Revolutionary Ivan Mateev

Ivan Mateev, also known as Popmateev, was a Bulgarian revolutionary and priest, and an activist of the Bulgarian National Revival in Eastern Macedonia. He was born into a priest's family in Belitsa, a village in the Razlog region of the Ottoman Empire. He completed the church school in Belitsa and later continued his education in Nevrokop and Plovdiv. He taught in Belitsa on several occasions and later in Kalugerovo, where he joined the revolutionary committee and helped prepare the April Uprising.

During the uprising, he belonged to Georgi Benkovski's Flying Detachment. After its defeat, he was captured and sentenced to death, but his sentence was later commuted to exile in Diyarbakır. After the Russo-Turkish War ended, he was released and returned to Belitsa, where he took up his priestly duties. In 1883, the Turkish authorities again exiled him to Asia Minor for his activities against the state.