The first Divine Liturgy celebrated by the newly enthroned Patriarch Daniil of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was dedicated to the remembrance of the saint who protects Christians in the neighbouring country: St. John of Rila, the founder of Bulgarian monasticism.
Patriarch Daniil served at St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia on Monday, the day the Bulgarian Orthodox Church commemorates the translation of St. John of Rila’s relics to the monastery he founded.
“It is significant for me that the first Divine Liturgy I celebrate as the leader of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is on the day we honour St. John of Rila, the miracle worker,” said the new Patriarch of Bulgaria.
“Today’s celebration has a very powerful message for us. Mount Rila was once a wilderness, a wild forest. No one believed it could flourish and give such light. For over a thousand years, Orthodox Christians from everywhere, but especially from our Bulgarian land, have gathered there.”
“The sky and the earth are united there because, in this place, St. John of Rila laboured, raised his hands to the sky, and implored God’s grace, and even during his lifetime, he performed miracles there with the help of the Lord,” continued His Beatitude Patriarch Daniil.
“St. John ensured that the first institution to be restored after Bulgaria fell under Turkish slavery was the Rila Monastery. The saint teaches us not to seek fleeting earthly glory but to trust in the glory given to us by God. Let us preserve the Orthodox faith, for it leads us to God.”
“Preserve the Unity of the Church”
“Our goal and primary task is to maintain this unity of the Church as the Lord commanded us to do and to strive to establish the peace of Christ in our hearts, to walk the path of salvation,” the Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church continued.
“What we lack most today is love. Let us have sincere intentions, and may love, brotherhood, and unity among us flourish.”
The service was attended by members of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and accredited diplomats in Sofia, as well as delegates from the Sister Orthodox Churches present in Sofia for the enthronement ceremony of the new patriarch.
The delegation of the Romanian Orthodox Church included His Eminence Nifon, Archbishop of Râmnic, honorary metropolitan and patriarchal exarch, and Hieromonk Nicolae Iftimiu, patriarchal counsellor and director of the Basilica News Agency of the Romanian Patriarchate.
The most recent visit to Romania by His Beatitude Daniil, the new Patriarch of Bulgaria, took place in 2022 when he was invited, as Metropolitan of Vidin, to the historic feast of the Patriarchal Cathedral in the capital.
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca Ene
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