Joseph Sokolsky (1786-1879) was the first Bulgarian clergyman to convert to Catholicism and a pioneer of the Bulgarian Uniat Church. He was the founder of Sokolski monastery, near Gabrovo, Bulgaria. Sokolsky negotiated with Vatican a formal union due to Greek influences within Bulgarian Orthodoxy and gained Catholic recognition 1861 when Pope Pius IX named himself bishop to Bulgarians of the Byzantine rite, being soon accepted by Ottoman Empire. Sokolsky was imprisoned in a Ukrainian monastery for eighteen years, died under mysterious circumstances.