The Great Rila Monastery, Nov. 2

On our last Sunday, we attended church -- but not our own. It was the magnificent Rila Monastery, about 100 miles southwest of Sofia. Driving with Jivko thru the Rila Mountains was reason enough to go, as we passed gorgeous peaks, valleys and forests. Suddenly we saw the tall grey, austere exterior monastery walls thrusting up from the valley. Once inside, we discovered a world of enchantment. Directly ahead of the grand courtyard entry was the imposing Church of the Nativity, complete with domes, chapels, frescoes, murals and classic icon paintings, kitchens, storage and work areas. Overhead towered a stone fortress and belfry, first built in 1335. Circumscribing it all was a massive, 4-story residential complex containing some 300 monastic cells, chapels, libraries and guest rooms, within its irregular quadrangle. These photos below are a few of our many shots at this amazing site.

        

 

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First founded by St. John of Rila in 927 during the 1st Bulgarian Empire, as a nearby refuge of Christian peace and solitude, the monastery was moved to its present site in 1335. Then during the Islamic Ottoman Empire (1400-1878), many Churches were destroyed or turned into mosques, , and a high percentage of the Christians were forced to convert to Islam under pain of death.  The Christian identity was only preserved in monestaries like this one.   It was alternately plundered and restored several times -- most notably after a devastating fire in 1833. It has become the center of Bulgaria's proud heritage and is one of nine Bulgarian sites on the UNESCO world cultural list.

 

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church still has about 7 million members in Bulgaria, and over two million around the rest of the world, including about 20 parishes (local congregations) in the US and Canada.