John of Rila

ON ST. JOHN OF RILA, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR, IN ANCIENT BULGARIA,

IN THE YEAR 946.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

John, monk of Rila and confessor, in European Turkey. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ I. The name of St. John in the Slavonic calendars. His age, fatherland, monastic and eremitical life. The building of the monastery of Rila.

Above, where we had to discourse of St. Hilarion, bishop of Moglena, [St. John, abbot of Rila, is inscribed in most calendars at the 19th day of October, in the painted Muscovite tables at the 22nd of October.] we were already compelled to travel in mind through those most wretched lands in which our brethren, although estranged from the bosom of their mother church, continue to be oppressed and trampled down by the abominable tyranny of the Turks. But again, not without sadness of mind, we must return thither, and books must be turned over in which the continuous martyrdom of the Slavs and Bulgarians groaning under the Turkish yoke is narrated. For St. John, abbot of Rila, calls us into these parts, who was born, lived and is honoured there, and who at the present day, in the Graeco-Muscovite tables published by Papebroch Act. SS. vol. I of May, page XLIX., is called John the monk, placed between St. Abercius and the seven holy Sleepers or youths of Ephesus. Yet today is not his principal festival; but the 19th day of this month, on which his name is noted with the added title of bishop of Rila in the Sobornik or Synaxarium of the Ruthenians, which, as we said above in the commentary on St. Hilarion of Moglena See above, p. 405., was formerly sent to our predecessors by Father George David, and is peculiar to the diocese of Kiev, though used also by the Muscovites. And in the Ruthenian calendar, some months of which, as we likewise noted in the same place, were submitted by Baron Sparwenfeld, these words are read at the same day, the 19th of October: Likewise of our holy father John of Rila, in the year 6454 his relics were carried from the city of Sredets to Trapezund. Similarly at this day Kulczynski found him in his books, namely in the Slavonic Anthology Specimen ecclesiæ Ruthenicæ, part I, p. 54 and part II, p. 101.; and, as the Reverend Father Martynov teaches me, to whom Slavonic letters already owe much and will one day owe much more, in all Slavonic books, at least those recently published, the name of St. John of Rila is inscribed at the 19th of October. Yet since our work is handled more by Latins than by Slavs, it was preferable that we should speak of him at the 22nd of October, since, having been marked at this day, he first became known to Westerners through the Papebrochian Tables; and so Kulczynski himself preferred to speak of him at this day rather than at the 19th of October.

[2] The chief sources from which the deeds of St. John are to be drawn. Further, the chief monuments concerning this saint which I have at hand I received from the praised Father Martynov; who, not content to turn them from the Slavonic language into Latin, furnished them with annotations and observations by which the way might be opened and smoothed for me: so that if this commentary has any praise, it must be referred to this learned man as to its source. He sent me, then, first of all the Life of our venerable and God-bearing father John of Rila, by Euthymius, patriarch of Tarnovo; which he himself excerpted from the work on the deeds of the Serbs and Bulgarians by A. Hilferding, Moscow, 1855, from page 167 to 177. Concerning that Euthymius, who also wrote the Life of St. Parasceve, my now-lamented colleague Antoine Tinnebroek inquired, and found nothing about him except that it is most probable that he occupied the see of Tarnovo between Joachim, who flourished at the end of the thirteenth century, and Ignatius, who in the year 1439 was present at the council of Florence and approved the concord with the Latin church; nor have I anything to prevent my approving this with my vote. Nay, it is not to be doubted that he lived before the year 1396, in which Bayezid subjected Bulgaria wholly to the Turkish yoke and the kings of that region altogether ceased. For since the Life of St. John passed most certainly from the writing of Euthymius into the Moscow Menaea and Prologue, of which I shall speak presently, and in these is read this prayer to St. John: Help also our king, and subject under his feet all the enemies that oppose him; it is manifest that these words were written before the Bulgarians were oppressed by the impious tyranny. Hilferding did not give the writing of Euthymius entire; but cut out what seemed mere praises, as the reader himself will sufficiently understand from the version to be subjoined. But the entire composition exists in the edition which Neophytus had published at Belgrade in the year 1836, according to an older codex, at the expense of Joasaph, hieromonk of the monastery of Rila. I should believe that the history of the translations was also cut out by Hilferding, which is inserted in the published editions of the Moscow Menaea and Prologue; for Euthymius attached a similar history to the Life of St. Parasceve. However that may be, these translations are narrated in the Slavonic Prologue of Moscow. From there Father Martynov turned them into Latin and sent them to me with the Life which is placed before them there. Further, although this Life is the same as that which Euthymius wrote, yet it does not agree with it everywhere; which has happened partly through the carelessness of the copyists, and much more perhaps through the excessive diligence of the editors or correctors. For the rest, the composition of Euthymius itself is by no means contemporary with St. John; but later by several centuries than his death, as the reader himself will gather from what is to be said about his age. Yet it is good enough, and certainly prepared according to approved traditions, or even collected from older books: which could easily have been done, since at no time did the monastery of St. John of Rila ever wholly perish.

[3] [St. John was born a little before the middle of the ninth century, and died a centenarian on the 18th of August of the year 946.] St. John must have been born somewhat before the middle of the ninth century, since, as Hilferding relates, having attained an advanced old age, he died on the 18th of August of the year 946. And from the writing of Euthymius itself it is easily understood that St. John became very aged; but it becomes known much more easily from the Moscow Prologue, in which it is related that the holy man spent sixty years in the solitude of Rila; to which if you add at least twenty years which he seems to have lived in the world, then the time of his novitiate spent in the monastery, together with the space of time passed in the mountain hut and the twelve years spent in the cave, he must be said to have been alive a little more than a hundred years. Nor is there reason to be astonished at so great a longevity, since no kind of men is wont to live longer than hermits.

