Metropolitan Daniil of Vidin was elected Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and Metropolitan of Sofia by an Election Council held in Sofia on Sunday.
Daniil was chosen after a second round of voting in which Metropolitan Grigorii of Vratsa was the other contestant. The vote was 69-66. There were three invalid ballots.
Metropolitan Daniil (secular name Atanas Trendafilov Nikolov) was born in Smolyan, Southern Bulgaria on March 2, 1972. He finished primary and secondary school in his hometown. In 1996, he was enrolled at Sofia University to study English Philology, but the following year he switched to the Theology Faculty of the university.
In 1997, he was admitted as a novice at the St George Monastery near Hadzhidimovo in the southwest of the country, under the spiritual guidance of Metropolitan Natanail of Nevrokop. On August 7, 1999, Natanail tonsured him with the monastic name of Daniil, and ordained him as a hierodeacon.
In 2002, he graduated from the Theology Faculty of Sofia University. On July 21, 2004, he was sent to the Rozhen Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God (Southern Bulgaria), where he took his vow. On November 27 of that year, the diocesan archipriest ordained him as a hieromonk.
On June 2006, Daniil was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.
By decision of the Holy Synod, on January 20, 2008, he was ordained as bishop and received the title of Bishop of Dragovit in the Patriarchal Cathedral of St Alexander Nevsky in Sofia, and was appointed vicar to the Metropolitan of Nevrokop. He held the position until June 15, 2010, when he was appointed vicar to the BOC Metropolitan of the United States, Canada and Australia at the latter's request.
Daniil was elected Metropolitan of Vidin on February 4, 2018.
/VE/
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