site.btaJustice Minister: "Closure by Russian State of Church under Bulgarian Patriarch's Jurisdiction Is Inadmissible"

"It is inadmissible that the Russian state in the person of Ambassador [Eleonora] Mitrofanova should lock down a church which is moreover under the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Patriarch and of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and should thus prevent us all from offering our prayers and should prevent us from venerating the relics of St Seraphim the Sofia Miracle Working. This is canonical arrogation. And state measures should probably be taken," Bulgarian Justice Minister Atanas Slavov commented in his official Facebook profile on Wednesday.

He was referring to the Church of St Nicholas the Miracle Worker in Sofia, which was closed to worshipers by the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria on September 21 after three clergymen: Archimandrite Vassian (Zmeev), Protopriest Yevgeny Pavelchuk and associate Vladimir Bonko, were expelled from Bulgaria by order of the Chairperson of the State Agency for National Security for implementing various elements of Russia's hybrid strategy for purposeful impacting of socio-political processes in Bulgaria in favour of Russian geopolitical interests.

Ambassador Mitrofanova told the TASS News Agency on September 25 that the Russian Embassy will take action regarding the St Nicholas Church in accordance with the decision of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Embassy holds a notarial act identifying it as the rightful owner of the land lot and the building.

In a Facebook post on September 23, the Embassy denied "Bulgarian media allegations" that the church had been closed down by decision of Ambassador Mitrofanova "in retaliation" for the expulsion of clergymen and said that "the expulsion of the entire staff of the podvorye made its further functioning physically impossible".

The Russian side recalls that on November 10, 1952 the St Nicholas Church in Sofia was designated a podvorye or patriarchal metochion (a stauropegial representation which, similar to diplomatic missions, enjoys 'extraterritoriality' from the local ecclesiastical authorities). The podvorye reports directly to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, who has since been posting a Russian clergyman as a rector of the church and his official representative. This status brings the church under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Bulgarian side apparently challenges this situation. On September 25, 2023, Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte, exercising his powers as Metropolitan of Sofia within whose eparchy the St Nicholas Church is located, appointed five Bulgarian priests to take over the care of the church and celebrate the usual divine services. Neophyte informed by a letter Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia of his actions. On October 3, the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church gave its unqualified support to the steps taken by Patriarch Neophyte with regard to the podvorye church in Sofia. Metropolitan Cyprian of Stara Zagora told journalists that the Holy Synod hopes that the church will be reopened as soon as possible but this is beyond the competences and powers of the Bulgarian Patriarchate.

The relics mentioned in Slavov's post belong to Archbishop Seraphim Sobolev of Boguchar (1881-1950), who headed the Russian Orthodox communities in Bulgaria from August 1921 until his death and was canonized by both the Russian and the Bulgarian Orthodox Churches as a Sofia Miracle Worker in February 2016. His tomb in the crypt of the church attracts pilgrims as the saint is believed to make their wishes come true if they are written on a slip of paper and dropped in a box standing to the right of his sarcophagus.