A leading Orthodox bishop who was revealed as a collaborator with the
former communist regime has been found dead having apparently drowned. The body of Bishop Cyril of Varna was found on a beach on the Black Sea, and an autopsy showed no signs of foul play in what has been ruled a drowning.
The bishop was named by an historical commission in 2012 among 11 prelates (of the country’s 15) who had conspired with the communist authorities to root out dissenters.
Police files uncovered by the commission showed that Bishop Cyril had been a collaborator from 1976 until the fall of communism in the country in 1989.
The findings of the commission shook citizens’ faith in Orthodoxy, not helped by the fact that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has taken no action against the 11 identified.