Sliven, Sliven Province, Bulgaria, January 15, 2024
Photo: actualno.com
On January 9, following a long illness, His Eminence Metropolitan Joanikii of Sliven of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church reposed in the Lord, the Bulgarian Church reports.
He served the Church as a hierarch for 49 years.
On the evening of January 10, the monastic funeral was served by His Grace Bishop Hierotei of Agatopol and priests from Sliven at the St. Demetrios the Myrrh-Gusher Cathedral in Sliven, and in the morning the funeral Liturgy was served by His Eminence Metropolitan John of Varna, who was appointed locum tenens of the Sliven Metropolis by the Holy Synod, together with 12 other Bulgarian hierarchs and a host of clergy.
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During the funeral, an address from His Holiness Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria was read out. He stated that:
Metropolitan Joannikii lived with this faith and with unchanging hope in God’s promises and in God's good providence for everyone. He was able to inspire with them and was able to draw people to Christ and His holy Church. For all of us he remains a model and an example of humility, strict asceticism, and following the way of Christ, and therefore we hope and believe that Christ, Whom he loved so much and to Whom he devoted his whole life, will receive him into His eternal Kingdom of light and joy.
Following the funeral, his body was carried in procession to the eastern side of the cathedral, where he was laid to rest.
May Met. Joanikii’s memory be eternal!
***
The future Met. Joanikii was born on March 2, 1939, in the village of Pet Mogili in the Sliven Province. From the ages of 14 to 18 he studied at the Sofia Theological Seminary, graduating in 1958.
He then graduated from the St. Clement of Ohrid Theological Academy in Sofia in 1964. During his studies there, he was tonsured a monk with the name of Joanikii on April 1, 1961. He was ordained a hierodeacon on August 28 of that year, and on March 17, 1963, he was ordained a hieromonk.
From 1964 to 1966, he studied tehology at the Moscow Theological Academy. Upon his return to Bulgaria, he was appointed protosinghel of the Sliven Metropolis. He was elevated to the rank of archimandrite on November 24, 1968, and later that year was appointed protosinghel of the Staro Zagora Metropolis.
From 1970 to 1971, he studied theology at the Old Catholic Faculty of Theology in the city of Bern, Switzerland, and from the end of 1971, he was again appointed protosinghel of the Sliven Metropolis, where he remained until April 1975.
On April 20, 1975, he was consecrated as the Bishop of Velichki, vicar of the Sliven Metropolis. On April 13, 1980, he was confirmed as the ruling Metropolitan of Sliven, where he remained until his repose.
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