Neofit, Patriarch of Bulgaria, has died this night in a military hospital after multiple organ failure. He was in intensive care since November 2023.
Funeral on 14 March at the Metropolitan church Sv. Marina:
Public funeral on 15 March at the Patriarchal cathedral in Sofia:
I could meet him personally at Troyanski Manastir where he was once (in 1975) tonsured as monk Neofit named after the famous national hero and saint Neofit Rilski who introduced Old Slavonic language in the Greek seminaries of the Balkans, but also created the current concept of language and education known in Bulgaria long before the current state Bulgaria was founded. Our Neofit's civil name was Symeon Dimitrov. When I did fieldwork in Bulgaria, Neofit was still metropolit of Rousse and one of the most important protagonists of the Bulgarian tradition of psaltic art. It was also due to his brother who founded a choir in Sofia named after the "angel-tongued" Sv. Ioan Kukuzel. Today the style of this choir seems old-fashioned, but one must acknowledge that during those days this was a pioneer work to dig deep into the Byzantine roots of Bulgarian monodic chant (pravoslavny cĕrkovny pĕsn'), when Neofit was young and he was one of the outstanding singers of his brother's choir. His style is also deeply influenced by the Russian school of psaltic art, since he studied some years in Moscow, after he finished his studies at the Theological Academy Sv. Kliment Ohridsky in Sofia (with 14 years he had entered at the Theological Seminary of St. John of Rila which was still at the Čerepiš Monastery in 1959).
When I met Neofit at Troyanski Manastir in 2003, he was a very generous person with an open mind and he accompanied seminarists to Troyan in order to support them, while learning to fullfil the daily duties to celebrate twice per day the morning service with the divine liturgy and the evening service which usually opened the cycle of the following day. Every seminarist could ask him to sing a particular piece of psaltic as printed in the books, mainly the standard edition Manasiy Pop Todorov which was reprinted by the Holy Synod for daily use. They could try on their own to sing them during the celebration.
Although I must have appeared as a stranger, he understood from our permanent presence during the ceremonies which we recorded entirely that we were not there as part of the community, but as ethnomusicologists. Nevertheless, he treated us equally, welcoming us like the seminarists as someone who had come there to learn the Bulgarian tradition.
As such he had extraordinary skills as a diplomate and was thus elected as the new Patriarch in 2013, following extraordinary skills like those of the Bulgarian metropolit Symeon in charge for Bulgarian communities abroad in Europe, USA and Canada. The latter is buried at the cemetery of the Rila monastery, but was longer in charge than he personally wished, since nobody felt up to replace him. Already in 2022, Neofit turned against the pointless bloodshed in Ukraine and prayed for unity of all Orthodox representants to help to protect the people against politically motivated violence. With Neofit, Bulgaria has not only lost an important protagonist of Bulgarian chant and a Patriarch, but another of its finest diplomates.
I would like to concentrate here on Neofit's importance as a singer of Bulgarian chant. And I will try to post here further examples of his teaching to young Bulgarians, and the great respect for the national heritage which he had planted in their hearts.
Epitaphs
by the Romanian Patriarch: https://basilica.ro/en/romanian-patriarch-sends-condolences-to-the-bulgarian-church-after-the-death-of-patriarch-neophyte/
by the Vatican: https://www.vaticannews.va/it/chiesa/news/2024-03/bulgaria-patriarca-neophyte-chiesa-ortodossa-morto-78-anni.html
by the Sofia Seminary St. John of Rila: https://sofia-seminaria.org/18514/
by the Theological Faculty of the University "Sv. Kliment Ohridski" in Sofia: https://www.uni-sofia.bg/index.php/bul/content/download/306201/1987156/version/1/file/Скръбна_вест.pdf
by the Bulgarian Patriarchate: https://www.pravoslavie.bg/featured/in-memoriam-3/
by the Holy Synod: https://bg-patriarshia.bg/news/zaupokoyna-molitva-za-novoprestavleniya-balgarski-patriarh-n
by Orthodox Christianity with a short biography: https://orthochristian.com/159141.html
by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constaninople: https://ec-patr.org/address-by-his-all-holiness-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-at-the-funeral-service-for-the-late-patriarch-neofit-of-sofia-and-all-bulgariasofia-march-16-2024/
Videos
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Lenten hymn
Slava (Doxastikon) Покаяния отверзи ми двери (Pokayaniya otverzi mi dveri "Open us the gates of repentence") in Glas 8 (echos plagios tetartos), a weekly hymn of the first part of Lenten or Fasten triod
Easter hymns
Troparia for the feast of resurrection in Glas 1, Slava i niynĕ Voskreseniya den' i prosvětim sya Glas 5, Katavasies Voskresniya den' prosvĕtismsya lyudie (canon of 8 odes according to Petros Peloponnesios) for the morning service (Utrenna) of Easter in Glas 1 (echos protos)
The feast of Ivan Rilski and the psaltic school of Rila Monastery
Heirmos kalophonikos Се покаяния учителя (Se pokayaniya učitelya) in Glas 4 (echos legetos) by Neofit Rilski? sung by Neofit with the Sofia Priests' Choir directed by Kyril Popov. Out of 13 manuscripts of the Rila school six ascribe it to Atanasiy Rilski, two to Neofit, and five without any indication.
Musical experience of the young Symeon
Neofit's brother Dimitĕr Dimitrov founded and conducted a choir called Chamber Music Ensemble "Ioan Kukuzel Angeloglasinyat" in 1968. They recorded a LP which included some compositions by Ioan Kukuzel, a maïstoros at the Constantinopolitan court who created one of the most famous methods known as "Mega Ison" which is basically a list of all signs used in Middle Byzantine notation organised in 9 sections beginning with echos protos passing through the whole oktoechos (α', β', γ', δ', πλα', πλβ', υαρ, πλδ', α'). This recording beginning with a voulgarikon was made at the Nevski cathedral of Sofia. Ioan Kukuzel is venerated as a saint in Bulgaria on 1 October (like Romanos the Melode), he was born at Durrës (Albania) as son of a Greek priest and a Slavonic mother (until today the Slavic language is very present in Albania). According to the legend the opening voulgarikon was a lament of his mother, while she was longing for her son. He later fled the court and became a hermit at the Great Lavra of Holy Mount Athos. Due to the performance of Kukuzel's teretismata, the other pieces are taken from the standard psaltic repertoire celebrated in church (among them a kontakion, troparion and heirmos kalophonikos in honour of Ivan Rilski the founder of the Rila Monastery), the LP was called "Early chants of the Bulgarian Orthodox church"
Chant of the divine liturgy
A rare setting of the heirmos Достойно есть (Dostoyno est', Axion estin) in Glas 6 (echos plagios devteros)
Documentation of the funeral and procession on 16 March
Live-stream by the Patriarchate with the funeral ceremony at the Nevski Cathedral and extracts of the procession to the Nedelya Church