The focus of the study are two texts from the hagiographic cycle for Saint John of Rila. The first one is Vladislav Gramatik’s Rila Story, which represents the act of return of the saint’s relics to the Rila Monastery in 1469 as the first attempt for Balkan Orthodox consolidation after the Ottoman conquest. The second text is The Life with a Short Encomium by Demetrius Cantacuzenus where the historical exposition examines the reasons for the destruction of the Balkan Orthodox civilization.