John Rylsky

Born around 876 in a family of pious villagers in the village of Skrino on the right bank of the Struma River, located on one of the slopes of the Rouen mountain range. Having lost its parents early, St. John was a shepherd among strangers as a child. Once the owner of the herd beat the boy because he lost a cow with a calf. The saint turned to God for help, and the Lord not only heard him, but also revealed a miracle, from which it was clear that the youth John was the chosen one of God. The holy lad found a cow with a calf beyond the Struma River, but while he was looking for them, there was more water in the river, and the calf could not cross the river. Saint John prayed to God, laid his outer clothing on the water, drew a cross on it, took a calf and walked with it, as if dry, to the other side. The owner of the herd, hiding in the forest, was frightened when he saw this miracle and, generously rewarding the lad, released him from his house.

Handing out the property to the poor, St. John entered as a novice in one of the nearby monasteries - probably the monastery of St. Demetrius , located on the top of Rouen. There, St. John learned to read and write, and began to study the Holy Scriptures , liturgical books, and creations of the Holy Fathers. After some time, he took monastic tonsure and secluded himself in the forest thicket, where he settled in a hut woven from brushwood. He lived on the slopes of a high and bare mountain, eating wild plants.

After a short time, the robbers attacked him at night and, having beaten, drove him out. Rev. John was forced to move to a desert area in the upper reaches of Struma, where he began to live in a deep cave. His nephew, St. Luke, soon settled there. The place was so deserted that the Monk John at first accepted the appearance of Luke as a devilish curse, but when he learned that the young man was seeking spiritual salvation, he accepted it with love. They did not live long together: the brother of St. John found ascetics and took his son by force. On the way home, the young man was bitten by a snake, and he died. Seeing and repenting, the brother asked for forgiveness from the reverend. The Hermit often later went to the grave of a righteous youth; there was his favorite resting place.

For twelve years, St. John lived in a cave, in the feat of fasting and prayer, and then went to the Rila Mountains . Not staying long in one place, St. John crossed the slopes of the mountains of Brichebor, Tsarev and Elenin, until he settled in a place called Golets. For a long time the Monk John lived in the hollow of a tree. The animals did not harm him. All the time the saint spent in prayer, mourning his sins, eating only plant foods. Seeing such patience, the Lord grew for John the beans that he ate for a long time. These beans and contributed to the fact that the asceticism of John became known to people. Once, a herd of sheep in fright rushed to run along the mountain slopes, until it stopped at the place where the saint lived. The shepherds following the herd were surprised to see the hermit who affectionately treated them: "You came here hungry - tear my beans and eat yourself." All ate and were satisfied. One hid a fair amount of them. On the way home he offered them to his comrades, but not a grain was found in the stolen pods. The amazed shepherds turned back with repentance, and the elder forgave them, saying with a smile: "See, children, these fruits were appointed by God to feed the wilderness." Since then, people began to lead to the saint the sick and obsessed with an unclean spirit, whom he healed with prayer.

After some time, wanting to escape the hustle and striving for silent solitude, St. John moved a cave high in the mountains. He lived in it for more than seven years, overcoming many temptations from demons. The ascetic wore long leather clothes, which eventually turned into rags and ate grasses.

But this place of asceticism of St. John became known to people. His fame reached the royal court. Tsar Peter (927–969) sent nine people to seek out the saint in order to receive his blessing. With great difficulty, the messengers found the saint. John offered them some bread, but all of them miraculously satiated with them, and even half of the bread remained. When they returned, they spoke about the miracle to the king, who himself wished to see the saint. But impassable places met on the way, and the king sent ambassadors asking him to come to him. As a gift to the saint, he sent gold and fruits. The humble hermit refused to leave solitude and did not accept gold. He wrote a message to the king with a sermon.

After some time, followers who sought solitude began to settle near the Monk John. Then the monk founded a monastery at the foot of the cliff, not far from the Rila River. At first the monks lived in huts, then on the site of the feats of St. John they erected a temple and built cells. The monastery was sociable; according to legend, at first sixty-six monks labored in it.

