Zograf Monastery

The Monastery of St George Zograf is a Bulgarian Orthodox monastery in the monastic republic of Mount Athos on the Athos peninsula in Greece. It is one of the largest monasteries on Mount Athos and ranks ninth in the hierarchy of Athonite monasteries.
The monastery's history begins with its foundation in 919 by three brothers of noble birth from Ohrid: Aaron, Moses and John (Ivan) Selima. They abandoned secular life and their wealth to settle on Mount Athos. Initially they lived in separate cells, but later decided to establish a communal monastery and built a main church. At that moment a miracle occurred: an image of St George appeared on the unpainted wooden panel intended for the church's patronal icon. Because of this miracle, the monastery was named "Zograf", meaning "painter" in Greek.
During the Middle Ages, the monastery witnessed heroic events, including the burning of twenty-six Bulgarian monks and laymen by Latin knights in 1276. In the fifteenth century Zograf submitted to the Ottomans, thereby avoiding destruction during Turkish rule. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the monastery received support from the Moldavian voivode Stephen the Great and gradually became stavropegial, directly subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In 1837, following an order by Sultan Selim II, the monastery was forced to buy back its properties. In the twentieth century, during the First World War, it lost substantial financial investments in a St Petersburg bank. In 1923 the monastery lost its estates in northern Greece, which were confiscated by the Greek government. In 1926 Tsar Boris III donated properties in Sofia and Plovdiv to the monastery, establishing the Zograf Ephoria to administer these estates.
The monastery is associated with many Bulgarian saints and educators, including Theodosius of Tarnovo, Euthymius of Tarnovo, Cosmas and Pimen of Zograf. In 2009 the monastery was inhabited by 21 monks and 10 novices.