KiÄevo Monastery
The Kičevo Monastery (Cyrillic Кичевски манастир ) is the " Holy Virgin Mother of God ", the Holy Virgin Mary ( bulg / mak: Света Богородица Пречиста / Sweta Bogorodiza ) consecrated. It is one of the most important monasteries on the territory of today's Republic of Macedonia. It is located on the mountain Tzotzan (920 m above the water level ) in ten kilometers from the city Kičevo.
History
The monastery was built before the mid-16th century. In the 70 years of the 16th century a stone church was built on the site of the present church. In 1843 the monastery of Albanians from Debar was set on fire, the church remained standing. The church was demolished at the behest of Hegumen Hajji Theodosius to build a new church and other monasteries. According to him, many of the Old Bulgarian books that were in the monastery were burned by order of the Metropolitan Meletij of Debar 1848. The icons in the church today were painted in the period 1880 to 1848, with a large proportion of them the famous Ikongraphen Ditscho Zograph comes.
In 1873 was " Kozma of Debar ", a nephew of the previous Hegumen Hadji Theodosius and future Metropolitan of Debar, elected new Hegumen of the monastery. The following year, however, he was appointed to the Athos and Metropolitan Antim of Debar plundered the monastery and destroyed while its archive. Only in 1881 the monastery was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Exarchate. In the 19th century, the monastery ran a functioning convent school for the training of priests. One of the students was the reconnaissance and writers of the Bulgarian Revival, Kiril Pejtschinowitsch. In the period 1884-1911 was Sofronii of Pretschista Hegumen of the monastery. In 1888 a new modern school in the monastery was built, which was funded by the Bulgarian Exarchate. In this way the Bulgarian schools were well maintained in Kičevo.