History lesson: In the late 9th century John of Rila (Ivan Rilski) took to the wilds of Bulgaria in search of solitude and enlightenment. According to the literature, John of Rila was a champion of the purity of the Christian Faith and of high moral standards. The hermit of Rila advocated equality between people, and the renunciation of wealth that has been acquired in unfair ways. His reform-minded ideas came to appeal to many and the cave in which he lived became a holy place for people from all over Bulgaria.




Shortly after his death in 946 he was canonized and because the bones of saints were important symbols that added legitimacy to the current ruler, Tsar Petar had St. John’s remains brought to Sofia. The bones were moved several times-- and the right hand took a tour of Russia to raise funds for the restoration of Bulgarian monasteries—but returned to Rila for good in 1469. The left had is on display in the current monastery church for a short period every day for “real” pilgrims. Gazing upon the hand (crossing one-self and kissing the glass) is said to bring a state of spiritual grace. [We were fortunate to be in the monastery church during the time the hand was displayed. People were clearly moved by this experience.]

A monastery was first built 4km west of St. John’s original hermitage in 1335. Several renovations have occurred as the monastery was plundered several times and experienced a fire in 1833.

As you can see from the pictures here, some bits are quite old (14-15th century) while other parts were built in the mid 20th century.




The outside walls of the monastery church are covered with the most beautiful frescos. They show the fall of Constantinople and visions of hell. The bat-winged demons that loom large in Bulgarian imagination are frequently displayed in somewhat gross detail. The pictures are displays of sin. If you can enlarge the one picture you can see some rich men eating while a poor beggar below the table has his leg being gnawed on by a dog. (I can enlarge a picture just by clicking on it.) Why the woman is being attacked by the demon is not clear.

The ceilings are also beautifully painted and include images of the “good guys.”(see two below)



There is a really nice museum connected to the monastery. No pictures were allowed. The highlight included a 14-inch high wooden cross made by the monk Rafail during the 1790s. It is composed of 140 tablets telling stories from the bible. There are more than 1500 figures carved in the tablets. It took Rafail 12 years to carve this (using a needle) and he went blind doing so.

We returned to Blagoevgrad this afternoon and after lunch in the square we walked by our local church in the "old town." It's not quite Rila, but it's pretty cool as well.


Until the next post, dovijdane! (PS: Sorry about the floating text. I have not quite figured out how to use this editor)

Hello again from Blagoevgrad. It is Sunday afternoon here and we are up at the University setting up a wireless network so we can both work at the same time. Well, Brent can check the football scores and I can post pictures on our blog.

We have been here two days. The first day was spent getting settled in our apartment and buying the necessary appliances (coffee pot and hair dryer). I've posted a couple of pictures of our apartment (Warner warning--we aren't in Kansas anymore).



Our apartment is the upper most balcony on the right. We overlook a garden and other apartment buildings from the balcony. A resident rooster wakes us up with a yell that sounds like "noc tuurrr nal" (without the consonants, of course). Our landlord says she has "such criminals" in her neighborhood as well.

The apartment has plenty of space. Kitchen, formal dining room, living room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The kitchen overlooks a busy street and the living room is connected to the balcony.





This morning (Sunday) we went for about a 2 1/2 hour hike in the hills above the old town in Blagoevgrad. Views from the top included the city to the north, and small villages to the southeast. Two views-- two different centuries. On one side there are streets filled with cars (some American and Russian, but mostly from France--Peuget, Renault, Citroen)and the other side has unpaved roads filled with goats and horse drawn carts. People are very friendly and always say some form of hello. We looked a bit silly in our shorts and hiking shoes but I guess it lets people know we are foreigners. We'll remember to bring our camera next time.

This afternoon we had lunch at a place called "Pizza Italia." I ordered a pizza with "three tipes" of cheese. It turned out to be quite good. There were two crusts. The bottom was traditional bread while the top was a kind of biscuit dough. In the middle were three cheeses--one of which was feta, the others were a bit more like mozzarella or provalone. Brent had a chicken and pickled cucumber pizza. The pickles were sweet pickles. Interesting.


We begin our orientation week tomorrow. Neither one of us has given any thought to our syllabi or lectures. But hey--what's new? Here's a picture of Brent in our office. Better get to work. Later. B