site.btaProf. Ivan Zhelev: Memory of St, John of Rila Will Endure As People Need Examples
"The memory of St. John of Rila will remain among our people, it will always endure. The memory of St. John of Rila remains and will continue to live on among the Bulgarian people because we need examples to follow. We are given various examples, but the example of St. John of Rila is unique, and preserving his legacy is also a guarantee of preserving our Bulgarian national identity," theologian Prof. Dr. Ivan Zhelev said during the presentation of the August issue of LIK magazine, dedicated to St. John of Rila and the Rila Monastery he founded.
This year marks the 1,080th anniversary of the saint's Dormition. It also marks 1,150 years since 876, the year in which he is believed to have been born.
The launch of the BTA magazine on literature, art, and culture takes place on the Feast of the Dormition of St. John of Rila. The event is held in the library of the Rila Monastery and is organized jointly via video conference with BTA's national press clubs in Bulgaria and abroad.
"I would like to express my gratitude to BTA Director General Kiril Valchev. It is a sincere feeling of appreciation for him and for the entire team that takes on these subjects. I am referring not only to this issue of LIK magazine, which is certainly unique in terms of its subject matter, but also to another tradition that has already become established in BTA's publications: the Orthodox Calendar section. This, too, is a sign of this memory, the memory of the saints in the Church, the memory of the feasts of Orthodox Christianity and of Christianity in general," said the theologian, who is the author of BTA's Orthodox Calendar column.
Prof. Ivan Zhelev also spoke about the years when the Rila Monastery was a national museum, from 1961 to 1968.
"In 1968, when the monastery was returned [to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church], I was a student at the beginning of my third year at the Academy of Theology. A group of students, including Simeon Nikolov, who later became Bulgarian Patriarch Neofit, organized ourselves. Since transportation and travel were not as easy then as they are today, we traveled by bus to Samokov, and from there took another bus to Govedartsi. Finally, we set off from Govedartsi, spent one night in the mountains, and crossed the entire Rila mountain range to arrive on the day the Rila Monastery was returned.
"It was a great celebration; there were many people, and the memory had not been trampled on or destroyed during those seven years. Our group of seven or eight students had each brought a small paper icon of St. John of Rila, framed, and we had hung it around our necks on a chain. We entered the monastery like that, but the police stopped us and told us that we could not do that, that icons could not be carried inside the monastery.
"But the memory among the people has remained alive, as was underscored today by Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil and by the bishops," Prof. Ivan Zhelev said.
/KT/
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