[4] At Serin, near Sardica, which was then subject to the Bulgarians, The blessed man saw the light in the territory of Sredets, or of the famous city of Sredets; which name represents the ancient Sardica or Serdica. For the fortune of this name was various: Serdica was changed into Sredetz or Sredez; hence (as Triballi and Srblji are the same name) arose Triaditza, known to Leo the deacon, Skylitzes, Cedrenus, Zonaras and others, and changed by Ansbert and William of Tyre into Straliz and Stralizia Schafarik's Slawische Alterthumer, vol. II, page 217 and 218.. Now also it is called Triaditza by the Bulgarians, but by the Turks Sophia or Sofia. The learned dispute about its origin. In ecclesiastical history it was made most celebrated by the council of Sardica; which, assembled in the year 347, was held by many as a part of the first general synod of Nicaea. It was the metropolis of Dacia Mediterranea, having only (as it seems) two episcopal cities subject to it, Pautalia and Remesiana Coleti, Illyricum Sacrum, vol. VIII, page 64 and 65.. It seems to have experienced the common lot which awaited the Illyrian provinces in the fourth century and thereafter; and certainly it had suffered very much from time, the devourer of all things; Justinian I restored its walls and made them impregnable to enemies [Procopius, de Ædificiis, book IV, num. 1, vol. III of the Works, page 267 and 268. Bonn.]. In the year 809 the Bulgarians, under the leadership of Krum, having attacked Moesia Prima in order to burst thence into Thrace, overcame the Romans or Greeks at Sardica, six thousand soldiers being slain, together with a huge multitude besides Theophanes, in Stritter, Bulgarica ex scriptoribus Byzantinis, page 535.. The city was afterwards taken by the enemy, and recovered and restored by the emperor Nicephorus; but lost again, it was subject to the Bulgarians until the middle of the eleventh century Coleti, Illyricum sacrum, vol. VIII, page 64 and 65..

[5] [St. John first saw the light, so that he was a Bulgarian by fatherland, although it is not established that he was a Bulgarian by origin.] Whence is resolved Kulczynski's doubt whether St. John was a Serb or a Bulgarian: for hence it is plain that the most holy man was born in a region which is still called Bulgaria, and indeed at a time when Bulgarian kings ruled these parts; and to this extent he was most certainly a Bulgarian. But what is said in the Moscow Prologue, that he had a father who was a Bulgarian by origin, makes me not a little doubtful. For since this father is also said in the same place to have been pious, that is, a Christian, and St. John to have loved God from his tender nails (which agrees excellently with the genuine writing of Euthymius, in which the parents also are related to have been pious in all things and to have brought up their son well), the doubt spontaneously arises how these things can agree with the most certain history of the conversion of the Bulgarians. For only about the year 860, 861 or 866 (for the historians dispute), in which King Boris received baptism with the name of Michael, did the Bulgarian nation pass over to the camp of Christ. In very truth the Illyrians or Romans, who had not left their fatherland or who had been carried thither by the Bulgarians, are to be considered to have been still Christians and to have won some Bulgarians for Christ; moreover Manuel, archbishop of Adrianople, and other Christians led into captivity in the year 813, are read to have brought many of the Bulgarians over to the true faith; for which cause about the year 820, by order of King Crytagon (who is also Mortragon, Mutragon and Omortag), they were impiously put to death [Compare Stritter, Bulgarica, page 444, 557, 558, 563 and 564; Act. SS. vol. II of January, page 441 and 442; Art de vérifier les dates, vol. I, page 427.]: yet who does not see that it could not have been that, at the time when St. John was born, Christian Bulgarian families were not rare? so that if anyone wishes to maintain that the father of St. John was a Bulgarian by origin, as in the Prologue

of Moscow is read, it would be necessary for him to say at the same time that he was of those rare families: for my part, I should prefer, following the genuine text of Euthymius, to assert only this, that St. John had parents originating from Bulgaria; whether they were truly Bulgarians, or Illyrians or Romans.

[6] [He first led the monastic life in a monastery, then in a hut and afterwards in a cave.] Now since monks had had the greatest part in converting the Bulgarians The Continuator of Constantine, in Stritter, Bulgarica, page 574., hence it came about that the monastic life at once flourished very greatly among this nation. King Boris himself at one time put off the military belt to put on the angelic garment; which, however, he laid aside when his son and heir tried to restore the pagan rites; but, the son having been overcome and blinded, and another son substituted for him, he again entered the monastic cloister Compare Art de vérifier les dates, vol. I, page 428 and 429.. Similarly Simeon, the son or grandson of Baldemir, who had ruled the Bulgarians before Boris, had worn the monastic cowl at Constantinople before he took up the Bulgarian kingdom about the year 888 Ibid. page 430.. It is no wonder, then, that St. John, when his age, and much more the loss of his parents, permitted it, went away, as is read in the writing of Euthymius, into one of the monasteries which were there. And since the Eastern monks did not vow stability, nor had that ancient liberty been taken from monks by a fixed law, by which it was permitted them to pass into solitude or to other monasteries, having finished his novitiate he withdrew to a mountain designated for him from heaven, where he lived for some time in a hut made of branches. This kind of building still persists in those parts. For the Bulgarians build barns of pliant branches Compare Ami Boué, la Turquie d'Europe, vol. III, page 10.; the Turks military stations of larger branches Blanqui, Voyage en Bulgarie, page 203.; the little houses themselves are often of wattles daubed with clay [Ami Boué, vol. II, page 261 and 275; R. Walsh, Reise von Constantinopel durch Rumelien, etc. aus dem Englischen übersetst, vol. I, page 208.]. The blessed man must have suffered much there from the cold, which the bare branches of the walls did not allow to be tempered with fire: for most of the mountains by which the territory of Sardica is surrounded are covered with snow a great part of the year; so cold, namely, is it there Ami Boué, vol. I, page 514.. The pious hermit therefore thought it good to enter a cave, which he inhabited twelve years, until, namely, he was driven out from there by robbers, who love complete solitude and therefore suffer no one in their vicinity: which kind of men still flourishes in those parts so much the more as the government of the Turks is the more stupid.

