In the 17th century

In 1651, the Moldavian Voivode Vasile Lupu delivered the Dobrova? Monastery into possession of Zograf as metochion (dependent monastery), and his successor Antioch Cantemir donated to the Monastery the Cyprian Monastery in Bessarabia (1698), which remained metochion of Zograf until 1916.

In the 17th century, a remarkable man of letters and icon-painter, Venerable Pimen of Zograf, renovator and painter of many churches and monasteries in the Bulgarian lands, lived and worked in the Monastery of Zograf. The literary links with some of the most significant educational and enlightening centres in Bulgaria at that time - the Rila Monastery, the Monastery of Etropole, Karlovo, Dryanovo, etc. - were also restored.
The monastery also received support from the Russian rulers. The surviving charters and documents of Tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible), as well as of some of the first Romanovs - Mikhail Fyodorovich, Aleksey Mikhailovich and Fyodor Alekseyevich, reveal the activities of these great sponsors towards the brotherhood of the Zograf Monastery. In 1696, by a special charter, the Russian Emperor Peter I confirmed the right of the Zograf monks to visit Moscow every five years to collect donations for the monastery.

Compiled by: Georgi Mitov