JOHN OF RILA

In 864, the Baptism of Bulgaria began. At the same time, during the reign of Tsar Boris (852-88), in an already Orthodox Christian state in 876-880, Saint John was born into a peasant family. He was orphaned early. Being a shepherd, he very early felt a monastic calling, for which he was ridiculed by the villagers. The latter took away from him the only calf he had inherited from his parents. It seemed that the circumstances themselves were doing everything possible to “drive” John out of this world.

Then he retired to a nearby monastery, where he stayed for some time to learn monastic life. Then he left the monastery and began to live as a hermit. A severe beating from robbers almost forced him to return to the monastic community, but the saint still chose to wander. As a result, he returned to the life of a hermit in the largest mountain range of the entire Balkan Peninsula, called Rila.

The way of presenting the life of St. John is, as it were, intended for the narration of later and even contemporary saints. However, the content of his exploits, lifestyle and abundance of spiritual gifts point to a righteous man who, as it were, came to his contemporaries from very distant ancient Christian eras, bringing with him the exploits of the first prophetical monastic generations.

For years, three years and six months, or even twelve years, according to different versions of his life, he lived in the hollow of a giant tree, eating vegetables and wild fruits, as well as chickpeas, which he later treated to those who came to him. John’s nephew, named Luke, joined the hermit. But his uncle, the saint’s brother, forced his son to return to the world. At the very moment of his return, Luke was bitten by a snake on the way home and died as a terrifying sign to his parent. After this, Saint John chose for himself the feat of stylite life.

He stood on a hundred-meter cliff. At that time, he was under spiritual and physical attacks from demons. They beat the saint and, instilling fear in him, plunged him into the abyss. By the gift of grace, the ascetic’s steadfastness in these most severe temptations resulted in the beginning of signs and wonders.

Once John led lost shepherds to the right road, helped with advice those who came to him in despair, and healed the sick brought to him. The pious Bulgarian Tsar Peter (927-969) tried to visit the saint, but the place of his solitude turned out to be too impassable for the ruler. When the king, in his persistence, erected his tent in the vicinity of that place, John lit a fire, so that his presence became visible, but, at the same time, emphasized his inaccessibility to everything worldly.

Tradition says that the pious ruler wanted to donate gifts and a significant amount of money to him, but the ascetic sent it back, accompanied by instructions on how to properly deal with this donation. “You need wealth to preserve the country and help the poor.” Thus, in his complete renunciation of involvement in the affairs and glory of this world, Saint John became a truly national saint for the newly baptized Bulgarian people.

In the last years of his life, a monastery arose around the site of the saint’s exploits. The saint again chose hermitage for himself. However in his spiritual testament, John warns his followers against the difficulties of such a lifestyle and calls on the brethren to live together. The saint departed to the Lord on August 18, 946, that is, in our Julian liturgical calendar on August 31, and therefore his memory is celebrated on the last day of summer. The great shrine of Orthodoxy, the monastery of St. John is the spiritual center of the Bulgarian Church even today.

“Herod heard about all that Jesus did and was perplexed: for some said that it was John who rose from the dead; others that Elijah appeared, and others that one of the ancient prophets was resurrected,” the Gospel of Luke conveys the opinion of contemporaries about Jesus (Luke 9: 7-8). The appearance of St. John of Rila, undoubtedly imitating the Lord Jesus, seemed to visibly reproduce before the people of that time the faces of those first monastic founding fathers, whose conversion and life inspired the once ancient Roman world.

“The contemporary is not timely,” writes philosopher Giorgio Agamben. There were geniuses who were ahead of their time. The spiritual talent of Saint John of Rila, by the power of election of grace, was revealed in the ability to reveal in himself the prototypes of the original unique monastic spirituality.

The ascetic’s connection with the Russian Orthodox Church, which considered itself the heir to the medieval theology of “Moscow—the Third Rome,” is also surprising. The city of Rylsk in the Kursk Region of Russia was named in honor of John of Rila. The saint was the heavenly patron of St John of Kronstadt (1829-1909). In 1900, in St. Petersburg, Father John founded the St John Monastery on Karpovka in the name of St. John of Rila.

Researchers tell us that the original life of St. John was reflected in liturgical texts dedicated to the memory of the saint. This life itself has not survived. However, it was precisely this text that was known to the authors of the three ancient lives of the saint that have come down to us.

The first was written at the end of the 10th century, just decades after the death of the saint. The second was composed two centuries later. Finally, the third ancient life was compiled by the holy Bulgarian Patriarch Euthymius of Tarnovo (1325-1403). In 1393, the Second Bulgarian Kingdom fell under the attacks of the Ottomans, and the saint Euthymius was sent into exile. The life written before this served as a parting word for both the Orthodox state that was disappearing, and for Euthymius himself.

God, in all times of temptation and trial, with grace in consolation, “visits His people” (cf. Luke 7:16). The Ottoman rule in Bulgaria lasted for five centuries. This difficult and testing time for the Orthodox Bulgarian people, in an amazing and paradoxical way, became another life of St. John—a history of veneration of the saint and a chronicle of miracles from his relics.