Neofit Rilski or Neophyte of Rila

Rila

Rila is a mountain range in southwestern Bulgaria and the highest mountain range of Bulgaria and the Balkans, with its highest peak being Musala at 2,925 m...

(Bansko

Bansko

Bansko is a town and a popular ski resort in southwestern Bulgaria, located at the foot of the Pirin Mountains at an elevation of 925 m above sea level....

, 1793 - January 4, 1881), born Nikola Poppetrov Benin was a 19th-century Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n monk, teacher and artist, and an important figure of the Bulgarian National Revival

Bulgarian National Revival

The Bulgarian National Revival , sometimes called the Bulgarian Renaissance, was a period of socio-economic development and national integration among Bulgarian people under Ottoman rule...

.

Born in the southwestern town of Bansko

Bansko

Bansko is a town and a popular ski resort in southwestern Bulgaria, located at the foot of the Pirin Mountains at an elevation of 925 m above sea level....

 (or possibly in the village of Guliyna Banya

Banya, Blagoevgrad Province

Banya, Blagoevgrad Province is a village in the municipality of Razlog, in Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria....

) of Pirin Macedonia, Benin was educated to become a teacher, initially by his father Petar, and later at the Rila Monastery

Rila Monastery

The Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila, better known as the Rila Monastery is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situated in the southwestern Rila Mountains, south of the capital Sofia in the deep valley of the Rilska River at an elevation of above sea level...

, where he studied iconography and had access to Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 and Church Slavonic books. He went to Melnik

Melnik, Bulgaria

Melnik is a town in Blagoevgrad Province, southwestern Bulgaria, in the southwestern Pirin Mountains, about 440 m above sea level. The town is an architectural reserve and 96 of its buildings are cultural monuments...

 in 1822, where he spent four years as a student of the noted teacher Adam, and perfected his Greek and Greek literature

Greek literature

Greek literature refers to writings composed in areas of Greek influence, typically though not necessarily in one of the Greek dialects, throughout the whole period in which the Greek-speaking people have existed.-Ancient Greek literature :...

 knowledge.

Initially working as a teacher in the Rila Monastery, he also spent time working in Samokov

Samokov

Samokov is a town in Sofia Province in the southwest of Bulgaria. It is situated in a kettle between the mountains Rila and Vitosha, 55 kilometres from the capital Sofia...

 (1827–1831), then back in the monastery, then went to Gabrovo

Gabrovo

Gabrovo is a city in central northern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Gabrovo Province. It is situated at the foot of the central Balkan Mountains, in the valley of the Yantra River, and is known as an international capital of humour and satire , as well as noted for its Bulgarian National...

 and Koprivshtitsa

Koprivshtitsa

Koprivshtitsa is a historic town in Sofia Province, central Bulgaria, lying on the Topolnitsa River among the Sredna Gora mountains. It was one of the centres of the April Uprising in 1876 and is known for its authentic Bulgarian architecture and for its folk music festivals, making it a very...

 (1835–1839) and returned to the monastery as a teacher to join the theological school

Halki seminary

The Halki seminary, formally the Theological School of Halki , was founded on 1 October 1844 on the island of Halki , the second-largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara. It was the main school of theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church's Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople until...

 on the island of Halki, where he spent four and a half years only to return to the Rila Monastery in 1852. He spent the remaining part of his life in Rila, and since 1860 was the monastery's hegumen

Hegumen

Hegumen, hegumenos, igumen, or ihumen is the title for the head of a monastery of the Eastern Orthodox Church or Eastern Catholic Churches, similar to the one of abbot. The head of a convent of nuns is called hegumenia or ihumenia . The term means "the one who is in charge", "the leader" in...

. 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 the modern Bulgarian language. His other books include Tablitsi vzaimouchitelni, and the 1852 Greek-Slavic dictionary Slovar greko-slavyanskiy.

Neofit Rilski made the first popular translation of the Bible entirely in the modern Bulgarian language

Bible translations into Bulgarian

Bible translations into modern Bulgarian date from the 1820s and were largely organised by Protestant missionaries. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church initially prefering the continued use of Old Church Slavonic....

 (not a mixture between Church Slavonic and vernacular elements), commissioned, edited and distributed by the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 missionary Elias Riggs

Elias Riggs

Elias Riggs was an American Presbyterian missionary and linguist born in New Providence, New Jersey. During his missionary activities in the Ottoman Empire he contributed greatly to the Bulgarian National Revival, and organized the first translation , and worked on editing, printing and...

.

Rilski considered Old Church Slavonic

Old Church Slavonic

Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...

 as synonymous with Old Bulgarian and he tried to unify West and Eastern Bulgarian dialects.

Neofit Rilski died in the Rila Monastery on 4 January 1881.

Honour

Neofit Peak

Neofit Peak

Neofit Peak is an ice-covered peak rising to 1750 m in Imeon Range on Smith Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Situated 1.12 km south-southwest of Slaveykov Peak, 3.1 km southwest of the summit Mount Foster, 2.38 km northeast of Riggs Peak and 10.98 km northeast...

 on Smith Island

Smith Island (South Shetland Islands)

Smith Island is long and wide, lying west of Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands of the British Antarctic Territory. Surface area ....

, South Shetland Islands

South Shetland Islands

The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...

is named after Neofit Rilski.