[7] He goes to the desert of Rila, whose site is indicated, The three places in which we have hitherto understood St. John to have lived are unknown to me; the fourth is well known. For after the pious hermit had been cast out of his cave, he came into the desert of Rila, in which there still exists the monastery called by the title of the Holy Father (Sveti Otatz), by which our St. John is designated κατ᾽ ἐξοχην. It is distant in a straight line about twelve leagues, or about half a degree, from Sardica or Sofia toward the south. A twofold road or bridle-path leads thither; the one by which from Sardica one goes in a journey of nine hours to Samakov Ami Boué, etc. vol. IV, page 514., and thence to the monastery of Rila in a journey of five or six hours Ibid. page 528.; the other by which from Sardica one comes within twelve hours to Dupnitsa Ibid. page 514., and thence to the monastery of Rila within eight and a half hours Ibid. page 529. or ten Ibid. vol. III, page 462.. This ascetic house is situated in a valley of Mount Rila (Rilo-Dagh), which is part of the most celebrated Mount Rhodope, and is now reckoned by Boué to the province of the same name, Rhodope or Despotodagh Ibid. vol. IV, page 528, 529 and 575., of which it is the northern boundary. The pious dwelling is built 3899 Paris feet above the level of the sea, while the neighbouring peaks rise to 7000, 7739 and 7800 feet; on the other hand the village of Rilo, which is five hours distant from the monastery toward the north, exceeds the level of the sea by only 1700 feet Ibid. vol. IV, page 575.. The cloister is surrounded on all sides by fir-trees, and a torrent, which divides into the Jembeska-Rieka and the Kalenska-Rieka, drives its headlong waters at the edge of the garden Ibid. page 529 and vol. III, page 462.. And from these things it is easily understood how full of sacred awe was the seat which St. John chose; since even until now, after it has been cultivated for so many centuries by monks and visited by innumerable pilgrims, it still instils into minds a certain dread and I know not what religious awe.

[8] in which he spent sixty years and founds a monastery, The blessed man is said in the Slavonic Prologue of Moscow to have lived sixty years in this solitude; of which he spent part in a hollow tree, part on a solitary rock. And while he was cultivating the sacred ascesis, or the divine philosophy, as the Easterners love to speak, on this rock, there came thither with his royal retinue Peter, the son of the aforesaid Simeon, who from the year 927 to the year 969 [Leo the deacon, Hist. book X, chapter 3, page 78. Bonn; Art de vérifier les dates, vol. I, page 431, and Stritter, Bulgarica, page 618 and following.] bore the insignia of the Bulgarian kingdom. This visitation must have been made in the month of May of the year 939, since afterward St. John lived seven years and four months more, having died in the year 946 on the 18th day of August. Within those seven years the blessed hermit admitted disciples, whom, just as a good shepherd his sheep, he nourished with the pasture of word and example. These built a church and a monastery on this very rock, to which there was no access; so that this monastery was at the beginning a meteoron; as in the whole East there are many to which it is possible to ascend only by ladders or by pulleys and hauling-ropes [Albert Lenoir, Architecture monastique, part I, page 83. Compare Boué, La Turquie d'Europe, vol. III, page 459, etc.].

[9] whose fortunes are explained. Unless the seat of this monastery has been changed somewhat in place, that rock must afterwards have been cut away; and indeed the northern part of the present buildings is built on the cut rock Ami Boué, vol. III, page 462.. Ami Boué, from whom we have received these things, relates much more about this monastery, describing accurately almost each of its parts: what is historical we shall transfer here. In every age this ascetic house was exposed to the depredations of robbers; for you would say that the very high mountains and forests, intersected by very deep valleys, which are to be seen in these parts, were destined for fostering that kind of men. Wherefore, as is understood from a Bulgarian inscription which still exists, in the year of the world 6813, Stephen Dushan ruling these regions, a certain voivode built a castle within the circuit of the monastery, which should be a refuge for the monks against robbers bursting in: which kind of castles, called πουργοι, still exist here and there in the monasteries of European Turkey. It must be observed, however, that the year of the world 6813, that is of Christ 1305, does not agree with the reign of Stephen Dushan. For he, kral of Serbia and, as he wished to be called, emperor of Romania and tsar of Macedonia, did not succeed his father Stephen Urosh before the year 1333 [Assemani, Kalendaria ecclesiæ universæ, vol. V, part I, chapter 2, page 57. Compare Chopin, Les Provinces Danubiennes, page 248 and following.]. But from the time when the Turks penetrated into these parts, the monastery of the Holy Father suffered much more; for five times (though sometimes by accident) it was burned, and more often plundered. Yet since the place is held most sacred, and since the Turks readily allow some monasteries, to which many offerings are made, to be rebuilt (for they wring money from pilgrims and monks or take it by force, and hold the monasteries in place of lodgings and military stations), it was always restored. And indeed more recently, between the year 1835 and 1837, the monastery was rebuilt from its foundations and the church was completed in the year 1839. This building of cut stone, rising in three storeys, and containing besides several halls about a hundred cells, cost about one million francs. The money spent was for a great part obtained by begging in Russia. The monastery itself is rich, having mountains and valleys extending twenty leagues, and besides some villages, among which Rilo, of which I have already spoken. Before it was burned it was furnished with a library and with manuscript codices; but these it has now lost; yet it has preserved the relics of the Saints. It is inhabited by a hundred and fifty Bulgarian monks and very many youths or boys aspiring to the same condition Ami Boué, La Turquie d'Europe, vol. III, page 462 and following..

