New Bulgarian Patriarch elected

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church elected today Metropolitan Neofit of Ruse, as the new patriarch. On behalf of the Serbian Orthodox Church Bishop Jovan of Nis and Bishop Јован of Sumadia were present at the enthronement ceremony.

Neofit was born as Simeon Dimitrov on October 15, 1945 in Sofia.

Neofit graduated from the Theological Academy in Sofia in 1971 and specialized in Moscow.  He was tonsured a monk in the Troyan Monastery by late Patriarch Maxim in 1975 and took the name Neofit.

In 1985 Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria of blessed memory ordained Neofit  a bishop at the St. Alexander Nevsky Patriarchal Cathedral. In 1994 Neofit became Metropolitan of Dorostol and Cherven and in 2011 he became Metropolitan of Ruse.