The Ecumenical Patriarch visits Sofia: True faith seeks communion, confirms itself through meeting and lives in unitytranslated

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I delivered a message of blessing at the Patriarchal Cathedral "Saint Alexander Nevsky" in Sofia, where he attended the service together with Patriarch Daniil of Bulgaria.

"True faith seeks communion, is confirmed by meeting and lives in unity. This is exactly what we do today: we visit one another, listen to one another and pray together, lest we run in vain (cf. Galatians 2, 2)".

His Holiness' visit to Bulgaria took place at the invitation of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, on the occasion of the events dedicated to the 1,150th anniversary of the birth of St. Pious John of Rila, as well as the 1,080th anniversary of his passing to the Lord.

At the same time, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I recalled that the participation is the first of its kind since the election of the Blessed Father Daniil as Patriarch of Bulgaria: "Today we come in the time of fruits, to see how God blessed what was sown then with prayer".

"Two and a half years ago, the Church in Bulgaria also sat like a grieving widow by the deathbed of her worthy Patriarch. The tears...