Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), Metropolitan of Sofia Neophytos, passed away at the age of 78. This has been reported official website Bulgarian Patriarchate.
The cause of death was stated to be a long-term illness and multiple organ failure. His Holiness passed away on March 13 at 22:22 (23:22 Moscow time) at the Bulgarian Military Medical Academy.
While the Bulgarian Orthodox Church called on believers to sincere prayer, it also expressed its gratitude to the doctors for their efforts and attention to the patriarch.
Patriarch Neofit (in the world Simeon Nikolov Dimitrov) was born on October 15, 1945 in Sofia. He studied at the Sofia Theological Seminary and the Moscow Theological Academy in Sergiev Posad, near Moscow. He was tonsured a monk in 1975 under the name Neophyte. Since 1989 he has been rector of the Sofia Theological Academy, and two years later he became dean of the Faculty of Theology of Sofia University named after Kliment Ohridski. In 1994 he was confirmed as Metropolitan of Dorostol and Cherven, then after the division of the diocese into Rusenskaya and Dorostolskaya he bore the rank of Metropolitan of Rusensky.
In February 2013, the BOC Holy Synod elected the Patriarch of Bulgaria and Metropolitan of Sofia.
Previously ROC reminded me About the powers of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
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Source: Gazeta
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