The Banat Bulgarians (Banat Bulgarian: Palćene or Banátsći balgare; common Bulgarian: Банатски българи, romanized: Banatski bălgari; Romanian: Bulgari bănățeni; Serbian: Банатски Бугари / Banatski Bugari), also known as Bulgarian Roman Catholics, Bulgarian Latin Catholics and Bulgarians Paulicians or simply as Paulicians, are a distinct Bulgarian minority group which since the Chiprovtsi Uprising in the late 17th century began to settle in the region of the Banat, which was then ruled by the Habsburgs and after World War I was divided between Romania, Serbia, and Hungary. Unlike most other Bulgarians, they are Roman Catholic by confession and stem from groups of Paulicians (who eventually adopted Catholicism) and Roman Catholics from modern northern and northwestern Bulgaria.

Banat Bulgarians speak a distinctive codified form of the Eastern Bulgarian vernacular with much lexical influence from the other languages of the Banat. Although strongly acculturated to the Pannonian region (remote from Bulgaria's mainland), they have preserved their Bulgarian identity; however, they consider themselves Bulgarians among other ethnic groups but self-identify as Paulicians when compared to ethnic Bulgarians.

The ethnic group in scholarly literature is called as Banat Bulgarians, Bulgarian Roman Catholics, Bulgarian Paulicians, or simply Paulicians (Pavlićani or Pavlikijani with dialectic forms Palćani, Palčene, Palkene). The latter ethnonym is used by the group members as self-identification (being endonym), and to express "I / we" which is contrasted to "you" of Bulgarian ethnonym (being exonym). Their Bulgarian identification is inconsistent and rather used when compared to other ethnic groups. According to Blagovest Nyagulov, there existed differences in self-designation among communities. In Romania, in the village of Dudeștii Vechi prevailed Paulician ethnonym, while in Vinga the Bulgarian ethnonym because in the latter was a mixture of Bulgarian communities from different regions. Until the mid-20th century was developed idea of Bulgarian ethnic nationalism and according to it prevailed Bulgarian ethnonym, with the intermediate decision being "Bulgarians Paulicians". As the community's literature and language is based on Paulician dialect and Latin alphabet it was promoted acceptance of Bulgarian literary language and Cyrillic alphabet. In the 1990s was again argued if they are a distinctive group or part of Bulgarian national, cultural and linguistic unity. On the other part, in Serbia the community was not in touch with such political influence and was accepted Paulician ethnonym, and only since 1990s became more in contact with other Bulgarian communities and institutions. According to 1999 research by Nyagulov, the people consider themselves to be partly of Bulgarian ethnos, but not on an individual level, only as a community, which is characterized by Catholic faith, specific literature and language practice as well as elements of traditional material heritage and spiritual culture.

The origin of the Bulgarian Roman Catholic community is related to the Paulicianism, a medieval Christian movement from Armenia and Syria whose members between 8th and 10th century arrived in the region of Thrace, then controlled by Byzantine Empire. They had religious freedom until the 11th century, when the majority were converted to the official Christian state faith by Alexios I Komnenos. Over the centuries, they started to assimilate with the Bulgarians. However, they never fully accepted the Eastern Orthodox Church, living with specific traditions. The Latin Catholic Bosnian Croat Franciscans in the late 16th and early 17th century managed to convert them to Latin Catholicism. It is believed that the Banat Bulgarian community was formed from two groups in different regions; one from missionary activities of the Roman Catholic Church in the 17th century among merchants and artisans from Chiprovtsi, not only of Paulician origin as included "Saxon" miners among others, and other from Paulician peasants of villages from Svishtov and Nikopol municipalities.

In 1688, the members of the community organized the unsuccessful Chiprovtsi Uprising against the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria. The uprising was suppressed, due to organizational flaws and the halting of the Austrian offensive against the Ottomans. Around 300 families of the surviving Catholics fled north of the Danube to Oltenia, initially settling in Craiova, Râmnicu Vâlcea, and other cities, where their existing rights were confirmed by Wallachian Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu. Some moved to south-western Transylvania, founding colonies in Vinţu de Jos (1700) and Deva (1714) and receiving privileges such as civil rights and tax exemption.

After Oltenia was occupied by Habsburg monarchy in 1718, the status of the Bulgarians in the region improved again. An imperial decree of 1727 allowed them the same privileges in the Banat of Craiova as in their colonies in Transylvania. This attracted another wave of migration of Bulgarian Catholics, about 300 families from the formerly Paulician villages of central northern Bulgaria. They settled in Craiova between 1726 and 1730, but did not receive the same rights as the colonists from Chiprovtsi. The Habsburgs were forced to withdraw from Oltenia in 1737 in the wake of a new war with the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarians fled from this new Ottoman occupation and settled in the Austrian-ruled Banat to the northwest. The Austrian authorities, allowed 2,000 people to found the villages of Stár Bišnov in 1738 and some 125 families Vinga in 1741. In 1744, a decree of Maria Theresa of Austria again confirmed their privileges received in Oltenia.

Around a hundred Paulicians from the region of Svishtov and Nikopol migrated to the Banat from 1753 to 1777. The existing Bulgarian population, especially from Stár Bišnov, quickly spread throughout the region from the late 18th to the second quarter of the 19th century. They settled in around 20 villages and towns in search of better economic conditions, specifically their need for arable land. Such colonies include those in Modoš (1779), Konak and Stari Lec (1820), Belo Blato (1825), Bréšća, Dénta, and Banatski Dvor (1842), Telepa (1846), Skorenovac (1866), and Ivanovo (1866-1868).

After they settled, the Banat Bulgarians began to take care of their education and religion. The Neo-Baroque church in Stár Bišnov was built in 1804 and the imposing Neo-Gothic church in Vinga in 1892. Until 1863, Banat Bulgarians held liturgies in Latin and "Illyric". Illyric was a strain of Croatian which had spread in the communities before they migrated to the Banat. However, with their cultural revival in the mid-19th century, their vernacular was gradually introduced in the church. The revival also led to the release of their first printed book, Manachija kathehismus za katolicsanske Paulichiane, in 1851. "Illyric" was also substituted with Banat Bulgarian in education in 1860 (officially in 1864). In 1866, Jozu Rill codified the dialect with his essay Bálgarskotu pravopisanj. After the Ausgleich of 1867, the Hungarian authorities gradually intensified the Magyarization of the Banat. Until World War I, they imposed Hungarian as the main language of education.