The tomb complex of St. Ivan Rilski

Overview

Near the Rila Monastery is the cave where St. Ivan Rilski has spent 7 years in fasting and prayers. Ivan Rilski was born around 876 in the Dupnitsa village of Skrino in the folds of the Osogovo Mountain, not far from the Struma River. He was a contemporary of Prince Boris I, Simeon the Great and his son Tsar Peter. Until the age of 25, he was a shepherd in his native village. According to the life of the saint, when his parents died, he distributed their property to the poor and sick and entered as a novice in the nearby monastery under Mount Ruen. There he acquired a theological education, studied liturgical books and accepted the monastic order. When he left the monastery, he climbed a "high bare mountain" and lived as a hermit for twelve years. Then he settled in the hollow of a tree in the Rila Desert, where he prayed to God. He ate grass and did not see a human being. Shepherds grazing their flocks nearby found him and began to visit him, asking him for advice and help, as it had already been heard that he performed miracles and healed the sick with his prayers. To retire, Ivan Rilski moved to a cave on a high and inaccessible rock and spent more than seven years there in prayer and fasting. He began to be joined by students who built huts around them and so on the site of the small post in the mountains arose the most famous Bulgarian monastery - Rila. He died on August 18, 946 at the age of about 70 and was buried in the porch of the church in a stone tomb, which is preserved to this day. The relics of St. Ivan Rilski changed several places. By order of Tsar Peter, they were transferred to the wooden church "St. Luka ”in Sredets on October 19 and since then on this day the memory of the saint is celebrated. A pious and rich Christian built a beautiful stone church in Sredets and transferred his relics to it, and then founded a monastery there. Probably then the hermit was canonized a saint. In time, during another Hungarian-Byzantine war, the relics were transferred to Hungarian soil. Only three years later, with great honors, King Bella III returned the relics to a coffin richly decorated with gold. During the reign of Ivan Assen II and under Patriarch Vasily in 1238 they were transferred to Tarnovo and laid in a temple in the name of the saint. After the looting of the city during its conquest by the Turks in 1393, the relics miraculously survived. In the 14th century the monks from the deserted Rila Monastery obtained a sultan's permission and with a solemn procession and great honors brought them there. On July 1, 1469, they were laid to rest in the church of the Rila Monastery, where they rest to this day.