§ II. The translations of the body of St. John into Hungary and Bulgaria. The churches of Sardica and of Tarnovo. The rest concerning the cult of the same saint.

[The body of St. John, first buried in the monastery, then in the church of St. Luke at Sardica; and thence in the year 1128 taken away by the Hungarians and carried to Esztergom;] St. John received burial in his monastery; but, no little time having passed, he appeared to his disciples and ordered his body to be carried to Sardica, as is related in the Moscow Prologue. He was placed there first in the church of St. Luke the evangelist. But shortly afterwards a church was built, which was consecrated to God under the invocation of our St. John himself and honoured with the body of the most blessed man. Somewhat before the year of the world 6605, of Christ 1097, and the fifth indiction, the Hungarians are said in the same prologue to have burst into Bulgaria and penetrated as far as Sardica: which would have to be considered to have been done either in the time of St. Ladislaus, king of Hungary, who reigned until the year 1095, or under his successor Coloman; but I for my part find no mention of this matter among the Hungarian historians, none among the Greeks (for the Bulgarians were subject to the emperor of Constantinople from the year 1019). Yet the thing itself is not on that account to be called into doubt, since the circumstances are accurately set forth: but it seems to me that one must depart from the assigned time, and in place of the year of the world 6605 read 6645, of Christ 1157; which agrees with the fifteenth indiction: so that an error crept into the Moscow Prologue by the omission of the letter M, by which the Slavs signify forty. And in this way everything flows conveniently. For in the year 1128 [Palma, Notitia rerum Hungaricarum, vol. I, page 461; Fessler, die Geschichten der Ungern, vol. II, page 24.] between John Comnenus and

Stephen II, king of Hungary, a war broke out, whose very obscure causes the prelate Palma tried to explain Notitia, vol. I, page 457 and following.; and which is so narrated by Thuróczy Chronica Hungarorum, chapter 65, Bongars's edition, page 70 and following. and the other historians of Hungary that the Hungarians seem to have been the inferior; and so by Nicetas Choniates Historia Joannis Comneni, page 24 and following. Bonn., Cinnamus [Historiarum book I, chapters 4 and 5, book V, chapter 4, page 9 and following, page 211 and following.] and other Greeks that the Greeks themselves must be held to have been conquered Compare Le Beau, Histoire du Bas-Empire, book LXXXIV, chapter 10.. But whatever the outcome was, certainly at the beginning the Hungarians stood forth as victors, Belgrade having been taken, which is also called Alba Graeca, Alba of Bulgaria, and Braničevo or the bulwark of the river Sava Palma, Notitia, vol. I, page 461.; and indeed they proceeded as far as Sardica, which the Greeks held as the metropolis of the Illyrians Cinnamus, book V, chapter 14, page 240., and plundered it; nor do I doubt that they then took away the body of St. John of Rila from his church. Hear Nicetas Choniates Historia, page 24.: About the time of the year 1128 the Huns, having crossed the Ister, both laid waste Braničevo and, its walls having been destroyed, transferred the stones to Zeugminum (Semlin), and plundered Sardica. In the following year the war still lasted; but see these things in the historians cited. The Hungarians carried off the body of St. John which they had taken, no doubt along the Danube, by a very long journey, and placed it in the church of the city which is called by the Slavs Ostrogom, by the Hungarians Esztergom and Ostrykom, by the Latins Strigonium and Strigonia, but commonly Gran, which is situated on the right of the Danube and is the primatial see of Hungary. In a straight line it is distant from Sardica a space of 116 geographical leagues. And the cathedral church, into which the remains of St. John were brought, was sacred to God under the patronage of St. Adalbert, bishop and martyr Schmitth, Archiepiscopi Strigonienses, part I, page 10.; to which title in the year 1453 the name of blessed Mary was added, when that martyrium, falling into ruin, was restored with most splendid work Ibid. page 255, second edition..

