NOTEWORTHY DEATH

Bulgaria’s Orthodox patriarch, 98

SOFIA, Bulgaria -

Patriarch Maxim

of Bulgaria, who weathered a revolt over his communist-era ties to lead the Balkan country’s Orthodox Christians for more than 40 years, has died. He was 98.

The patriarch died of heart failure early Tuesday at a Sofia hospital where he had been for a month, the Holy Synod said in a statement.

The Holy Synod of 13 senior clergy will meet to make funeral arrangements and choose an interim patriarch until a larger Church Council is held within the next four months to pick Maxim’s successor, church officials said.

Orthodox Christianity is Bulgaria’s dominant religion, followed by more than 80 percent of the country’s 7.4 million people. Maxim was the church’s leader for more than four decades, bridging the country’s transition from communism and withstanding efforts to oust him by the newdemocratic government and rebel priests who saw him as a communist stooge.

Born on Oct. 29, 1914, as Marin Naidenov Minkov, he graduated from the Sofia Seminary in 1935 and entered Sofia University’s theology department in 1938, before rising through the church ranks to be named patriarch on July 4, 1971.

After the collapse of communism in 1989, the new democratic government sought to replace communist-appointed figureheads, including the patriarch, but because of the division between church and state such a decision could only be made by the church. It split between supporters of Patriarch Maxim and breakaway clergymen, who attempted to oust him and then formed their own synod.

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.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 12 on 11/07/2012

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