For many years the Monk John was abbot of the monastery founded by him, instructing the brethren with their own example of holy life and soulful edifications. Having reached old age, five years before his death, the Monk John wrote a “Testament” for his followers, in which he outlined the rules of monastic life and spiritual instructions. The saint perfectly knew the Greek language and read the works of the holy fathers in the original - in his "Testament", for example, the works of the Monk Theodore Studite were used, which at that time had not yet been translated into Old Bulgarian.

In 941, the Monk John chose his beloved disciple Gregory as his successor, and he himself went into the cave to the gate. The Monk John spent the last five years of his earthly life in silence and prayer. On August 18, 946 , seventy years old, he peacefully reposed to the Lord and was buried in the narthex of the monastery church in a stone tomb, which has survived to our time. The holy life of the ascetic and the signs of the grace of God through his prayers became the best preaching of the Christian faith in the newly baptized Bulgarian land.

About 30 years after his death, in an alarming time of the struggle of Bulgaria with Byzantium , under the Bulgarian king Samuel (976-1014), the Monk John of Rylsky appeared to the hegumen of the Rylsky monastery and ordered his relics to be transferred to the city of Sredets (now Sofia ), where the Bulgarian patriarch Damian was hiding (927–972). On October 18, the holy relics were discovered and found incorrupt. They were transferred to Sredets and laid first in the cathedral in the name of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, and in the XII century in the newly-built church in the name of St. John of Rylsky. A monastery was founded at the temple of his name.

Even before the transfer of honest relics to Sredets, the so-called separation of the right hand of St. John took place. According to some historians, the holy relics were transferred in 980, but the Rylsky 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 many to Russia due to the oppression of the Greeks, who had seized Eastern Bulgaria by that time and forbade the Bulgarians to worship in their native language. Perhaps when the Greeks began to gradually conquer Western Bulgaria, the Rylsky monks also went to Russia, taking with them the shrine of the monastery - the right hand of St. John. It is known that at the beginning of the XI century in the north-west of Kievan Rus , the fortress city of Rylsk was built. The first temple, which was built by the inhabitants of the city, was consecrated in the name of St. John of Rylsky with a chapel in the name of the holy martyrs Flora and Laurus, on the memorial day of which the saint died. Obviously, the Bulgarians who fled from the Rylsky Mountains settled there. There is reason to believe that the right hand of St. 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 which became one of the Heavenly patrons of the Russian people. It was in Russian sources ^[1] that the date of the monk’s death was preserved. Subsequently, in 1240, according to the chronicler, "only Rylsk was preserved from the Batyev pogrom." When, during the siege, the inhabitants of the city called for their patron to help, the Monk John appeared on the city wall, waved his handkerchief, blinded the Tatars, and thus saved Rylsk.

In 1183, the Hungarian king Bela III (1172–1196) captured Sredets and transferred the holy relics to his capital, the city of Gran (Slav. Ostrigom, now Ostergom). However, after four years, the king, according to some signs at the tomb of the saint, realized that the saint did not want to be in Ostrigom, and in 1187 he returned the holy relics to Sredets, richly decorating the coffin with gold and silver.

On October 19, 1195 , after the liberation of Bulgaria from Byzantine dependence by Asen I (1187–1196), the king transferred the holy relics to the new capital - Tarnovo . A temple was erected on the hill of Trapezitsa , in which the relics of St. John were laid. Honorable relics were found in Tarnovo even after the Turks took it in 1393 , and only in 1469, at the request of the brotherhood of the Rylsky monastery and thanks to the help of the widow of Sultan Murad II Maria , the daughter of Serbian despot George Brankovich , were returned to the monastery of St. John, where they rest until now. On June 30, 1469 , during the abbess David, the holy relics were solemnly laid in a new tomb in the church of the Rylsky monastery. The celebration of the return of the relics was established on July 1.

Meanwhile, the beginning of the All-Russian veneration of the Monk John of Rylsky conditionally refers to the XIV century, since his name was first discovered by the inscribed half-mouth of the XIV century in the manuscript of the XII century - the Galician Gospel . Further information on the veneration of St. John in Russia dates back to the first quarter of the 15th century ^[2] . Since the 16th century, the name of St. John of Rylsky has been mentioned in many liturgical books. The service to the saint in the everyday life of the Russian Church was established with the advent of the printed "Mineas", not earlier than the end of the XVII - beginning of the XVIII century. In 1645, the service to the saint was first published in Russia, and in 1671, the Service with the Life of Our Reverend Father John of Rylsky was printed in the printing house of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra , which is also the first printed publication of the Life of the Saint compiled by the Bulgarian Patriarch Euthymius in the XIV century.

