The Orthodox Calendar: November 1 – Translation of the Relics of St. John of Rilatranslated

The 22nd Week after Pentecost.

Today, November 1, 2026, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Prophet Joel (c. 800 BC); the Martyrs Ura and with him seven other martyrs, teachers of Christians (c. 307); the Blessed Cleopas (c. 327) and his son John (c. 320); the Holy Martyrs Sadoque (Shah-Dust) and with him 128 other martyrs (342); the translation of the relics of St. John of Rila (1238); the Synod of the Saints of the Archangel Metropolis; the Holy Martyrs Alexander and Sergius, presbyters (1937).

No fast today.

On July 1, 1469, the holy relics of St. John were returned to the Rila Monastery, where they rest to this day, providing a source of divine assistance to all believers.

St. John of Rila is a great ascetic of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and Heavenly Patron of the Bulgarian people.

Born in 876 in the village of Skrino in the Sredets region (ancient Sredets, now Sofia). "From his youth," he "left the earthly world" and spent sixty years in severe ascetic practices of fasting and prayer, enduring all kinds of privations in the Rila Wilderness (near the River Rila, in the area of the city of Rasko). Later, in the Rila Wilderness, he founded an monastery, in which St. John, "having mortified the fleshly wisdom," "struggled with angelic life," "purifying himself"…