Sofia, September 20, 2017
Photo: sofiaglobe.com The Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s Metropolitan Dometian of Vidin has reposed at the age of 84 after a long illness, the Holy Synod announced on Monday, the Sofia Globe reports.
Born Dimitar Topuzliev in 1932, he took his monastic vows in 1959 and was consecrated as bishop in 1974, serving as head of the Bulgarian Orthodox parish in Akron, Ohio from 1979 to 1983. Upon returning to Bulgaria, he became vicar to the patriarch of Sofia and was elected metropolitan of Vidin in 1987.
In January 2012, Met. Dometian was one of several members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Holy Synod to be named as an agent of the communist-era State Security. He was recruited in 1972 to the sixth directorate of State Security, charged with carrying out ideological warfare, under the pseudonym Dobrev.
Met. Dometian’s death creates the third vacancy on the 15-member Holy Synod in the past 12 months. The Holy Synod voted in September 2016 to retire Metropolitan Galaktion of Stara Zagora due to his poor health, electing Bishop Kipriyan as his replacement in December 2016. Just two weeks later, Metropolitan Kalinik of Vratsa reposed, replaced by Bishop Grigorii in March 2017.
His Holiness Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria has called the passing of Met. Dometian a great loss not just for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, but for the entire Orthodox world.
The Holy Synod has announced that it will meet in the near future to set burial date for his Met. Dometian’s funeral and to name a locum tenens for the Vidin Diocese.
May God grant the memory of Met. Dometian to be eternal!
