Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte leads Palm Sunday liturgy at Alexander Newsky Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria, on April 12, 2020. Patriarch Neophyte of Bulgaria, who was the first elected head of the ...

Newly elected Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil blesses the people during his enthronement ceremony at Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria, Sunday, June 30, 2024.

Patriarch Daniil, 52, was elected among three candidates on Sunday morning to succeed Neophyte who died in March. Representatives from Orthodox Churches in Greece, North Macedonia, Serbia, Russia ...

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Patriarch Neophyte of Bulgaria, who was the first elected head of the Orthodox Church in the post-communist Balkan country, died at a hospital in Sofia. He was 78.

Bulgarian Orthodox Priests pay their last respects to Bulgarian patriarch Neophyte at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Friday, March 15, 2024.

Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil looks at the Bulgarian honor guards marching to mark his enthronement ceremony in front of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria, Sunday, June 30, 2024.

I STANBUL (RNS) — A tense election in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on Sunday (June 30) ended with the enthronement of Metropolitan Daniil of Vidin as the new metropolitan of Sofia and patriarch ...

Item 1 of 5 Newly elected Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil leads a service during his inauguration ceremony at St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria, June 30, 2024.

Neophyte was enthroned in 2013 and succeeded Patriarch Maxim who led the church between 1971 and his death in 2012. About 80% of the population in the 6.8 million-strong Bulgaria are Orthodox ...

Sofia, Bulgaria — Bulgaria’s Orthodox Church elected Daniil, a 52-year-old metropolitan considered to be pro-Russian, as its new leader Sunday in a vote that reflected the divisions in the ...