[11] [where, many miracles having been wrought, it is enclosed in a precious case, to be sent back to Sardica in the year 1137.] From what has been premised, then, the Hungarians in the year 1128, having plundered Sardica, took away the body of St. John and had it transferred to the cathedral church of St. Adalbert at Esztergom. Over the diocese of Esztergom there then presided Felician, who is also Paul; as one who was promoted to this dignity in the year 1127 or even before, and retained it until the year 1149 or even the following Ibid. page 40, second edition.. Since in that age the archbishops of Esztergom seem to have been very much occupied in the administration of the state, hence it could easily have come about that (as is narrated in the Moscow Prologue) the relics of St. John rested for some time in the church of Esztergom without Felician learning of it. But when it became known to him, since he had never before heard mention made of this saint, he would show no veneration to the pious pledge, until, having lost his speech, he acknowledged his error. These and many other prodigies are related in the same Prologue to have been wrought there by God in honour of St. John. When the king learned these things (who seems to have been no other than Béla II, or the Blind, an excellent venerator of relics Fessler, Die Geschichten der Ungern, vol. II, page 335., who held the reins of the kingdom from the year 1131 to 1141), he ordered the sacred case to be adorned with silver and gold, and to be carried back again to Sardica: which in the praised Prologue is related to have been done in the year six thousand six hundred and five, in the fifth of the indiction, or of Christ 1097; but we have shown above that the year six thousand six hundred and forty-five, the fifteenth of the indiction, or of Christ 1137, should be read. And indeed in the Prologue itself it is written immediately after: Not much time afterward it pleased God to raise up the fallen ark, and to renew the Bulgarian power, made antiquated by the yoke of the Greeks: for He raised up the horn of the Bulgarian kingdom under the Christ-loving emperor Asen, to whom from the sacred font the name was John. Now John Asen, who is also called John I, Johannitsa and Kalojan, took up the Bulgarian kingdom only about the year 1195, or a whole century after the year of the world 6605; and the other John Asen, who among the Slavs themselves is properly designated by this name, girded his head with the Bulgarian crown only in the year 1215 or 1216: but who, in this kind of matters, would say Not much time afterward for a whole century or even a greater space?

[12] Not in the year 1195, as is read in the Moscow Prologue, And here again we slip into chronological tangles. For it is related in the Prologue that John Asen at the beginning of his reign took by storm many cities, among them Sardica; where, when he learned that the wonderful body of St. John was present, he commanded that it should be carried by the patriarch Basil to Tarnovo; and that he himself ran ahead, to order opportunely that a little shrine should be prepared or built to receive so great a treasure; and so the body of the holy man was placed in it in the year of the world 6703, that is of Christ 1195. But truly this year again is erroneous. For, to repeat in a few words what I related above in the Commentary on St. Hilarion, bishop of Moglena, Asen the Elder and his brother Peter, who about the year 1185 tried to vindicate the liberty of the Bulgarians from the Greek yoke, and afterwards actually vindicated it, were still surviving among the living in the year 1195, as having in this very year conquered the Sebastocrator Isaac, laid waste many lands of the Romans and made themselves masters of very many towns. Wherefore, since nevertheless that Asen was slain in the same year, this slaughter could not have taken place before full summer; and since some time later Peter underwent the same fate, who does not see that John Asen I, or Kalojan, who ascended the Bulgarian throne after the killing of Peter, could not have been honoured with this supreme dignity before the winter of the same year 1195, and therefore that there by no means remained time in which, before the end of the same year, he should restore and fortify the fallen Bulgarian cities, as is read in the Prologue, subdue regions everywhere to himself, and take cities by storm; come even as far as Sardica and take it; summon the patriarch Basil to have the body of St. John of Rila transferred to Tarnovo; and the pious king himself hasten to the chief city (Tarnovo), and there quickly build a church and order a repository to be prepared for receiving the saint?

[15] but about the year 1226 John Asen, king of Bulgaria, Since, then, it is manifest that in the year of the world 6703 the body of St. John was not translated from Sardica to Tarnovo, there remains no longer any reason on this head why we should assert that this translation was procured by John Asen I rather than by John Asen II. Further, I have no doubt that John Asen II was its author. For in this very Prologue John Asen I is not called by this name, but Kalojan; and John Asen II is called simply John Asen: as may be seen above in the Commentary on St. Hilarion, bishop of Moglena, num. 7 See above, page 407., where these words excerpted from the Prologue are read: Kalojan, king of the Bulgarians and brother of King Asen (the Elder), made himself master by arms of Greece, Thrace, Neada and Hellas, and advanced as far as the town of the Meglenians, which he also obtained… But a long time and many years after, a new king, called John Asen, the son of Asen the Elder, obtained the sceptre and ruled over the Bulgarians, Greeks, Franks, Serbs, Albanians and all the towns of both seas. Similarly in the Life of St. Parasceve Act. SS. Auctarium to vol. V of October, page 66. Euthymius everywhere understands by John Asen John II. These things being posited, it is most likely that the Prologue alludes to the victories which John Asen II won in the year 1226, and to the triumphal journey which he undertook in the same year; whence also it is understood how the body of St. John of Rila came into his possession. That is to say, after he had in the year 1226, near Klokotnitsa, a place very near the upper Hebrus, routed the forces of Theodore Angelus, emperor of Thessalonica, he turned aside first for a while to the southern and then altogether to the Western regions, and came with his columns as far as the Adriatic sea; whence, when he returned to Tarnovo, it was natural that he should make his way through Sardica.

