John of Rila

An orphaned shepherd according to the later Lives, John withdrew into the Rila mountains and lived there for decades in a cave and then in the hollow of a tree. His reputation reached the court: Tsar Peter I climbed the mountain to see him and obtained only a conversation at a distance, the hermit refusing to accept gifts. The Testament attributed to him, dated 941, shows a community already under rule and names a successor for him, five years before his death. Under Ottoman rule the monastery of Rila was one of the few places where the Bulgarian language and letters were handed on — which made John, far more than an ascetic, the national saint of Bulgaria. The East keeps his feast on 18 August, the day of his death, and on 19 October for the translation of his relics.