Venerable John of Rila (+946)
The Venerable John of Rila, the great Bulgarian father, was born in 876 in the village of Skrino, in the region of Sredets (present-day Sofia). Orphaned early, the boy became a herdsman among strangers. Once he was cruelly beaten because a cow and a calf were missing from the herd. The boy wept for a long time and fervently besought 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 on the water, made the sign of the cross on it, walked across the river as on dry land, and came out with the calf on the other bank, where the cow had already crossed. The rich owner of the cattle was secretly watching the saint from the forest. He was shaken by this miracle, rewarded the boy generously and set him free. John gave away all his property as alms and left the village. At first he laboured on a high, bare mountain and ate wild plants. His hut was made of brushwood. Once robbers attacked the holy father and drove him away. After this John took refuge in a deep cave. Soon his nephew, Saint Luke, came to him. This place was so deserted that at first the ascetic took Luke’s appearance for a temptation of the devil, but when he was convinced that the young man sincerely desired salvation, he received him with love. Uncle and nephew were not given long together. John’s brother learned where his son was and took him home by force. On the way home the young man was bitten by a snake and died. His father, falling into repentance, begged Saint John’s forgiveness. Afterwards the venerable ascetic often went to the righteous youth’s grave; that place became his most beloved spot. The saint spent twelve years in the cave, and then moved to the desert of Rila and settled in a hollow tree. Saint John ate the scanty herbs of the desert, but by God’s providence a field of beans soon sprang up around him. Once a flock of sheep, suddenly frightened, ran up the steep mountain paths and stopped by John’s dwelling. The amazement of the shepherds who followed the sheep’s tracks knew no bounds when they saw a monk with a radiant face, who warmly invited them: “You must be hungry; eat of my beans.” All ate their fill, but one shepherd picked some extra pods, hid them, and when they set off for home offered them to his companions. Not a single bean was found in the stolen pods. The ashamed shepherds went back to ask forgiveness, and John forgave his guests and said with a smile: “You see, children?! These fruits God has appointed to feed the desert-dweller.” From that time on many sick and possessed people were brought to the venerable father, and he healed them by prayer. To guard himself from human glory, the ascetic settled on a high and inaccessible rock and lived for seven years under the open sky. When the report of the great desert-dweller reached Peter, king of Bulgaria (927–969), he wished to see the holy monk; but the Venerable John only sent the autocrat a letter and avoided meeting him. Later, by God’s blessing, the care of the souls of the brethren who had set up a church and monastery in the Venerable John’s former cave was laid on the desert-dweller. On 18 August 946 the saint commended his soul to the Lord in peace at the age of seventy. Five years before his repose he wrote with his own hand a Testament to his disciples, one of the finest monuments of Old Bulgarian literature.
