Historical figure Pimen of Zograf

St Pimen of Zograf was a Bulgarian icon painter, church builder and writer, counted among Sofia's nine saints. Born in Sofia around 1540 as Pavel, he was educated in writing, icon painting, church singing and Scripture by the Zograf hieromonk Toma. After his parents died, he went to the Bulgarian monastery on Mount Athos, took the monastic name Pimen and refined his craft.

According to legend, St George appeared to him when he was fifty-five and instructed him to return to his people as a spiritual guide. Pimen travelled through Bulgarian lands preaching, building and restoring churches and monasteries and decorating them with murals. He restored Cherepish Monastery and made it a spiritual and literary centre. He also worked elsewhere, including Kurilo's Monastery of St John of Rila.

His name appears in a donor inscription at Suhodol Monastery in the western Balkan Mountains. He is also thought to have painted murals at the Monastery of St Nicholas at Planinitsa in the Western Outlands.

Pimen died at Cherepish Monastery in 1620. As brigand attacks and deterioration later affected the monastery, his relics were transferred to Suhodol Monastery.

The Orthodox Church recognised him as a saint. His feast day, 3 November, became Bulgarian Artists' Day, making him a symbol of Bulgarian Christian artistic tradition.