Saint Ivan of RilaIn the Holy Orthodox Church, the nineteenth of October is the feast-day of a great Bulgarian ascetic, Saint Ivan of Rila. Ivan stood in the great tradition of Byzantine desert spirituality, but aficionados of the Celtic tradition will also find in his eremitical life many of the marks of the Welsh and Irish holy fathers – in particular his close connexion to nature and to wild animals, his love of poverty and his ambivalent and at times hostile relationship with political power. Saint Ivan is one of the most renowned and most dearly beloved Bulgarian saints. He is honoured by all Bulgarians, and as well by the Russians – including a monastery dedication in Saint Petersburg, and one church on Livingston Island off of Antarctica: the southernmost Orthodox chapel in the world.
Saint Ivan [Bg. and Rus. Иван] was born in 876 in the village of Skrino in Western Bulgaria, very shortly after the initial conversion of the South Slavs to Christianity by the Seven Saints. His parents were pious but poor villagers, and Ivan was one of two children. Both children were Christians, but it was Ivan who distinguished himself in observance: he was a filial, obedient and meek child; he loved the Church; listened attentively to the Liturgy; fasted and prayed on his own; and generally lived in the righteous fear of God. Though his brother stayed in the world, Ivan left the world. He took his part of his father’s inheritance, sold it, divided the proceeds among the poor, and entered a nearby monastery in Ruen, dedicated to Saint Dēmētrios of Thessalonikē. From there, with the abbot’s permission, he went, like unto another David going to war against Goliath, into a desert place to live alone and to struggle against the passions.
The Devil whispered in the ear of his brother, however, and his brother led the villagers to the field at Murdišta, where they found Ivan alone under an ancient oak tree. At the Evil One’s instigation, Ivan’s brother and the villagers tried to press him to leave the hermit’s path and return to the village. Instead, Ivan lifted his eyes to heaven and prayed to God for his brother, who conceded to Ivan to let him stay. Ivan had brought with him only an ox from his parents’ house for sustenance – this he returned to his brother, asking only to keep the bell around the ox’s neck, which his brother let him have. Saint Ivan took this bell and tied it around the branch of the old oak tree at Murdišta. For a long time afterward, the impression of the rope remained around the branch, signifying the world-denying faith of holy father Ivan.
Coming out from Murdišta, Saint Ivan set out for the mountainous massif of Rila. God guided him to the foot of the mountain, where he built a little hut out of twigs and dwelt therein, wearing nothing but a rag of leather, eating only wild beans and grass and drinking only from the mountain spring. He stayed here for seven months. But again he saw his brother coming from afar off, who missed him and sought his company. Ivan felt the pangs of sympathy for his brother, and he let up a heartfelt prayer to God for protection from the passions and from temptation. And God answered him: ‘Rejoice, O denizen of the desert, who are an angel in the flesh! Stand up, take your stick, and go into the place that has been prepared for you, in the cave under the mountain.’
Holy Father Ivan went into the cave, which was called Vartopen. It was dark and obscure, without sunshine. Even the wind did not touch it. Saint Ivan did not leave the cave even to gather food; instead, an angel entered the cave and brought him manna from heaven. Ivan redoubled his prayers and his vigils, wept tears of compunction which flowed without cease, and day by day increased his perfections in virtue, like a bee gathering honey.
The Devil saw Ivan strengthening himself and shining in virtue, and became bitterly jealous and angry. He tried every sort of trick to get him to leave the cave, including taking the guise of various dangerous wild animals – but nothing could shake Ivan from his firm conviction. His nephew, his brother’s son Luka, left his father’s house to seek out Ivan in the cave. Seeing him from afar off Ivan thought his appearance to be another trick of the Devil; it was only when Luka prostrated himself and asked for his uncle’s blessing in the name of Christ that Ivan was convinced he was real and allowed him to stay. But, seeing the opportunity, the Devil once again approached Ivan’s brother.
