Neofit Rilski
Neofit Rilski (Bulgarian: Неофит Рилски) or Neophyte of Rila (Bansko, 1793 – January 4, 1881), born Nikola Poppetrov Benin (Bulgarian: Никола Поппетров Бенин) was a 19th-century Bulgarian monk, teacher and artist, and an important figure of the Bulgarian National Revival.[1]
He was born in the southwestern town of Bansko (or possibly in the village of Guliyna Banya) of Pirin Macedonia.[2] Benin was educated to become a teacher, initially by his father Petar, and later at the Rila Monastery, where he studied iconography and had access to Greek and Church Slavonic books. He went to Melnik in 1822, where he spent four years as a student of the noted teacher Adam and perfected his Greek and Greek literature knowledge.
Initially working as a teacher in the Rila Monastery, he also spent time working in Samokov (1827–1831), then back in the monastery, then went to Gabrovo and Koprivshtitsa (1835–1839) and returned to the monastery as a teacher to join the theological school on the island of Halki, where he spent four and a half years. He returned to the Rila Monastery in 1852.
He spent the remaining part of his life in Rila, and since 1860 was the monastery's hegumen. He stayed in the monastery despite being offered higher positions in the Orthodox hierarchy, such as becoming a bishop or the rector of the projected Tarnovo seminary.
In 1835, Rilski issued his Bolgarska gramatika, the first grammar book of modern Bulgarian language.[3] His other books include Tablitsi vzaimouchitelni and the 1852 Greek-Slavic dictionary Slovar greko-slavyanskiy.
Neofit Rilski made the first popular translation of the New Testament in modern Bulgarian language (not a mixture between Church Slavonic and vernacular elements), commissioned, edited and distributed by the American missionary Elias Riggs.[3][4][5]
Rilski considered Old Church Slavonic as synonymous with Old Bulgarian and he tried to unify Western and Eastern Bulgarian dialects.[6]
Neofit Rilski died in the Rila Monastery on 4 January 1881.
Honour
Neofit Peak on Smith Island,[7] South Shetland Islands and South-West University "Neofit Rilski" in Blagoevgrad are named after Neofit Rilski.
References
- Buchan, John, ed. (1924). "Bulgaria". Bulgaria and Romania: The Nations of Today; A New History of the World. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 30. Retrieved 21 June 2021 – via Internet Archive.
- MacDermott, Mercia (1962). A History of Bulgaria 1395–1885. New York: Frederick A. Praeger. p. 130. Retrieved 18 June 2021 – via Internet Archive.
- Bourchier, James David (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 04 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 784–786, see page 786.
With the multiplication of books came the movement for establishing Bulgarian schools, in which the monk Neophyt Rilski (1793–1881) played a leading part. He was the author of the first Bulgarian grammar (1835) and other educational works, and translated the New Testament into the modern language
- Wiener, Leo (February 1898). "America's Share in the Regeneration of Bulgaria (1840-1859)". Modern Language Notes. 13 (2): 36–37. doi:10.2307/2918140. JSTOR 2918140.
- Georgi Genov. American Elias Riggs and his contribution to the Bulgarian National Revival Archived 2008-05-03 at the Wayback Machine. Historical Archives. Sofia, Issue 9-10, November 2000 - May 2001 (in Bulgarian).
- Discourses of collective identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945) Page 248 by Balazs Trencsenyi, Michal Kopecek ISBN 963-7326-52-9
- "Neofit Peak", SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica, retrieved 1 September 2018
- Books
- Olesch, R. (ed.): Neofit Rilski, Bolgarska grammatika. Kragujevac 1835. Tablici Bukarest 1848. Unveränderter Nachdruck mit einer Einleitung herausgegeben von Reinhold Olesch (Slavistische Forschungen, Bd. 41). Köln-Wien: Böhlau 1989. (sample pages)