Dormition of St John of Rila

This small panel shows the death of John of Rila, the hermit who became the patron saint of Bulgaria. Icons of a saint's death, called a Dormition or 'falling asleep', show him laid out on his bed while his monks gather to mourn. John lived in the tenth century and spent years alone in a cave in the Rila mountains, so troubled by the crowds who came seeking him out that he kept trying to withdraw further into the wilderness. The monastery that grew up around him became the spiritual heart of the country, and his remains had a long journey, taken to the old capital at Tarnovo and only returned to Rila in 1469. This icon was painted in 1775, when that same monastery was one of the few places keeping Bulgarian learning and memory alive under Ottoman rule.