[14] [when, having subdued the southern and western themes, he was returning home, ordered the body of St. John to be transferred from Sardica to Tarnovo.] Hear what George Acropolites subjoins after he has briefly recorded the battle of Klokotnitsa: Asen, he says In Stritter, vol. II, part II, page 725 and 726., behaving more humanely toward the captured multitude, frees the greater part of the forces, and especially those who had come together of humble birth, and dismisses them to their towns and cities, whether he did this out of humanity, or in order by this means to procure useful things for himself and arrange things suited to his advantage: for he was aiming at dominion over them, watching for the time of their defection to himself, and he became master of his wish; for all whom he pursued, by a bloodless war, submitted their necks. Adrianople also submitted to him, not long after Didymoteichon (now Dimotika on the Hebrus, between Adrianople and Trajanopolis), the whole of Boleron (to the winter east of Macedonia Compare Schafarik's Slawische Alterthümer, vol. II, page 225.), then Serres (to the east of the river Strymon), Pelagonia (which district lay along the western bank of the river Vardar), Prilep (situated to the west of Pelagonia) and the bordering places. He likewise overran Great Vlachia (or the mountain country of Thessaly); and he occupies Elbanum (or the hegemony of Albanon, which corresponds almost to the present Albania), and as far as Illyricum (by which the land of Bosnia seems to be designated) he lays everything waste with plunder. And when he had for the greater part completed and arranged at his pleasure what he had proposed to himself in mind, he sought again his native seats (the journey being made, as it seems to me, through the Forest of the Bulgarians, then through the valley by which one comes to Sardica or Sofia, and thence to Tarnovo); and, leaving some fortresses in the keeping and dominion of the Romans and reserving most for himself, he established in them soldiers and leaders, and quaestors to exact the taxes and tributes: and he was judged by all at that time admirable and securely fortunate. These things Acropolites; by which, as we have noted, it becomes manifest how the body of St. John of Rila came into the possession of John Asen and was by his order translated from Sardica to Tarnovo by the patriarch Basil.

[15] Basil, patriarch of Tarnovo, laid the body of the holy man in a new church. Of this patriarch, moreover, more has been said in the before-praised Commentary on St. Parasceve and above in the Commentary on St. Hilarion, bishop of Moglena; so that this one thing is to be noted about him, namely that from the year 1186 he was bishop of Debeltus or Zagora; at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Bulgarians having acknowledged

the authority of the Roman pontiff, he was created primate or patriarch of Bulgaria and occupied the see of Tarnovo from the year 1204, until at length in the year 1237 he died, more than eighty years old: (for nothing compels us to admit two Basils who succeeded one another in the see of Tarnovo, and of whom one died in an unknown year, the other in the said year 1237.) Basil laid the body of St. John in a new church, built within a very short time: whence it is plain that it was of wood or of wattle, daubed with mud; which kind of building we mentioned above at num. 6. There the body of St. John still rested when his Life was written by the patriarch Euthymius; as is abundantly clear from the Moscow Prologue. But where on earth it is now preserved, who could say? Is it still at Tarnovo, of which city we have already noted in the Commentary on St. Hilarion the bishop that very little is known? Was it translated to the monastery of Rila, which we described above? Or did it, like so many other sacred things, perish through the impiety of the Turks? These questions indeed can be asked; but perhaps no one could safely answer them.

[16] The Slavonic Troparion and Kontakion of St. John. It is pleasing to set down by way of a crowning finish the Troparion which Kulczynski has already published from the Slavonic Anthology Specimen ecclesiæ Ruthenicæ, part I, page 54. and which Father Martynov taught me is still in use. It sounds in this manner: The base of penance, the image of contrition, the mirror of religious perfection was thy angelic life, O holy one; for thou didst always give thyself to prayers, fasts and lamentation. Pray, father John, to Christ God for our souls. Likewise the Kontakion: Imitating the Angels in purity of life, O holy one, thou didst trample upon all earthly things and fled to Christ; armed with whose precepts, like an unshaken column thou didst not dread the invasions of hell. Therefore we say to thee: Rejoice, O father John, O illustrious light! St. John of Rila is honoured by all the Slavs, whether they inhabit the regions of Russia, or the Austrian empire, or the provinces of Turkey; not, however, everywhere on the same day: as we have already noted at the beginning of this Commentary. Of the singular cult in the monastery of Rila we spoke at num. 7.

LIFE OF OUR VENERABLE AND GOD-BEARING FATHER JOHN OF RILA,

By Euthymius, patriarch of Tarnovo, translated by John Martynov, priest of the Society of Jesus.

John, monk of Rila and confessor, in European Turkey. (S.)

BY EUTHYMIUS.

[St. John, born in Bulgaria of pious parents, led the monastic and eremitical life in various places;] The parents of this blessed man were indeed pious in all things, originating from Bulgaria ^b. He was born and brought up in the village called Scrinum, in the territory of Sredets ^c… And he was well brought up by his parents… But after much time, his parents having been sent to the Lord, he was … by no means withdrawing from the church, but diligently listening to the divine words and the sacred doctrines… He also conceives a good counsel: he scatters (his goods) … into the hands of the poor; .., and goes away into one of the monasteries which were there ^d; and after he had remained there a little time for the sake of instruction ^e, he goes out from the world ^f, … taking with him nothing besides the garment of skins ^g which he wore. He came, therefore, to the mountain designated for him (in a certain vision); and, having made for himself a kolib (that is, a hut) of branches ^h, he lived there… (Then)… he went away from there into another place, and there settles himself in a certain very dark and gloomy cave ⁱ, adding labours to labours, desires to desires… And he remained in that cave twelve years… But many days having passed … behold, bands … of robbers fiercely attack the saint, beat him cruelly, throw him down and drag him every way, and at length drive him out of that place… But he … goes away into another place, not a little distant from the former, and came into the desert of Rila ^k; where, having found a great oak, he settles himself… (The earth produces there) a certain kind of pea ^l, on which the saint fed. — It is narrated here that shepherds, following their flock one day, found him, and brought the possessed to him; and that, these having been healed by the saint, his fame spread through the whole region. But John, strong and humble, rising up, went away from there for fear of human glory; and, having found a very lofty rock, at once ascended it, … to converse alone with God alone, enduring the cold of night and the heats of day…