The great righteous and ascetic of the Russian Church, John of Kronstadt was born on October 19, 1829, on the day of memory of St. John of Rylsky. In memory of his heavenly name-bearing patron, he founded a convent in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 20th century, where he was later buried himself, and where his relics reside.

The veneration of St. John in Bulgaria is so great that it can only be compared with the special veneration of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Russia. Just as St. Sergius is called the “Abbot of All Russia,” so St. John can be called the “Abbot of All Bulgaria.” The similarity of both their biographies and their heritage is striking - both increased the host of ascetic disciples, being the pillars of the Bulgarian and Russian Churches. The monasteries they founded became the largest centers of spiritual enlightenment of these states, and their imperishable relics guard their capitals.

It is considered the patron of the city of Rylsk, 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 - "Ivan Rylsky Mountain", on which the Rylsky fortress and the most ancient part of the city of Rylsk stood in antiquity ^[3] . Now a chapel has been erected on the mountain in honor of the Monk John of Rylsky, and since 2006, a particle of the relics of John of Rylsky has been stored in the Rylsky Nikolayevsky monastery ^[4] .

His name is given to the chapel on the Bulgarian polar station, St. Clement of Ohrid , the southernmost Orthodox chapel on the planet.

The memory of July 1 in memory of the transfer of the relics from Tarnovo to the Rylsky Monastery, August 18 on the day of the repose, October 19 on the day of the transfer of the relics from Sredets to Tarnovo.

The "Testament" of St. John is considered one of the best works of Old Bulgarian writing and testifies to the author’s high culture and deep theological wisdom. Rev. John recommends in the "Testament" to read "more fatherly books." Moreover, he himself quotes the Paranesis of St. Ephraim the Syrian . The earliest Old Bulgarian translation of this work (two Glagolic sheets) was found in the Rylsky Monastery in 1845 . This circumstance, obviously, indicates the fact that it was in the Rila monastery that the first translation of Paranesis was made, and possibly by the Monk John himself.

Prayers

Troparion

The basis of repentance, the prescription of tenderness, / the image of consolation, spiritual fulfillment / your equal-angular living is quick, reverent. / In prayers, and in servitude and in tears, abiding, / Father John, / pray to Christ God for our souls.

Troparion for the return of relics from Tarnovo to Rylsky Monastery

Your relics will be returned / your abode will be enriched, / your church, having received me, being enlightened / and, painting, faithful, will convene with joy / your luminous one will lightly celebrate the day, / come, verbally, / and receive the grace of gift.

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  Relief icon of St. John of Rilsky (Mining and Geological University, Sofia), sculptor Nikolai Zikov

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  Old icon of St. Ivan Rilsky

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  Fresco depicting St. John of Rila in the Rila Monastery

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  Icon of St. Ivan Rilsky with scenes from his life

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  Ivan Rilsky

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  Images of St. John of Rila and St. Joakim Sarandaporsky in the Poganovsky monastery, XV century.

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  Fresco depicting St. John of Rila in the Rila Monastery

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  Founded by St. John of Rila, the largest Bulgarian monastery to date

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  Cave of St. John of Rila on the outskirts of the Rila Monastery

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  The grave of John of Rila in the monastery

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  St. John's Monastery in St. Petersburg

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  Church of St. John of Rilski, Minsk, Belarus

• Mineya August, part 2, Moscow: Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2002, 432 p.
• Nikon (Rozhdestvensky), archbishop. The Life and Feats of the Monk and God-bearing Our Father Sergius, Abbot of Radonezh and All Russia the Wonderworker, Moscow: Trifonov Pechenga Monastery; A new book; Ark, 2003, 432 p.

• Suvorov, Maxim, “Abbot of All Bulgaria”, 30. VIII.2008: o http://www.pravostok.ru/ru/journal/modern/index.php?id=852 ;
• [one]
• [2]
• [3]
• Saint Rev. John of Rila and the monastery in Rila.

• Temple of John Rylsky in Kiev
• St. John's Monastery (St. Petersburg)