A mass was said Wednesday morning in Alexander Nevski Cathedral on the occasion of 36th anniversary since Patriarch Maxim has taken Holy Orders.

The divine service was leaded personally by the head of Bulgaria's Orthodox Church together with archpresbyters from the Holy Synod and representatives of the cathedral's clergy.

According to the statute of the Orthodox Church, the patriarch also serves as Sofia metropolitan.

The patriarch was born Marin Minkov on October 29, 1914 in the village of Oreshak.

He was educated only in his native mountain village of Oreshak but from his late childhood he became a novice monk in the Troyan Monastery and then studied Orthodox Theology at Sofia University. He took Holy Orders in 1941 and became a bishop in the diocese of Branit fifteen years later.

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