Ivan of Rila withdrew from ordinary life for prayer. His Lives recount meetings and miracles, but belong to religious literature. The Testament attributed to him, a text advising monks, survives in later copies. It should not be treated as an autograph document. Lived as a hermit in the tenth century. Was commemorated in saints’ Lives and monastic memory. His relics were returned from Tarnovo to Rila in 1469. His memory connects the monastic community, the movement of relics and later buildings.
History of Bulgaria
