Sofia, Bulgaria, June 4, 2025
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
On June 1, International Children’s Day, His Holiness Patriarch Daniil of Bulgaria visited children in the hospital wards of the Pirogov University Multi-profile Hospital for Active Treatment and Emergency Medicine.
The Patriarch was welcomed by hospital leadership and medical staff, including deputy executive director Ivaylo Dimitrov and heads of the pediatric departments, reports the Bulgarian Patriarchate.
Also participating in the visit were Archimandrite John, protosingel of the Metropolis of Sofia and Protodeacon Dr. Deyan Korunoski, who serves as chief surgeon at the hospital.
Patriarch Daniil offered prayers for all children receiving treatment at the medical facility and for the medical and support staff. He then visited children in the Pediatrics, Pediatric Orthopedics and Traumatology, and Pediatric Neurosurgery departments.
During his visit, the Patriarch distributed prayer books and candy to the young patients as blessings.
The Patriarch also issued an address for International Children’s Day, emphasizing God’s boundless love for children and the sacred responsibility of adults to nurture them in Christian virtues.
Speaking directly to children, the Patriarch assures them of Divine care: “Be assured that our God loves you infinitely much. Before God, we adults are also children. We are all His children. He cares for us and constantly listens attentively to our prayers to Him.”
His Holiness encourages children to turn to prayer during difficulties, explaining that God “is always ready to come to our aid, to help us, to give us strength in difficulties. He holds us invisibly by the hand, like our parents, so that we are not alone and so that we can walk and progress in life.”
Central to his message is Christ’s desire for children’s happiness and unity. “Christ wants with all His heart for us to be happy, to be joyful, to love each other and to understand each other,” the Patriarch states. “He wants us to learn to love Him, as well as to love all other people!”
Addressing parents and educators, Patriarch Daniil draws on Biblical teaching about becoming “like children” to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, which means acquiring “the immediate, unforced trust of the child toward his parent, devoid of any cunning. To acquire this same trust, this faith, in our heavenly Father!”
The Bulgarian primate emphasizes the profound responsibility adults bear toward children, stating: “Our children, their upbringing and their morality are the fruit and direct result of the state of our society—of the Bulgarian family and the Bulgarian school, of each of us, and therefore our responsibility before them and before God is enormous.”
He concludes with a call for collective care: “Let all of us, imitating God’s care for His children, care for the children of Bulgaria, so that they are raised and grow up in the imperishable virtues of Christ.”
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