The Bishop of Agatopol Nikon died in Sofia on 25 February 2002. Born in 1931 in the village of Belovitsa, region of Plovdiv, he took vows in the Rila monastery in 1958. Later he finished the Sofia Theological Seminary (1964) and the Theological Academy (1969) and served in the Veliko Turnovo diocese as a deacon, protosynkelos and abbot of various monasteries. After 1989 Nikon joined the schism but after he repented, he was ordained as a bishop in October 1998. He became a vicar of the Sliven Metropolitia but spent less than a year there. After June 1999 he held no permanent position in the church.