[2] [living in the desert of Rila, he is invited in vain by Peter, king of the Bulgarians; he founds a celebrated monastery there and dies holily.] His fame spread everywhere, so that it came to the ears of the king ^m. One day Peter (the king) came to Sardica; and, taking some companions with him, he sets out to visit John; and when they came to the river called the Rila ⁿ, they found a rock very great and hard and impassable; and they could not proceed, and they went back on their way. And at once they ascend another lofty mountain, which the neighbouring inhabitants are accustomed to call Knischara; whence they point out to him (namely, to Peter) the mountain and the rock where the venerable one lived; nor was the king able to go thither (for the place is steep and hard); but he at once sends two young men, … urging (John) to come, or he himself; .. for he greatly desires to behold him… But he said that this could by no means be done… The king, therefore, was affected with very great sadness, … and at once returning to his royal seat ^o, he sends again (to John) not a little gold … and also a letter … John indeed writes back to the king; but he declines to leave the desert even for a day. And he remained in that place yet seven years and four months: and many, emulating his life full of virtues, resolved to dwell with him; and, a church having been built in an adjoining place, they founded a monastery [p], and chose the blessed one as their superior and shepherd. He, after he had well fed his flock, and brought many to God, and also wrought great and splendid miracles, attained an advanced old age…

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Of the present condition of this monastery it was said in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 9.

COMMEMORATION OF OUR VENERABLE FATHER JOHN OF RILA

From the Moscow prologue at the 19th day of October, translated by John Martynov, priest of the Society of Jesus.

John, monk of Rila and confessor, in European Turkey. (S.)

[St. John, a Bulgarian by nation, a monk by profession, withdraws into the desert of Rila,] Our holy father John, great among the penitents, originated from the village called Scrin, situated in the territory of the famous city of Sredets, Peter the Christ-loving reigning in Bulgaria, and in Greece Constantine Diogenes ^a. He had a pious father, not very rich, a Bulgarian by origin ^b. His parents having departed this life, he, since he had loved God from his tender nails, having distributed to the needy and infirm all the goods which he had received by inheritance from his father, took the monastic form ^c, and went out from his own fatherland ^d, wearing on his body nothing else but a garment of skins. And ascending a certain high and solitary mountain, he girded himself to exercise virtue, nourishing himself on wild herbs. But after a little time had passed, robbers, at the instigation of a demon, attacked him by night, and, having cruelly beaten him, drove him from there ^e. John, therefore, driven from that mountain, betook himself to the desert of Rila, and there girded himself bravely for the exercises of penance; and entering a hollow tree, he remained, continually beseeching God in fasts and prayers and tears.

[2] in which he lived sixty years, builds a monastery and dies. And he remained in that place sixty years, sustaining his body only with herbs; nor did he see the face of man, but dwelt only with the wild beasts of the forest. God, seeing his great patience, made a pea grow in an adjoining place ^f, on which that blessed man fed for many years. And having been seen by certain shepherds, he was made known everywhere. And many came to him, bringing their sick, and, by the prayers of the saint, went away having obtained health ^g. And the fame of the blessed one went out into all that region; and many emulated the life of this saint, full of virtue, and to live together with him

resolved. And in a neighbouring cave they founded a church, and built a monastery, the blessed man being chosen by them as superior and shepherd. And he fed his flock well, and brought not a few to the Lord: and he wrought many miracles, and those splendid, and having attained an advanced old age, he died in peace ^h, exchanging his life for a felicity which never grows old, and was buried there by his disciples.

[3] Hence his body is translated to Sardica, then to Esztergom; And no little time having passed, he appeared to his disciples, and commanded his relics to be transferred to the city of Sardica. And they, having opened the tomb, seeing the body of the blessed one entire, by no means a partaker of corruption, and giving forth a sweet odour, glorified God. And so they brought it with honour to Sardica, and placed it in the church of St. Luke the evangelist ⁱ. But afterwards, in a beautiful church founded there under his own invocation, they placed the body of the blessed one, which works divine and splendid healings. And many times having passed, there rose up the king of the Ugrians ^k with a great army, and coming, he subdued to himself the Greek region: and he came also to the city of Sredets, and carried off with him the sacred case of the blessed one together with the body; for the king had heard of the miracles wrought by the blessed one. And he ordered his case to be carried with great honour into his own land, and to be placed with honour in the church of the city which is called Ostrogom ^l… And the saint was placed there, nor did he cease to work miracles and signs, and many healings. And of many let us tell a few.

[4] whence after many prodigies he is brought back to Sardica, For the archbishop of Ostrogom ^m, when he heard that the blessed one was great before God, and glorious with miracles in all lands, refused to believe, and said: I do not know this man, not at all recorded in the old writings; and he would not approach the saint in veneration. But behold, suddenly his tongue became mute, and recognising that he had become mute for this reason, he quickly hastens to the chest of the blessed one, falling down he kisses it and asks pardon. And the holy servant of God soon heard him, and in the same hour loosed the bond, and restored to him clear speech. And he, having obtained health, tearfully confessed before all his sin against the saint, and glorified God, and exalted the saint. And the saint wrought many other splendid things in the land of the Ugrians. When the king ⁿ learned all these things, he marvelled at the splendid miracles of the saint; but, much more seized with great terror, he adorned the case of the saint with silver and gold, and, having kissed his relics, ordered them to be sent back with great honour to the city of Sredets. And so he was placed again in his holy church, in the year six thousand six hundred and five, in the fifth of the indiction ^o.

