List of patriarchs 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 victory of the First Bulgarian Empire 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
	George			c. 877–c. 893
	Gregory Presbyter John the Exarch (?)			c. 893–s. 917	Drastar/Preslav
	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
	Gregory			c. 940–c. 944
	Damian			c. 944–c. 972	Preslav/Drastar, Sredets
	Germanus			c. 972–c. 990	Sredets, Voden, Moglena, Prespa
	Nicolaus			c. 991–c. 1000	Prespa (?)
	Philip			c. 1000–c. 1015	Ohrid
	David		John of Debar	c. 1015–1018
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
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
	Basil II			1246–c. 1254
	Basil III			c. 1254–1263
	Joachim II			1263–1272
	Ignatius			1272–1277
	Saint Macarius			1277–1284
	Joachim III			1284–1300
	Dorotheus			1300–c. 1315
	Romanus			c. 1315–c. 1325
	Theodosius I			c. 1325–1337
	Joannicius I			1337–c. 1340
	Symeon			c. 1341–1348
	Theodosius II			1348–1363
	Joannicius II			1363–1375
	Saint Euthymius			1375–1394
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	Hilarion		Ivan Ivanov	12 February 1872 – 16 February 1872	Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Exarch	Anthim I		Atanas Mihaylov Chalakov	16 February 1872 – 14 April 1877
	Joseph I		Lazar Yovchev	24 April 1877 – 20 June 1915
					Sofia, Bulgaria
Vicars – Chairmen of the Holy Synod (1915–1945)
Metropolitan	Parthenius		Petar Popstefanov Ivanov Popov	1915 – 20 June 1918	Sofia
	Vasilius		Vasil Mihaiylov	June 1918 – 22 October 1921
	Maxim		Marin Penchov Pelov	22 October 1921 – 28 March 1928
	Clement		Grigoriy Ivanov Shivachev	28 March 1928 – 3 May 1930
	Neophyte		Nikola Dimitrov Karaabov	4 May 1930 – 15 October 1944
	Stefan I		Stoyan Popgeorgiev Shokov	16 October 1944 – 21 January 1945
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
	Paisius		Alexandar Raykov Ankov	4 January 1949 – 3 January 1951
	Cyril		Konstantin Markov Konstantinov	3 January 1951 – 10 May 1953
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
	Neophyte		Simeon Nikolov Dimitrov	24 February 2013 – 13 March 2024
	Daniil		Atanas Trendafilov Nikolov	30 June 2024 – present

Timeline since 1953

This is a graphical timeline of the patriarchs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church since 1953. They are listed in order of first assuming office.

The following chart lists the patriarchs by lifespan, with the years outside of their tenure in blue.

See also

• List of international official trips made by the patriarchs of All Bulgaria

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.