Saints of the Aquarius Age

SAINT JOHN OF RILA

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Saint John of Rila, or, as he is also called, the Reverend John of Rila, is a great ascetic of the Orthodox Church and the heavenly Patron of the Bulgarian and Russian peoples. The Reverend in Orthodoxy is used as a title or form of address to members of the clergy, i.e. a special category of Saints, who, by their monastic deed, “pleased God”. In other words, they are “Saints, who, through prayer, fasting and labors, strove to be like Jesus Christ” and successfully succeeded in this.

Saint John of Rila was the first Bulgarian hermit. He was revered as a saint while he was still alive. The legend surrounding him tells of wild animals that freely came up to him and birds that landed in his hands.

For Bulgaria Saint John of Rila is the same as Sergius of Radonezh for Russia: the most beloved, most revered and most respected Saint – the defender of his native land and the whole people. That is why the monastery, once founded by him is one of the most picturesque corners of the Rila mountain range in southwestern Bulgaria, and is the main place of pilgrimage.

Although tens of thousands of tourists climb the Rila Mountains just for the sake of trekking, for the opportunity to swim in crystal clear glacial lakes, and for breathtaking views…

However, ten centuries ago, John of Rila was looking not for beauty here, but for solitude. Probably, his ascetic heart was also touched by the snow-capped peaks and the pristine perfection of nature, as if it had just been created by the Lord. It was exactly the place that he needed to renounce worldly temptations and to devote his life to the Almighty.

 

Mentions concerning John of Rila are found starting from the 10th century. Nevertheless, there is not very much biographical information about the Saint.

The exact date of his birth is not known. Though it is assumed that this happened in 876–880 in the village of Skrino, not far from the city of Sofia, which was then called Sredets. John’s parents, simple peasants, died when he was still a child, and the boy was forced to go to work as a shepherd for a rich man.

Despite his young age, John managed to look after a large herd alone, but one day he lost a cow and a calf, for which the owner beat him severely. In tears, the child turned to God to help him, and went in search of them. The rich man secretly followed him.

The loss was found on the other side of the Struma River. It was clear that the cow and the calf crossed the river where it was shallow, but then they moved far away from the ford. Therefore, the calf was unable to cross the river – it was too deep. Having prayed to the Lord, the boy took off his clothing, laid it out on the surface of the water and, depicting the sign of the cross on it, got to the other side of the river like on dry land, and then came back with the calf in his arms. The owner, who saw this miracle, realized that he was dealing with the messenger of the Lord on earth, generously rewarded John and turned him loose in the world. Of course, the boy could live happily ever after, but instead he gave away everything he had and left his native village forever.

 

Having left the village, John went to the nearest monastery, where he became a novice, and later took the tonsure. In the monastery, the monk was taught to read and write, and, having learned to read and write, the Reverend began to master the Holy Scriptures, church books, and to be acquainted with the writings of the Holy Fathers. At that time, he was already about 20–25 years old.

However, life among people weighed heavily on the young monk, his soul yearned for solitude, and therefore, after a while, the monk left the monastery for the forest jungle. Having renounced the earthly vanity, John of Rila chose the path of spiritual perfection for the knowledge of the Divine beauty of the world, and the impregnable wilds of the Rila Forest helped him in this as well as possible and reliably hid from human eyes.

First, John settled in the hollow of a large oak tree, then he built a hut of brushwood, and later he chose a deep cave as his dwelling, where he lived virtually without food and drink, eating herbs and roots. Inside the cave there was a narrow manhole leading to a bare rock, not covered by anything from rains and winds. Every morning, John squeezed through the gap and climbed onto the rock, which became a prayer house for him. There he stood idle until sunset, praying for the country and the people, and so day after day for many years in absolute silence…

As a result, at the place where John of Rila stood, a mark resembling a foot remained in the solid rock of the mountain, and twice a year, regardless of precipitation, a red liquid similar to blood accumulates in this small hollow…

How many tears of repentance did Saint John shed?

How many sighs of admiration did he send to heaven?

How many invisible consolations did he receive from there?

How many heavenly contemplations warmed his lonely days and nights?

How many secret feats did he perform?

