Bulgaria bid farewell to late Patriarch Neophyte (photos)

19:51, 16.03.2024

The second day of mourning began with a hierarchical divine liturgy and continued with a funeral service at the “St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Long queues snaked today, March 16, in front of the Patriarchal Cathedral. Believers from all over the country had come to bid farewell to their spiritual leader.

A hierarchical divine liturgy was held at 9:30 am, led by Metropolitan Yoan of Varna and Veliki Preslav, who is temporally fulfilling the duties of the head of the Holy Synod.

The funeral service started at 11:40 am and was presided over by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

In his speech, Patriarch Bartholomew said that our grief should not be comfortless, because we are burying a bishop of Christian love.

In his address, Metropolitan Yoan noted that today we bow before the spiritual greatness of Patriarch Neophyte, and he will continue to watch over us. The queue of lay people who came today to bow before His Holiness was huge.

From early in the morning the cathedral was filled with lay people, priests, clergy came to pay final respects to the Patriarch. People humbly waited for hours in a long queue. Each with his own memory and his own story.

"The vespers was over, the faithful people lined up by the stairs, and when they saw Metropolitan Neophyte, the faithful people stopped the singers and said, 'And now we will sing spiritual songs', I remember that, so touching with his angelic voice, you see, he did not leave the people silently to worship the icon, but with his divine angelic voice he sang spiritual songs," says Julita, a nun from the Plovdiv diocese.

When you look at the queue, it means it is worth bowing to a great Bulgarian, an Orthodox Christian and a human being.

"His Holiness was an image of Christ, an icon of faith. He was an example of a virtuous life, a man who lent a hand to everyone," said Metropolitan Antonii of Western and Central Europe.

"An infinitely good man, and what we hear about him in the past days speaks of his immense mercy, and many, many more things that he did for his younger brothers and sisters are yet to be revealed," Bishop Sionios of Velikiy said.

The Abbot of Bachkovo Monastery: His Holiness was a spiritually elevated man.

"As a teacher and colleague at the Faculty of Theology - naturally unforgettable, loving, the man who could be a Rector, could also be a singer on the kliros - such a multi-layered personality is rarely born," Assoc. Prof. Ivaylo Naydenov, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, said.

"He wouldn’t hurt a fly, he could meet you, if something fell out of your bag he would pick it up, and give it to you, would kiss your hand, that's the kind of person he was," Emil Velinov, protocol of the Holy Synod, said.

The requiescat began at 9.30. The divine liturgy was led by Metropolitan Yoan of Varna and Veliki Preslav in the presence of clergy and priests of the BOC. The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Epiphanius of Kiev was also present. However, he participated in the service only prayerfully, since we have not yet recognized the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church. Bishop Nestor of Korsun represented the Russian Orthodox Church.

In his speech, Metropolitan Yoan said that today we bow before the spiritual purity and the holy personality of the Patriarch.

"We give thanks to the all-giving God who has graced us with the honour and joy of having him among us as our spiritual guide on our journey as people and Christians. We are experiencing our earthly separation from him in a difficult and painful way, but we also believe that from now on our Orthodox people have in the person of His Holiness one more diligent pray and fervent intercessor before the throne of God," said Metropolitan Yoan of Varna and Veliki Preslav.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who arrived in Sofia early in the morning, presided over the funeral service.

The Ecumenical Patriarch said that he had come to mourn his beloved brother one last time and that he prays to the Lord to rest his soul and for the election of a successor who will be the spiritual father of all Bulgarians. The Ecumenical Patriarch also said in his speech:

Let us, beware, lest our mourning be inappropriate, like the bewailing of others who do not have hope. We are sending off a man of God, someone who dedicated his entire life to consistent faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and to the service of His Church. We came to know the departed man personally over many years and we appreciated his modesty, meekness, gentleness, kindness and sweetness of character and demeanour, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said.