
After 18 years in office, he wrote a book on the history of Bulgaria based on unpublished documents from the jurisdiction of his library.
Lazar"s sister, Mila Dimitrova, was a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).