The Devil told Ivan’s brother that the holy father had taken his son into his wild dwelling-place, where there was no sun or wind, and where wild beasts attacked incessantly. He told Ivan’s brother that his son would surely perish, and would soon be eaten by them, if he had not been already. In a rage, Ivan’s brother again came to Rila, and hurled threats and reproaches against his brother, and took up a heavy stick and threatened to kill him if he did not release Luka. Again Ivan prayed to God – the God who did not forsake Daniel in the den of lions, or Saint Thekla in the fire, or the Three Holy Youths in the furnace. He begged God’s protection from the Devil and from his brother’s anger – and no sooner had his prayer ended but the Evil One was put to flight. Ivan’s brother was left, and his heart was touched. He set down his heavy stick and fell weeping at his brother’s feet, asking him to return Luka to him. Reluctantly, Saint Ivan agreed.
But Ivan prayed as they left, that Luka would not perish among the sinners, but that he would remain holy. And as father and son left down the mountain, a serpent bit Luka on the heel, and the boy died instantly. Grief-stricken, Ivan’s brother took the body of his child and went back to the saint, who asked God to accept the soul of the child and grant him æternal rest with the righteous. He then told his brother to bury Luka at Osenovo, and his tomb was thereafter turned into a shrine by Ivan. The holy father struck the serpent that had killed Luka, and turned it into a stone; this stone was supposed to have healing properties by mediæval Bulgarians.
Saint Ivan lived in the cave for another three and a half years, all the while enduring the passions of despondency and sloth and various fears which the Evil One sent to tempt him. Then he went out and found a great solitary rock shaped like a great shield, and climbed on top of it, and remained there for seven years and four months – all the while exposed to the harsh elements, wind and sun and snow; and all the while standing in vigils and prayer with tears. Again God, seeing the patience and long-suffering of His servant, sent an angel to Ivan to provide for his bodily needs.
Then the Devil began whispering into the ears of a band of brigands, a rough multitude of men in arms and armour. They came to Saint Ivan’s rock, intending to scare him off – but they could not faze him with their words. And so they climbed the rock, dragged him down from it, and beat him mercilessly, leaving him for dead. Saint Ivan did not raise his hand against his attackers, nor did he raise his roust in anger, but he endured all with joy. The folk hagiography of Holy Father Ivan tells us that his footprints and his blood can still be seen on that rock. In his weakness he prayed to God, asking forgiveness for his sins. And God sent an angel down to him with words of comfort, and he was visited by Saint John the Forerunner and by Saint John the Evangelist, who told him to return to the monastery of Saint Dēmētrios in Ruen, and to leave his walking-stick there as a ‘sign to the world’ according to God’s plan.
Saint Ivan began wandering from place to place, between wooded places and mountains in the wild parts of southwestern Bulgaria – Struma River, Vitosha Mountain – until an angel led him by the hand again to Rila. Saint Ivan had attained to such holiness at this time that even wild beasts – bears, boar, deer and birds – would approach him without fear and even eat from his hand. Farmers, shepherds and neatherds from afar off would bring their sick animals to him, and he would heal them. By this time, his name and reputation for holiness had spread far and wide, and even reached the ears of the Tsar. Tsar Petăr, who was then living in Sofia [then called ‘Sredets’], sent nine skilled hunters to scout out where Saint Ivan made his abode, so that he might pay him homage. The nine went forth, but were not able to find the saint. They were stricken with sorrow and dread, knowing that they were sworn not to return to the Tsar empty-handed. They prayed to God and cried aloud into the open air for Saint Ivan to take pity on them that they not perish on the Tsar’s account. Saint Ivan caused a small path to open up for them, which they followed until they found him.
Running out to them, Ivan asked if they truly had not eaten anything. Then an angel appeared bearing a branch with rosehips on it for food (central Bulgaria is famed for its wild roses), and these were transformed into the Holy Gifts at God’s command. Though there was one doubter among the hunters that they could be satisfied with this, the nine burly men all ate their fill and still the chalice remained half-full!
Having found the saint, the nine hunters returned to the Tsar, and told him of everything they had seen. Tsar Petăr praised God, and went himself with a great host of soldiers to see the hermit. However, the terrain was impassable to the Tsar’s hosts, and so he sent two of his young retainers out and bade them announce him to the saint. Saint Ivan told the two heralds to instruct Tsar Petăr to pitch his tent on a nearby mountain peak, and watch his rock for a plume of smoke he would send up. In this way they would be able to see each other. Indeed, that night, as Tsar Petăr looked out from his tent, he saw the smoke rising up like a great pillar into the sky – like the cloud that guided the Hebrews in the desert. In this way Petăr was able to see Saint Ivan. Petăr took a cup and filled it with gold dust, and sent it by his two retainers to Ivan. Ivan kept the cup, but poured out the gold and returned it to the Tsar, telling him that a holy man has no need of such things. He then instructed the Tsar to leave Rila on account of the treacherous terrain, and he did.
