Truly venerated as the spiritual father and shepherd of the nation, Patriarch Neophyte has passed away. Clerics from the eparchy of Ruse, headed by Neophyte for 19 years, expressed great sorrow with the news of his demise.

• His Holiness the Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte has passed away

Father Stefan from the Church of St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker in Ruse: “Maybe God, at this precise moment in time called him to pray from up above where his prayers will be most potent. Very tragic news at a tragic time.” From London, Father Dobromir Dimitrov, who served under the spiritual guidance of Neophyte for 10 years, says he will remember him as a very good shepherd, but above all else as a very good human being.

The tolling of church bells in the centre of Sofia signaled the demise of the Bulgarian patriarch. All churches in Sofia threw their doors open early this morning to allow the public to light a candle and pray for the soul of His Holiness Patriarch Neophyte, who was also metropolitan bishop of Sofia.

“God rest His Holiness! And may his soul rest where we all believe he will be – in heaven, in the place of bliss with the Lord,” says Bishop Polycarp of Belogradchik, first vicar of the Sofia Metropolitan Bishop. “What embellished his being was his modesty, his humility, the warm-heartedness and kindness with which he treated all people.”

The reactions by Bulgarian politicians were not late in coming. “The passing of the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox church is a huge loss for the church, and for the Bulgarian people,” President Rumen Radev wrote on Facebook minutes after the announcement by the Holy Synod. “In serving God and Orthodoxy with such dedication, Patriarch Neophyte established himself as a sustainer of the Bulgarian nation and the Bulgarian state.” Vice President Iliana Iotova noted, also on Facebook: “I shall never forget those warm eyes and wise words.”

Again on Facebook, GERB party leader Boyko Borissov wrote: “Bulgaria lost its spiritual father. He stood at the helm of the Bulgarian Orthodox church with gentleness, patience and wisdom. A true and deserving priest has passed, a good man and a devout Bulgarian!”

In a post to the page of the Council of Ministers on Facebook, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov also expressed his condolences, stating that Patriarch Neophyte “will remain in our memories as a wise and kind spiritual leader who gave of his faith and strength to his flock even when he himself was physically weak.”

On her part, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mariya Gabriel wrote: “We shall remember his legacy for attaining unity, for a life in faith and piety.”

The party leaders of PP/DB Kiril Petkov, of Vazrazhdane Kostadin Kostadinov, of the Bulgarian Socialist Party Krneliya Ninova, of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms Delyan Peevski also expressed their condolences.

The Grand Mufti’s Office also expressed condolences to “the Orthodox world and the Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria for the loss of their spiritual leader and first priest of the Bulgarian Orthodox church.”

“With sadness and sorrow we learnt that His Holiness the Patriarch of Bulgaria and Metropolitan Bishop of Sofia Neophyte has finished his earthly course,” the Grand Mufti’s Office writes in its official Facebook page. “He will remain in our memory as a very good man and as a spiritual leader open to dialogue. The Muslin confession will remember him for his empathy and respect for the religious communities in the country, for his quest for concord in the name of shared positions, of law-making, morality, and the traditional values we have upheld together,” the Grand Mufti’s office writes.

Priests and believers express their grief and their concern for the future and the unity of the Bulgarian Orthodox church. How is Patriarch Neophyte going to be remembered?

“We should remember him as a man of the spirit, an erudite of the highest order, an exceptional man of God,” says archpriest Prof. Ivan Ivanov of the Bulgarian Orthodox church in Rome. “An Orthodox Christian who committed his life and his life’s work to the advancement and the prosperity of the Bulgarian Orthodox church and the Bulgarian state, and to the entire Bulgarian nation. He was a man who stood by Bulgarian society and the Bulgarian church in difficult times and the problems they faced, and he was able to overcome them with the unequalled Christian example he set, with his patience, with his humility before God and the Bulgarian church. And with his outstanding selflessness in the name of all that is good, in the name of peace and understanding among all people. Because Patriarch Neophyte demonstrated, with dignity, how Christians ought to live their lives. And he demonstrated it during the time in which he was developing as an individual and as a cleric, throughout his entire life, but most of all as head and first priest of the Bulgarian Orthodox church.”

“The good shepherd shall not seek what is his, he is ready to sacrifice himself for his fellow men,” said Patriarch Neophyte in an interview which he gave on his 70^th birthday to “Faith and society”, a programme by public service TV BNT. “God ordains hardships for us, trials and adversities in a measure we can endure, following Christ is what makes a good shepherd,” said Patriarch Neophyte, and added what makes a good spiritual shepherd: “Laying down his soul for friends and for the souls he has been entrusted with /.../ Always thinking, praying and caring for those suffering adversity.”

Orthodox Christians who have attended Patriarch Neophyte’s church services remember his angel-voiced chants – for example the superbstichera and Katavasiae for the Nativity of Christ which he sang as metropolitan bishop of the eparchy of Ruse:

Translated and posted by Milena Daynova

Photos: BTA, BGNES