It was founded by the brothers Moses, Aaron and John, who came from Ahrida, in the 9th century, on Leon Sofos. A vivid tradition explains the name of the monastery: for its founders disagreed with the dedication of the monastery, they left a plaque in the catholic and prayed for the miracle.
The plaque was found painted with Saint George "by the hand of unknown artist".
Strongly defending orthodoxy, its monks surrendered to the fire because they wanted the union of the churches on Michael the Paleologist (1276). After the fall of the Constantinople, the monastery ended up almost completely deserted. At the beginning of the 18th century, after sponsorships of Moldovans, several Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian monks found themselves in it, but since 1845 the Bulgarian element has prevailed. These monks did not take part in the schism at the end of the 19th century and were called "Bulgarian-Orthodox".
Later, the monastery became part of the Pn-Slavism movement when the Bulgarian monk Paisios, who wrote the history of the Bulgarian nation, settled in its cells. This manuscript is kept in the monastery's library, perhaps the most famous scriptural relic of the history of the Bulgarian nation.
The non handcrafted icon of Saint George is kept on the right pilmigrage-place of the monastery's catholic. It is even said that a faithless bishop put his finger on the icon and it was cut off, which seems to be stuck in the picture. In addition, for the icon of Panagia Akathistos it is said that when pirates were about to attack, one of the monks kept reading the Akathist Hymn before the Virgin Mary, she informed them and thus were saved.
