SOFIA, Bulgaria—Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria, the spiritual leader of the Balkan country’s Orthodox Christians who weathered a revolt over his communist-era ties to head the church 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 new democratic government and rebel priests who saw him as a communist stooge.