How much did the fiery seeker of spiritual perfection struggle with the dark forces of malice? – Only God knowns this…

We can only partially imagine his everyday feat of kneeling in the forest… somewhere not far from his cave, deepening into a prayerful conversation with God…

All around there is a marvelous silence, broken only by the rustle of the leaves from the centuries-old trees, swaying in the mountain breeze… Just the rocks… with silent reverence listen to the prayer of the Saint…

 

As a reward for this prayer feat, the Lord grew beans near the monk’s dwelling, which he began to use for his food. For seven years, no one disturbed the loneliness of John, but one day a flock of sheep grazing on the mountain meadows, frightened of something, rushed up the slopes and ran until they stopped at the cave of the Reverend. The shepherds, catching up with their sheep, were surprised to see a hermit, whose existence they did not even suspect. John fed the tired and hungry people with beans. However, although they ate enough, one of the shepherds secretly picked and hid more beans in his bosom – in reserve… And already going home, he decided to treat his comrades with them, but there was not a grain in the stolen pods!

Halfway through, the shepherds turned back and went to ask for forgiveness from John, and he, of course, forgave them, “You see, these fruits are meant by God to feed only a hermit” …

 

From that moment, the true solitude of John actually ended: the shepherds did not keep their mouths shut, and the rumor about the monk who settled in the mountains quickly spread throughout the district. The sick and the indisposed were brought to the Saint, whom he healed and from whom he cast out demons with just a prayer and water from a spring that spouted near his cave.

A strange thing: the road to the cave of the monk was not open to everyone. Therefore, the envoys of the Bulgarian Tsar Peter wandered through the mountains for five whole days, and all this time they did not manage to shoot a single animal. They went out to the rock of the hermit, literally falling from their feet from hunger and fatigue. John had only one prosphoron with him, but the envoys could not finish eating even that much – for them it was enough to get half of the bread… so that they could regain their strength…

Is it any wonder that soon other monks, who wanted to receive instructions and advice from the elder, began to come and settle next to the hermit. They built huts close to the cave of the Saint… So gradually, the settlement grew, and the disciples of the Monk decided to build a monastery on this site, over which John of Rila agreed to become a mentor. Moreover, this monastery was destined to survive 10 centuries, several arsons, endless Ottoman attacks and no less endless restructuring, and in the end to become the main Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria.

Initially, the Rila Monastery was a dormitory, where both monks and nuns settled in. Over all of them, John was the abbot, but in 941, he left this important post, appointing one of his disciples as the successor, and he himself went to a distant cave and spent the last 5 years of his life in absolute seclusion. During all this time, not a single human soul saw him, did not hear a word from him…

Accordingly, when he quietly died in August 946, they did not soon find out about this, because “… not a single human soul was found in that desert, but only animals. They used to come to the body of the Saint and cure their illnesses: the blind received their sight, the lame stood up on their feet – as soon as they approached his body.”

Hunters tracking down the beast in the mountains eventually discovered Saint John’s remains, and after 40 days, the students buried their mentor. Moreover, all this time, the body of the Monk remained incorruptible, exuding fragrance and bestowing healing…

This is in brief the story of the life of Saint John of Rila, which, having begun once is not yet finished, although more than 1000 years have passed from its beginning to the present day. It cannot end, for Saint John of Rila continues to work miracles even after his death…

 

In the monastery from the very first days, a rule was introduced, which for 10 centuries of its existence has not been violated even once: to document all the miracles that occur at the will of the Holy Elder. One of the latest published collections includes 326 miracles! Yes, there are many of them, and here are the most famous as an example:

  • Approximately 30 years after his death, during the troubled time of the struggle between Bulgaria and Byzantium, under the Bulgarian Tsar Samuel (976–1014), the Monk John of Rila appeared to the abbot of the Rila Monastery, one of his disciples, and commanded that his relics be transferred to Sredets, where the patriarch Bulgarian Damian (927–972) had hidden.

 

  • Though even before the transfer of the relics to Sredets, the so-called separation of the right hand of Saint John took place. According to some historians, the holy relics were transferred in 980, but the Rila monks left the right hand of the Saint in the monastery. Soon they had to leave the monastery, during the resettlement of the Bulgarians in large numbers to Rus’ due to the oppression of the Greeks, who by that time had captured Eastern Bulgaria and forbade the Bulgarians to worship in their native language. Perhaps, when the Greeks gradually began to conquer Western Bulgaria, the Rila monks also left for Rus’, taking with them the sacred relics of the monastery – the right hand of Saint John. It is known that at the beginning of the XI century in the north-west of Kievan Rus was built the city-fortress Rylsk. The first temple built by the inhabitants of the city was consecrated in the name of Saint John of Rila with a chapel in the name of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus, on the feast day of which the Saint passed away. Obviously, the Bulgarians who fled from the Rila Mountains settled there. There is reason to believe that the right hand of Saint John was also kept in this temple. Thus, the Monk John became the first South Slavic Saint to whom a temple was erected on Russian soil, and who became one of the heavenly patrons of the Russian people. Moreover, it is in Russian sources that the date of the death of the Monk was preserved. Subsequently, in 1240, according to the chronicler, “only Rylsk was preserved from the Batu pogrom.” When during the siege the inhabitants of the city called for help from their patron, the Monk John appeared on the city wall, waved his handkerchief, blinded the Tatars, and thus saved Rylsk.

