Metropolitan Daniil elected Patriarch of Bulgaria
By Vatican News
The Metropolitan of Vidin, Daniil, is the new Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. He was elected on June 30 by the Patriarchal Electoral Church Council, a body representing the Bulgarian Orthodox clergy and laity.
Daniil is the autocephalous Church’s fourth Patriarch and succeeds the late Neofit, who passed away last March 13, 2024, at the age of 78, after leading the Church for 11 years.
In a tight second-round ballot, Daniil won 69 vtes against the Metropolitan of Vratsa Grigory, who was backed by 66 delegates. Aged 52, he was the youngest in a list of three candidates presentedo the Delegates on June 20 t, which originally included Metropolitan Gavriil of Lovech. In the first round the latter won only 19 votes out of 138, thus was eliminated from the election. To elect the Patriarch a two-thirds majority is required, subsequently a run-off took place.
Enthronement ceremony
After the official announcement of his election, a procession accompanied the new Patriarch from the headquarters of the Holy Synod to Sofia’s Cathedral, where he was enthroned in a solemn ceremony attended by other Orthodox Church representatives, including, for the first time, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I.
Also attending were representatives other Christian and religious denominations including, Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, accompanied by the Fr. Jaromír Zádrapa, Official of the Eastern Section of the same Dicastery and the Apostolic Nuncio, Monsignor Luciano Suriani. The Bulgarian President Rumen Radev and King Simeon were also present.
During the ceremony the new Patriarch received the various insignia of the new dignity. At the end of the ceremony, the Patriarch ascended the throne, accompanied by the Metropolitans, loudly proclaiming the formula "worthy" three times, repeated by the entire assembly.
Who is Patriarch Daniil
Patriarch Daniil, was born as Atanas Triandafilov Nikolov on March 2 1972 in Smolyan. In 1996 he enrolled for a degree in English Philology at Sofia University before switching to the University’s Theology Faculty a year later. He became a monk in 1999 and graduated in theology in 2002.
In 2004, he was sent to Rozhen Monastery where he was ordained a priest and in 2006 was appointed Archimandrite (ed. superior of a monastery in Eastern Churches). Daniil was consecrated a bishop in 2008 and was appointed vicar of the Metropolis of Nevrokop, the Orthodox archdiocese headquartered in the southern Bulgarian town of Gotse Delchev. Two years later he was appointed vicar of the Orthodox Metropolis of the United States, Canada and Australia. He was elected Metropolitan of Vidin on 4 February 2018.
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