According to a statement published on the Bulgarian Patriarchate’s website, His Beatitude Patriarch Neophyte of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church reposed in the Lord on Wednesday evening at the age of 78.
Patriarch Neophyte died at the Academy of Military Medicine in Sofia at 10:22 p.m. as a result of multiple organ failure.
“We appeal to Orthodox Christians to raise their sincere prayer together with the Holy Orthodox Church to the all-merciful God in order to rest the soul of our dear Patriarch in the kingdom of God – in the abodes of the righteous,” the Bulgarian Patriarchate states.
Patriarch Neophyte was born in Sofia on October 15, 1945. After completing his education at the Theological Academy in Sofia, he continued his research in Moscow.
He was tonsured as a monk on August 3, 1975. He was ordained a hierodeacon on August 15, 1975, and a hieromonk on March 25, 1976.
On November 21, 1977, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. He served as chief secretary of the Metropolis of Sofia from 1981 to 1985. On December 8, 1985, he was ordained Titular Bishop of Levski.
He was a lecturer and in charge of the Academy’s Choir, president of the Theological Academy, the first dean of the re-established Theological School of Sofia University, and served as the secretary general of the Holy Synod from 1992 to 1994.
On April 3, 1994, he was elected Metropolitan of Dorostol and Cherven.
On December 19, 2001, after the division of the Metropolis of Dorostol and Cherven into the Metropolises of Dorostol and Ruse, he was named Metropolitan of Ruse.
He was enthroned the same day he was elected Metropolitan of Sofia and Patriarch of Bulgaria on February 24, 2013.
