Venerable John of Rila (†946) — August 18 / August 31 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, August 18 according to the Julian Calendar (August 31 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Venerable John of Rila.

Venerable John of Rila, the great father of the Bulgarians, was born in the year 876 in the village of Skrino, in the district of Sredets, the city known today as Sofia. Orphaned early, the boy entered the service of strangers as a shepherd. Once he was cruelly beaten because a cow and a calf were missing from the herd. The boy wept a long while and fervently entreated the Lord for help. God heard him and let him find the lost animals; but at the same time the river Struma rose in flood. John prayed, spread his shirt upon the water, made the sign of the Cross over it, walked across the river as upon dry land, and came out upon the far bank with the calf, having already brought the cow across before. The wealthy owner of the cattle watched the saint secretly from the wood. Astonished at this miracle, he rewarded the young man richly and set him free. John gave away all his possessions in alms and left the village behind.

At first he struggled upon a high and barren mountain, feeding upon wild plants; his hut was made of brushwood. Once robbers fell upon the holy father and drove him away, and after this John took refuge in a deep cave. Soon his nephew, Saint Luke, came to him. So desolate was that place that the ascetic at first took the appearance of Luke for a temptation of the devil; but when he was assured that the young man sincerely sought salvation, he received him with love. Uncle and nephew were not long permitted to remain together. The brother of John learned where his son was and took him home by force. On the way homeward the young man was bitten by a serpent and died. Stricken with repentance, his father begged forgiveness of Saint John. In later years the venerable ascetic often went to the grave of the righteous youth, and that place became the dearest of all to him.

Twelve years the saint spent in the cave, and afterwards he moved into the wilderness of Rila and settled in the hollow of a tree. Saint John fed upon the scant herbs of the wilderness, but by the providence of God a field of chickpeas soon sprang up around him. Once a flock of sheep, suddenly taking fright, ran up the steep mountain paths and halted at the dwelling of John. The shepherds who followed in the tracks of the sheep were beyond measure astonished when they beheld the radiant elder, who warmly invited them: “You will be hungry — eat of my chickpeas.” All ate their fill; but one shepherd gathered more of the fruit than he needed, hid it away, and when they had set out for home, offered it to his companions. In the stolen pods not a single grain was found. Ashamed, the shepherds turned back to ask forgiveness, and John forgave his guests and said to them with a smile: “Do you see, my children? These fruits God has appointed for the nourishment of the hermit.”

From that time onward the sick and those tormented by evil spirits were brought in great numbers to the venerable father, and he healed them by prayer. Seeking to guard himself against the glory of men, the ascetic settled upon a high and inaccessible rock and lived seven years beneath the open sky. When word of the great hermit reached Peter, the king of Bulgaria (927–969), he desired to see the holy elder; but the venerable John sent only a letter to the sovereign and avoided meeting with him. Later, with the blessing of God, the hermit was charged with the care of the souls of those brethren who had built a church and a monastery at the cave where the venerable John had formerly dwelt.

On the eighteenth of August in the year 946, at the age of seventy, the saint peacefully surrendered his soul to the Lord. Five years before his repose he wrote with his own hand the Testament to his Disciples, one of the finest monuments of old Bulgarian letters.