 

  • In the 12th century, the Greek emperor Manuel Komnenos learned about the miraculous power of the Saint. He suffered from cramps in his hands and, despite the fact that many doctors treated him, he could not be healed. Because of the wars with the Magyars, he often passed through Sredets. During one of his stops in this city, he anointed his hands with oil, which was burning in a lamp over the relics of Saint John, and received healing. Out of gratitude, he presented the marvelous icon of the Holy Mother of God, which is still kept in the Rila Monastery as a great historical value and blessed shrine.

 

  • More than 2 centuries the relics of Saint John were in Sredets. By the end of the 12th century, the Magyar king Bella III captured Sredets and, as a trophy of war, transferred the famous relics to Hungary to his capital city of Ostrogom, where he placed them in one of the churches for worship. The local archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church, having heard about the miraculous relics of Saint John and about their glory in all nearby countries, did not want to believe in it. “I don’t know that such a Saint was mentioned in the ancient scriptures,” he said and did not want to bow to the Saint. Thus because of his unbelief, he suddenly became dumb. Only then did he realize that he had sinned against God’s Saint, hurried to go to the temple, fell in front of the shrine with the holy relics, kissed them, humbly repenting of his sin. Immediately his tongue loosened. From that day on, the archbishop began to glorify Saint John of Rila as a new great Saint of God.

 

  • The glorious Bulgarian Saint performed many other miracles in the Magyar kingdom. The local king was horrified by the power of the Saint and, decorating the shrine with silver and gold, returned the holy relics with great honors back to Sredets. At that time, in Bulgaria, which was under the Byzantine yoke, an uprising of two brothers Asen and Peter broke out, which ended in liberation from Byzantine slavery. Asen, having taken Sredets, ordered to transfer the relics of the Rila desert dweller to Tarnovo, wishing in this way to increase the authority of his capital city and to establish his kingdom with God’s help. The holy relics were in Tarnovo even after it was taken by the Turks in 1393. Only in 1469, at the request of the brethren of the Rila Monastery and thanks to the help of Maria, the widow of the late Sultan Murad II and a daughter of the Serbian despot George Brankovich, the relics were returned to the monastery of Saint John. On June 30, 1469, under Abbot David, the holy relics were solemnly placed in a new tomb in the temple of the Rila Monastery, where they rest to this day, and the celebration of the return of the relics was established on July 1.

 

  • Today, the relics of the miracle worker located in the Rila Monastery are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. They are stored in the shrine of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary under a velvet red coverlet. By the way, it is opened at the end of worship or during the day at the request of pilgrims, who are so numerous here. In the whole of Bulgaria, there is no person who has never been “visiting” John of Rila. There are also many foreigners in the monastery, and not all of them are Orthodox, because it is believed that for the Monk the religion of the praying one is of no importance. Therefore, even the need to climb the mountain to the height of 1147 meters does not stop people. This is indeed a very small payment for a miracle that inevitably happens through prayer near the relics of the Hegumen of all Bulgaria, as John of Rila is called. It is really important, once in the Rila Monastery, to try to climb the very rock where John once prayed. The path to Golets (meaning Bare – as this rock was called because of its exposed bedrock, as already described above) still lies through a very narrow gap in the bowels of the cave. Climbing through it is another test, but the one, who manages to pass it, is completely cleansed of all sins…

 

  • In 1925, it was a hot summer, the sky remained cloudless, and a sudden strong fire began to devour the forest… The fire approached the stone walls of the Rila Monastery, and the monks, naturally, began to leave the monastery en masse. However, the most faithful servants took the icon of the Holy Mother of God, presented by Emperor Manuel, and went out with it in front of the fiery wall, offering a prayer to the Patron Saint John… Soon the monastery was covered by a gray cloud, and it started raining heavily, while the sun shone over the rest of the peaks.