Shortly after this, Saint Ivan of Rila beheld a vision of Saint John the Evangelist, who told him to rejoice for his labours on earth were ending. Shortly after that time, on the eighteenth of August of the year 946, Saint Ivan reposed peacefully in the Lord. He had attained to the age of seventy years. Again the Tsar sent hunters into that desert place, and they were able to find no people living there, only wild beasts. But they were able to find the body of the saint on account of the stories of the prodigious healings that took place in that area. They found the saint’s incorrupt relics and reported back to the Tsar, who rejoiced that he was found. An angel visited the Tsar and instructed him to bring the relics back to Sofia, to be coffined and honoured in the Church dedicated to Saint Luke. When the Tsar’s entourage came to the place, the body of the saint arose as if of its own accord, and went effortlessly whichever way the throng turned. Once they reached Sofia, they built a reliquary and a beautiful chapel for Saint Ivan as the angel had instructed the Tsar to do, and he was given great reverence there. His relics worked wonders for people, banishing from the poor who came to visit him all manner of sickness and infirmity.
In the year 1183, King Béla II of Hungary led a campaign against Greece that invaded Bulgaria, sacked Sofia and carried off the relics of Saint Ivan. Béla had them installed in the basilica in the city of Esztergom. The relics of the saint did not cease to perform wondrous healings for the poor who believed in him. However, when the Bishop of Esztergom heard of Saint Ivan of Rila and the wonders which he was working for the Hungarian people, he scoffed and proclaimed that he had never heard of such a saint being mentioned in the ancient texts. For his unbelief, the bishop was at once stricken dumb, losing the use of his tongue as had once happened to Zechariah. Knowing the cause, the bishop fell upon his knees before the casket of Saint Ivan, kissed it, and silently begged his forgiveness. At once the bishop’s power of speech was restored to him. When Béla heard of this wonder, his heart was filled with holy dread, and at once he ordered that the casket of the saint be adorned with gold and silver, and sent back at once with honours to Sofia.
God saw fit to restore the Bulgarian Tsardom under the power of Tsar Asen I, who in Christian baptism was named ‘Ivan’. When Asen’s victorious armies entered Sofia, he beheld the casket of the blessed Saint Ivan and, having heard of his exploits and wonders, bowed down before the reliquary and kissed it. He then instructed the Patriarch of Bulgaria, Vasilii, to take the relics of Saint Ivan and translate them with honour into the capital city of Tărnovo, accompanied by a force of three hundred soldiers. More wondrous healings occurred all along the way between Sofia and Tărnovo. At the fastness of Trapezitsa, the Tsar ordered that a new church be built to house the saint. And when the procession bearing the saint reached the village of Okop outside the city, Tsar Asen himself went out to meet Patriarch Vasilii and the saint’s relics. They stayed there for seven days while the new church was completed, and then they bore Saint Ivan inside and laid him with great honour beneath the altar. This happened in the year 1195.
In the year 1469, when Tărnovo was conquered by the Ottomans, the relics of Saint Ivan were translated yet again to their next and final resting-place, which is the monastery at Rila. Even today they still work many wonders for the poor, for the sick, for those who believe: the blind again see; the lame again walk; the mute are given voice; those who suffer from handicaps and mental afflictions are made whole; and those possessed by dæmons are freed from their tormentors. It is with gratitude today that we say: Holy hermit and ascetic Ivan, who overflows with the indwelling grace of the Holy Spirit, pray unto Christ our God the Tsar of Tsars that he may have mercy upon our souls!
Apolytikion for Saint Ivan of Rila, Tone 1:
Your life was a foundation of repentance
And a model of compunction,
An image of consolation and spiritual perfection,
Equal to the angels, O venerable one.
You persevered in prayer, fasting and tears, O Father Ivan;
Intercede with Christ God for our souls.
Rila Monastery, Bulgaria
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