Sofia, December 16, 2024
Bp. Kliment of Levski, vicar of the Diocese of the USA, Canada, and Australia. Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
His Holiness Patriarch Daniil and a host of hierarchs of the Bulgarian Orthodox church consecrated a new vicar bishop for the Diocese of USA, Canada, and Australia on Sunday, December 15.
At its session on December 10, the Bulgarian Holy Synod approved the request for a vicar for the elderly Metropolitan Joseph, 82, the ruling hierarch of the diaspora diocese.
And yesterday, Archimandrite Kliment (Strakhilov), a monk of the Athonite Zografou Monastery, was consecrated at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Alexander Nesky, reports the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
Previously, the current Patriarch served as vicar to Met. Joseph from 2010 to 2018.
The Bulgarian primate was joined by 12 hierarchs, including Met. Joseph, clergy from throughout Bulgaria, and spiritual brothers of the new bishop from Zografou. The cathedral was also filled with Orthodox faithful.
Before the start of the Divine Liturgy, Archimandrite Kliment pronounced his episcopal promises and confessed the Orthodox faith by reading the Nicene Creed. The cathedral resounded with cries of “Axios!” during the episcopal consecration during the Liturgy.
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, Patriarch Daniel presented the new bishop with a staff and delivered a speech:
We know you as a sincere and deeply believing man and Christian, as a zealous monk, diligent in the monastic obediences that you once chose to bear in the Zografou Holy Monastery in the Garden of the Most Holy Mother of God, Mt. Athos, dear to every Orthodox Bulgarian heart. We also know and respect the life path you have walked in the world, which spontaneously and quite naturally evokes in our minds the apostolic words and call: But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way (1 Cor. 12:31).
Pat. Daniil also wished the new bishop to be a diligent imitator of St. Clement of Ohrid and “just as he in his time imitated his teachers—the Equal-to-the-Apostles the holy Thessalonian brothers Cyril and Methodius, and all of them together—Christ, following the advice of the Apostle to the Nations, who exhorts the brothers in Corinth: Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ (1 Cor. 11:1).”
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
The newly ordained Bishop Kliment said in his speech that,
the episcopate is a sacred ministry that transcends the limitations of modest spiritual and physical human capabilities, it is a gift of God and an opportunity for the unfolding of Sacramental evangelism for the salvation of people in God’s holy Church... Most Holy Master! Behold, God has provided that I receive through your holy archpastoral hands all three graceful hierarchical degrees of priesthood. You ordained me to the diaconal and priestly ranks, and today also to the episcopal rank. You, Most Holy Master, most fully understand my excitement with which I approach my future Church ministry, since you, in your capacity as Bishop of Dragovita, for almost seven years and until your election as Metropolitan of Vidin, were a vicar bishop of the Metropolitan Joseph of USA, Canada and Australia. I thank you with all my heart.
After the holy service, Met. Joseph addressed the new bishop:
Great is God’s mercy toward the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, toward our Orthodox Bulgarian people, toward yourself and toward all your friends and guests who are here. Of course, this Divine mercy has been manifested throughout our more than millennium-long historical existence... God sent His messengers among the Bulgarian people, who enlightened them in the truth of the saving faith and instilled evangelical virtues in their soul. Since then, through His saints, God has preserved us in faith in every way, so that we might advance in piety and in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
He added that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church needs zealous ministers not only in the homeland but also throughout the world, especially in the Diocese of USA, Canada and Australia.
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Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
Bp. Kliment was born in Sofia in 1974.
He graduated with highest honors from the German High School in Sofia in 1993. In subsequent years, he continued his education at the University of Osnabrück, Germany, simultaneously completing two majors—Macroeconomics and European Studies. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Birmingham, UK. In 2005, he defended his doctorate in Florence at the prestigious European University Institute (EUI) and received his doctorate in Economics. He completed internships at several banks, including the central banks of Germany and Canada.
From 2005, he was a senior assistant in the Economics Faculty of the European College in Bruges, Belgium. From 2007, after winning the competition for European civil servant, he was appointed as an economist in the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN) of the European Commission in Brussels, which position he left to enter as a novice at the Zografou Monastery on Mount Athos in November 2009.
After three years as a novice, on the feast of the Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem, he was tonsured as a monk with the name Kliment, in honor of St. Kliment of Ohrid, with his spiritual elder Archimandrite Ambrose as his sponsor. In October 2021, on the feast of the 26 Zografou Martyrs, he was ordained as a deacon, and the following day as a hieromonk by the then Metropolitan of Vidin, now Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil.
Along with his monastic obediences in the church, monastery kitchen, and the oil press, he translates Orthodox literature (he knows Greek, Russian, and several Western languages), and has published several liturgical books and psaltic collections.
In 2016, he graduated from the Theological Faculties in Sofia and Thessaloniki and participates in scientific conferences. By decision of the Bulgarian Holy Synod, he transferred to serve in the Bulgarian Diocese of the USA, Canada, and Australia and was appointed as protosingel of the diocese.
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