On 10 May we mark 72 years since the restoration of the Bulgarian Patriarchate, whose existence ended at the end of the 14th century when Bulgaria fell under five centuries of Ottoman rule. Efforts to restore it began in the Renaissance. In 1870 the Bulgarian Exarchate was established with its seat in Constantinople. However, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which had hegemony over the local Orthodox churches in the lands conquered by the Ottomans, imposed a schism on it.

The schism, which had prevented normal inter-church relations of the Bulgarian Exarchate for several decades, was lifted in 1945 with the help of sister Orthodox Churches (especially the Russian Orthodox Church). In 1950 a charter was drawn up, Article 1 of which referred to the "self-governing Bulgarian Orthodox Church" as the "Patriarchate". On 10 May 1953, a Third Ecclesiastical and National Council was convened in Sofia, which declared the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to be a Patriarchate. The Council elected Metropolitan Kiril of Plovdiv as Patriarch of Bulgaria and Metropolitan of Sofia.

The enthronement took place in the Patriarchal Cathedral of St Alexander Nevsky immediately after the election, in the presence of government and cultural representatives, foreign delegations and numerous believers.

Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil told reporters before the solemn liturgy in the Patriarchal Cathedral of St Alexander Nevsky: "Patriarchal dignity is a high honour for a local Orthodox Church (BOC), and the fact that it has been restored three times in the thousand-year history of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church - that is, it was established, then closed, then re-established - speaks of the maturity of the BOC and the ability of the people to defend the rights of their Patriarchate."