The Hermit Life

Monasteries are meant to be a place of solitude, to give you peace and/or enlightenment in your life. However, between the times of 06:00 and 21:00, Rila Monastery is meant to be a place for pilgrims and tourists to snap photos and fill their empty plastic bottles with fresh mountain water – us included.

Using an app on Matt's iPhone

We were first struck by the pure beauty of this place, but didn’t really grasp the true meaning behind building a “village” in a river valley, surrounded by a perimeter of nothing but mountain ridges covered in evergreens. It wasn’t until the last remaining stragglers left and the sound of the nearby river emerged, amidst flocks of birds dancing in the evening sunlight, that it hit us. The sole purpose is in fact isolation – somewhere you can collect your thoughts or just let them go.

We were able to sleep here at the monastery, and although a bit on the pricey side (30 LEV / person), it was worth every penny. We hadn’t slept that great in weeks and, for the first time in awhile, Matt opted to write postcards and I attempted to capture the intricate Church of the Nativity in ink, in lieu of surfing the web.

However, we do feel bad for the monks here, having to deal with the hordes of tourists (like us) that come through and disturb their home, since the monastery is still very much active. It’s a bit ironic, in a way, that this particular monastery is the most widely visited in Bulgaria, while the founding father, Ivan Rilski, taught his disciples the path of spiritual perfection through life as a hermit, a.k.a. Bulgarian Monasticism. 

We are thankful that they opened their doors to us and were able to experience even a milligram of what life might be like as a hermit, deep within the Rila Mountains.  

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