[5] John Asen takes possession of it there about the year 1226, Not much time afterward, it pleased God to raise up the fallen ark, and to renew the Bulgarian power, made antiquated by the yoke of the Greeks: for He raised up the horn of the Bulgarian kingdom under the Christ-loving emperor Asen, to whom from the sacred font the name was John [p]. He, then, at the beginning of his reign, restored and fortified the fallen cities of Bulgaria, subdued regions everywhere to himself, and took cities by storm. He came even as far as Sardica; and having taken it, when he saw the body of the holy and venerable father, and heard such splendid things about him, he went to venerate the holy chest, kissed the venerable relics, and commanded the holy patriarch Basil [q] and his clergy to take the most splendid case, and to carry it with great honour, he himself being present, to the chief city of Tarnovo [r], three hundred picked soldiers being also assigned to accompany the holy things.

[6] and has it carried to Tarnovo and laid there in a new church; The patriarch Basil, therefore, the venerable case having been placed on a carriage (on wheels), and all his companions with him, joyfully entered on the journey, and went rejoicing and glorifying God, furnished with the prayers of the saint. There accompanied him also the monks of the monastery of Rila, the hegumen Joannicius, and other God-fearing monks. And the pious king John Asen himself hastened to the chief city, and there ordered a church to be quickly built [s], and a repository to be prepared for receiving the saint. And when he learned that the patriarch Basil, and all who accompanied him carrying the body, were not far off, he at once went out to meet him at the rampart (Okop), surrounded by magnates, princes and crowds of men, exulting in body and glad in spirit. Having seen the relics of the venerable father, they adored them, rejoicing with unspeakable joy. And the case remained at Okop seven days, until the church should be built. When this was completed, they carried the body of the saint with great honour and placed it in the magnificently consecrated church, in the year 6703 [t], where it lies to this day, working wonders, and continually distilling free remedies like an inexhaustible fountain.

[7] Where he is honoured with many prodigies, while his soul enjoys God in heaven, For the blind who come are enlightened, the bent are straightened, the mute speak quickly and clearly, the infirm pass from languor to strength, the possessed are cured, and in short whoever come held fast by sickness receive healing. But, O most venerable head, full of the grace of the Holy Spirit, dwelling-place of the Saviour and of His Father, thou who standest at the throne of the king of all, and enjoyest the light of the consubstantial Trinity [u], and with the Angels, not otherwise than the Cherubim, singest the thrice-holy hymn, relying on great and inscrutable boldness, beseech the most clement Lord of all that thy fellow-tribesmen and fellow-citizens may be saved, and the impious crushed. Help also our king [x], and subject under his feet all the enemies that oppose him, keep the faith immaculate, strengthen our cities, pacify the whole world, defend us from famine and destruction, free us from the incursion of foreigners, console the old, teach the young discipline, make the foolish wise, have mercy on widows, protect orphans, nourish infants, keep thy whole nation from every adversity, and on the day of the dreadful judgment defend us from the lot on the left, and deign by thy prayers to set us with the sheep on the right, that we may hear that blessed voice of Christ the Lord: Come, ye blessed of my father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. John Asen is meant, who ruled the Bulgarians from the year 1215 or 1216. See the Preliminary Commentary, numbers 11 and following.

q. Of this primate or patriarch see the Preliminary Commentary, num. 15.

r. After Asen and his brothers restored the Bulgarian kingdom at the end of the twelfth century, the city of Tarnovo was made the royal seat.

s. We established in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 15, that the church was of wood, or of wattles daubed with mud.

t. That this number too is erroneous has been shown in the Preliminary Commentary, numbers 11 and 12.

u. A passage worthy of note; by which indeed it is openly taught that the saints enjoy the beatific vision even before the day of the universal judgment. In the Moscow Office of St. John there are many other passages in which the same dogma is set forth; it will be pleasing to have recited a few: Venerable father John, the fame of thy disciplines has gone out into all the earth; therefore thou hast found the reward of thy labours, thou hast shattered the armies of demons, and attained to the order of the angels, whose immaculate life thou didst emulate. Relying on confidence toward Christ the Lord, beseech peace for our souls Stichirion, vol. VI,. And immediately after: Thou art illuminated with divine light and now dwellest with the angels, O father; save us Ode 1, vol. IV.. And lower down: Unending light has shone upon thee, who hast obtained everlasting gladness, and who exultest together with the angels before the king and Lord. Remember those who with faith make thy memory, most blessed father Ode 9.. Then follows: Thy holy soul, pure and undefiled, has been held worthy to become partaker of heavenly beatitude. Thus far Father John Martynov; who also adds that in the same Office allusion is often made to the deeds of St. John recorded by Euthymius; but nothing new is reported. And I myself will add that the doctrine of the Russians on the beatific vision is altogether orthodox, at least that which is set forth in the Orthodox Confession of the faith, or the Catechism of Peter Mogila, approved by several synods. But what is read in the Catechism published by order of the most holy synod of Petersburg by Philaret, metropolitan of Moscow, is indeed a little involved and not everywhere clear enough, but can nevertheless easily be reconciled with the genuine dogma [Compare the little work whose title is: Essai de conciliation sur le dogme de la vie future. Paris 1858.].

x. Hence in the Preliminary Commentary, num. 2, we gathered that these things were written before the year 1396.