Sofia, April 22, 2024
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
His Holiness Patriarch Neofit of Sofia reposed in the Lord at the age of 78 on March 13, having served 11 as year as primate of the Bulgarian Church.
He was laid to rest on March 16.
Yesterday, Sunday, April 21, Bulgarian hierarchs, clergy, and faithful gathered to commemorate the 40th day of the Patriarch’s repose. The service at the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Nedelya was led by His Eminence Metropolitan Gregory of Vratsa, the locum tenens of the Patriarchal throne, reports the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
Met. Gregory was concelebrated by a dozen hierarchs and various clerics, including the representatives of the Russian and Romanian Churches serving in Bulgaria.
Following the Divine Liturgy, a memorial service was celebrated, after which Met. Gregory spoke of the beloved Patriarch:
For all of us, the His Holiness the Bulgarian Patriarch and Sofia Metropolitan Neofit was a true example of a person, a monk and a Christian, a bishop, and a primate of our Orthodox Church. The memory of him will be the memory of a loving father, ready to always forgive everyone and bring them to Christ and the Church, with kind words and wise instruction. His proverbial purity and modesty, kindness and charity will be remembered for generations in our holy Church. And although temporarily separated from him, we will all always feel his paternal love and support, knowing that now that he is no longer among us, we have in his person another loving prayer leader and intercessor before the throne of God.
A trisagion was also served at His Holiness’ grave under the cathedral’s colonnade:
The Church reports:
The non-stop flow of people, which has not stopped during the last 40 days, shows the love and spiritual fruits of the blessed and well-remembered Bulgarian primate who worked hard for the work of the Church. With tears in their eyes, the faithful laid flowers today at the last home of Patriarch Neofit and prayed for him, so that God may welcome him into the Kingdom of Heaven among the saints. Eternal and blessed be his memory!
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