 

  • Before the Second World War, in a village there was a baby born, who had weak, as if rubber, legs… The father, in desperation, sometimes asked the Almighty to take his son to him so that he would not suffer so terribly from pain. On one of these evenings, a neighbor passing by advised the parents to go with the child to the Rila Monastery, which the parents soon did…

During the service, a three-year-old baby lay on pillows near the shrine, never crying. After the service, all the parishioners left the church, the ministers began to extinguish the candles, and only the desperate cry of the inconsolable mother was heard. The parents, no longer hoping for anything, appealed to the Saint, asking for mercy for their son, when suddenly… the baby grabbed the edge of the coverlet under the shrine and stood up on weak legs… A bit later Mom and dad were already leading their treasure from the temple, holding him by the hands .

 

Saint John of Rila also left to his descendants a material spiritual heritage – a translation of church books, including The Testament – the best creation of Bulgarian writing of that time, testifying to the high culture and deep wisdom of its author. In The Testament, the Monk John recommends reading “more patristic books”, while he himself quotes The Parenesis of Saint Ephrem the Syrian. The earliest Old Church Slavonic translation of this work was found in the Rila Monastery in 1845. This circumstance, obviously, indicates the fact that it was in the Rila monastery that the first translation of The Parenesis was made and, perhaps, by John of Rila himself, a wonderful writer and translator.

 

The beginning of the all-Russian veneration of Saint John of Rila conditionally dates back to the 14th century, when his name was first found inscribed in the Galician Gospel – a manuscript Gospel of 1144, the oldest of the precisely dated Slavic manuscripts. Further information about the veneration of Saint John in Rus’ refers to the first quarter of the 15th century. Since the 16th century, the name of Saint John of Rila has been mentioned in many liturgical books. The service to Saint John of Rila in the everyday life of the Russian Orthodox Church was established with the advent of the printed “Menaion ” (in Orthodoxy, the common name for church service collections intended for worship on certain dates of the church year), not earlier than the end of the 17th – beginning of the 18th century. In 1645, the Service to the Saint was published in Rus’ for the first time, and in 1671, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra printing house printed the Service with the Life of Our Reverend Father John of Rila, which is also the first printed edition of the Life of the Saint, compiled by the Bulgarian Patriarch Evfimy in the XIV century.

The All-Russian Saint – Righteous John of Kronstadt, who was born on the day of the celebration of the Bulgarian Saint, founded the Saint Petersburg Convent in the name of his Patron.

Saint John of Rila is also considered the Patron Saint of the city of Rylsk, in Kursk region. In his honor, the church of Ivan Rylsky was built in the city and the highest part of the coastal ridge was named – Mount of John of Rila. In antiquity, there was the Rylskaya fortress and the most ancient part of Rylsk. Later a chapel in honor of Saint John of Rila was erected on the mountain, and in the Rylsky Nikolayev Monastery since 2006, a part of the Saint’s relics has been kept.

A chapel at the Bulgarian polar station Saint Kliment Ohridski, which is the southernmost Orthodox chapel on the planet, is named after Saint John of Rila.

 

Saint John of Rila, who in his earthly life was an outstanding master in “productive” types of speech activity understanding the laws of speech production, i.e., the speech and mental development, considered means of communication and means of existence, transmission and assimilation of socio-historical experience as the main functions of language. Therefore he patronizes all people who are employed in this area of human activity – psychologists (including neuropsychologists), speech pathologists, philologists, teachers of languages (native and foreign), translators (including sign language interpreters), as well as autistic and dumb children.

 

People turn to Saint John of Rila with requests to:

  • • heal different diseases of mind and body;
  • • help children suffering from mental weakness;
  • • help autistic children;
  • • heal dumbness;
  • • help children with speech delays, i.e., when a child understands everything, but does not speak;
  • • strengthen family bonds;
  • • guide the erring people on the Right Path;
  • • bestow humility and patience;
  • • defend against evil eyes and evil people;
  • • cast out demons;
  • • strengthen faith;
  • • help with learning.

 

Saint John of Rila is remembered on:

  • • July 1 (July 14) – in memory of the transfer of his holy relics from Tarnovo to the Rila Monastery;
  • • August 18 (August 31) – on the day of his death;
  • • October 19 (November 1) – on the day of the transfer of his holy relics from Sredets to Tarnovo.