Posted on 11/06/2012 8:22:17 AM PST by annalex
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| Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria was in charge of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for 41 years. Photo by Cross |
The head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Maxim, has passed away at the age of 98.
Patriarch Maxim died shortly before 4 am on Tuesday, the Bulgarian National Television reported.
The head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was hospitalized a month ago, and in the last few days he was on life support in the Governmental Hospital in Sofia.
His All Holiness Maxim of Bulgaria turned 98 on October 29, 2012. Because of his fragile health, he was unable to honor a holy icon that was recently brought to Bulgaria from Mount Athos.
Following the news of Maxim's death, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church bishops are supposed to gather on Tuesday in order to elect a temporary head of the Holy Synod as well as a temporary Bishop of Sofia, a title also held by Maxim.
Patriarch Maxim was in charge of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for a little over 40 years. He was born on October 29, 1914, in the village of Oreshak, Lovech District.
He became the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on July 4, 1971, after the death of Patriarch Kiril in March 1971, at the height of the atheistic communist regime.
may he rest in peace.
Eternal rest grant unto him, Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul rest in peace.
Each local church has its own way of dealing with the collaborator clergy. It appears that unlike in Russia, the Bulgarian Church was able to properly reconcile.
He opposed religious freedom for the Bulgarian Orthodox who insisted that the church, and not the Communists, had the authority to choose a patriarch.
Metropolitan Innokentiy is the leader of the Bulgarian Christians who did not cooperate with Stalin.
RIP.
The schism ended in 2010, when the head of the alternative synod, Metropolitan Inokentii, called for a healing of division between the groups and the rival synod was dissolved.
I very much recommend the foxnews article, it is far more detailed.
Moderator, what is the rule that my post violated? I thought inline comments allowed articles in full.
be that as it is, this is a Patriarch dying — a momentous change in any Church
A panel reviewing communist-era collaborators with the former security services found no links to Maxim, though it said that 11 out of the country's 15 bishops had been working with the communist regime.The church leader largely kept away from political life, though he remained an influential figure throughout his career.
From the foxnews.com article also linked a couple of posts above.
The reason I mentioned it is because I posted a larger article which gave those details among many others, but apparently I fell afoul of some rule. I did not mean to put specifically His Grace's alleged collaborationism into focus.
May his Memory be Eternal! Vjecnaja Pamjat!
We have a Bulgarian priest who often serves Divine Liturgy (together with our Serbian priest) in our Serbian Orthodox parish, and a few Bulgarian Orthodox faithful who attend there. I usually see them at lunch on Pascha.
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