site.btaUPDATED Patriarch Daniil Leads His First Liturgy at Rila Monastery, 1,078 Years Since Dormition of Saint John of Rila Marked

The 1,078th anniversary of the dormition of Saint John of Rila was marked Sunday at the monastery founded by him. The Holy Liturgy was led by Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil, his first at the Rila Monastery as Patriarch.

"Today, we celebrate the memory of Saint John the Miracle Worker of Rila, his succession and his passing from this temporary world into his birth for the kingdom of heaven. In the history of every nation there are individuals who have contributed especially to the existence and development for the future of that nation. We can definitely say that for us, the Orthodox Bulgarian people, such individuals are perhaps first and foremost the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, their disciples, who gave our people the opportunity to know God in an understandable language, to pray and to manifest in deed the love of God and neighbour, as well as Saint Tsar Boris I, who contributed immensely to the preservation and creation of conditions to develop their work," the Bulgarian Patriarch said.

"If a nation does not know God and does not have unity among itself, sooner or later that nation will disperse or fall away because it will not be able to fulfill its purpose. We have had this great blessing since the dawn of our path of faith in God - to have such a patron whose work has endured to this day and has made an outstanding contribution to achieving, maintaining, and making a reality this unity of the people in faith and on the path to the Kingdom of God," the Bulgarian Patriarch also said.

"We cannot name another person who, since the 10th century, in 946, when Saint John of Rila presented himself before God, we cannot single out another individual whose work throughout all this time has endured and gathered our ancestors of all generations to this day," Patriarch Daniil noted.

He pointed out that today the Church celebrates the birth of St John of Rila for the Kingdom of God. "A few years before that moment came, anticipating it, he left a testament to his children gathered here. Fathers leave their children something as an inheritance to sustain them. So he left all of us this spiritual counsel - that which brought him here, which enabled him to acquire the Kingdom of God in his heart and to share this thing as the greatest good," the Bulgarian Patriarch said.

He called on those in attendance to preserve the Holy Orthodox Faith as our holy fathers have handed it down to us, as Saint John of God said in his testament. 

"If we don't have such an example nowadays, and if we carry in our hearts fear, insecurities, distrust of one another, and trust in material things instead of trust in God, we need to realize why we are failing, why there is this division in our nation, and why we are not seeking the Kingdom of God. It is because we are not trusting in God. And if we really want the peace of Christ in our hearts first, we must be firm in our faith, then the grace of God will begin to establish the Kingdom of God in us. Until we deny ourselves, our selfishness and our addiction to the material, we cannot follow God," Patriarch Daniil said.

He pointed out that there is no other from the 10th century to the present day, through all the vicissitudes, whogathers people from all over the country to the Rila Monastery.

Patriarch Daniil thanked the Abbot of the Rila Monastery, Bishop Evlogy of Adrianople, and the brothers of the monastery for the hospitality and fraternity. The Patriarch noted that it is their role and great work to preserve and transmit to all the great spiritual heritage left by St. John of Rila.

"Welcome to your first official visit to this spiritual nest of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Bulgarian people," Bishop Evlogy said. He also thanked all the laity who arrived on Saturday and Sunday at the Rila Monastery to receive the blessing of their heavenly patron saint. "St. John of Rila is our support, our hope, that the faith will not become ossified, that it will survive us in a spiritual, and perhaps also in a material sense, if we truly are first and foremost spiritual persons and children," the Abbot of the Rila Monastery said.

"St. John teaches us not to abandon or neglect the holy canons and what the holy fathers have bequeathed to us. They are the guarantee of a true spiritual life, spiritual excellence, perfection and drawing closer to God. Therefore, our hopes are extremely high and we pray that you will have spiritual and bodily health to lead us along the path that St. John has indicated to us. Long may he guide our holy Church for the joy of us all, Bishop Evlogy told the Bulgarian Patriarch.