128th Anniversary from the death of Neofit Rilski

Neofit Rilski (born Nikola Poppetrov Benin) was a 19th-century Bulgarian monk, teacher and artist, and an important figure of the Bulgarian National Revival. Born in the southwestern town of Bansko of Pirin Macedonia, 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.

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. After four and a half years he returned to the Rila Monastery in 1852, where he spent the remaining part of his life, and since 1860 was the monastery's hegumen.

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 died in the Rila Monastery on 4 January 1881.