List of patriarchs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church

Emblem of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church

The following is a list of patriarchs of All Bulgaria, heads of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church was recognized as an autocephalous archbishopric in 870. In 918 or 919 the Bulgarian monarch Simeon I (r.  893–927) summoned a church council to raise the Bulgarian Archbishopric to a completely independent patriarchate. With the Byzantine–Bulgarian Treaty of 927, which affirmed the Bulgarian victory over the Byzantine Empire in the War of 913–927, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople recognized the Bulgarian Patriarchate.

List

Title	Primate	Portrait	Birth name	Reign	Seat
Archbishops of Bulgaria (870–918)
Archbishop	Joseph			870–c. 877	Drastar/Pliska
Archbishop	George			c. 877–c. 893	Drastar/Pliska
Archbishop	Gregory Presbyter John the Exarch (?)			c. 893–s. 917	Drastar/Preslav
Archbishop	Leontius			c. 917–c. 918/919	Preslav
Patriarchs of Bulgaria (918/919–1018)
Patriarch uncanonical; not recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople	Leontius			c. 918/919–927	Preslav
Patriarch canonical; recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople	Demetrius			c. 927–c. 930	Drastar/Preslav
Patriarch	Sergius			c. 931–c. 940	Drastar/Preslav
Patriarch	Gregory			c. 940–c. 944	Drastar/Preslav
Patriarch	Damian			c. 944–c. 972	Preslav/Drastar, Sredets
Patriarch	Germanus			c. 972–c. 990	Sredets, Voden, Moglena, Prespa
Patriarch	Nicolaus			c. 991–c. 1000	Prespa (?)
Patriarch	Philip			c. 1000–c. 1015	Ohrid
Patriarch	David		John of Debar	c. 1015–1018	Ohrid
After the fall of the First Bulgarian Empire under Byzantine domination in 1018 the Church was deprived of its patriarchal title and reduced to the rank of an autocephalous Archbishopric of Ohrid; in 1767 it was put under the tutelage of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. A separate Bulgarian Church was created with the establishment of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1186.
Archbishops of Bulgaria (1186–1235)
Primate title was canonically recognized by Pope Innocent III in 1204	Basil I			1186–1232	Tarnovo
Primate	Saint Joachim I			1232–1246	Tarnovo
Patriarchs of Bulgaria (1235–1394)
Patriarch title was canonically recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchs in 1235	Saint Joachim I			1235–1246	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Vissarion			c. 1246	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Basil II			1246–c. 1254	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Basil III			c. 1254–1263	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Joachim II			1263–1272	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Ignatius			1272–1277	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Saint Macarius			1277–1284	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Joachim III			1284–1300	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Dorotheus			1300–c. 1315	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Romanus			c. 1315–c. 1325	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Theodosius I			c. 1325–1337	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Joannicius I			1337–c. 1340	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Symeon			c. 1341–1348	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Theodosius II			1348–1363	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Joannicius II			1363–1375	Tarnovo
Patriarch	Saint Euthymius			1375–1394	Tarnovo
Exarchs of the Bulgarians (1872–1915)
Exarch title was granted by a decree (firman) of Sultan Abdulaziz, promulgated on 28 February 1870. Unrecognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople	Ilarion		Ivan Ivanov	12 February 1872 – 16 February 1872	Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Exarch	Anthim I		Atanas Mihaylov Chalakov	16 February 1872 – 14 April 1877	Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Exarch	Joseph I		Lazar Yovchev	24 April 1877 – 20 June 1915	Constantinople, Ottoman Empire Sofia, Bulgaria
Vicars – Chairmen of the Holy Synod (1915–1945)
Metropolitan	Parthenius		Petar Popstefanov Ivanov Popov	1915 – 20 June 1918	Sofia
Metropolitan	Vasilius		Vasil Mihaiylov	June 1918 – 22 October 1921	Sofia
Metropolitan	Maxim		Marin Penchov Pelov	22 October 1921 – 28 March 1928	Sofia
Metropolitan	Clement		Grigoriy Ivanov Shivachev	28 March 1928 – 3 May 1930	Sofia
Metropolitan	Neophyte		Nikola Dimitrov Karaabov	4 May 1930 – 15 October 1944	Sofia
Metropolitan	Stefan I		Stoyan Popgeorgiev Shokov	16 October 1944 – 21 January 1945	Sofia
Exarch of the Bulgarians (1945–1948)
Exarch canonical; recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople	Stefan I		Stoyan Popgeorgiev Shokov	21 January 1945 – 6 September 1948	Sofia
Vicars – Chairmen of the Holy Synod (1948–1953)
Metropolitan	Michael		Dimitar Todorov Chavdarov	8 November 1948 – 4 January 1949	Sofia
Metropolitan	Paisius		Alexandar Raykov Ankov	4 January 1949 – 3 January 1951	Sofia
Metropolitan	Cyril		Konstantin Markov Konstantinov	3 January 1951 – 10 May 1953	Sofia
Patriarchs of Bulgaria (1953–present)
Patriarch title was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople	Cyril		Konstantin Markov Konstantinov	10 May 1953 – 7 March 1971	Sofia
Patriarch	Maxim		Marin Naydenov Minkov	4 July 1971 – 6 November 2012	Sofia
Patriarch	Neophyte		Simeon Nikolov Dimitrov	24 February 2013 – 13 March 2024	Sofia
Patriarch	Daniel		Atanas Trendafilov Nikolov	30 June 2024 – present	Sofia

See also

• Patriarch of All Bulgaria
• Bulgarian Orthodox Church
• Bulgarian Exarchate

Sources

• Златарски (Zlatarski), Васил (Vasil) (1972) [1927]. История на българската държава през средните векове. Том I. История на Първото българско царство. (History of the Bulgarian state in the Middle Ages. Volume I. History of the First Bulgarian Empire.) (in Bulgarian) (2 ed.). София (Sofia): Наука и изкуство (Nauka i izkustvo). OCLC 67080314.