Една икона на Захари Зограф и нейната история
An Icon by Zahari Zograf and its History

Summary/Abstract: The depot of the National Archaeological Museum in Sofia has preserved an icon with the new martyrs Akakiоs of Seres, Ignatios of Stara Zagora, Onufrios of Gabrovo and Ephtimios of Pelopones, which undoubtedly is the work of Zahari Zograf. On the back of the wooden board there is a long inscription with curious and to some extent enigmatic content. As one can understand from this inscription, a group of citizens from Svishtov suddenly or unexpectedly went to pay their respects to St Mary and later continued their pilgrimage and went to the Rila Monastery, where they donated the icon for the feast day Annunciation Mary for eternal memory – of them and of other people. The inscription was made in the Rila Monastery before the icon was bestowed. But the icon was not made there because in 1848 Zahari Zograf was in the Troyan Monastery. The four saints on the icon were prepared for martyr’s heroic deeds in the scythe St John the Baptist at the Iviron Monastery in Mount Athos by the same mentors and according to the same ‘script’. Ignatios and Ephtimios perished in 1814, Akakios in 1816 and Onufrios in 1818. The cult of the four new martyrs has been supported in the scythe where they were prepared – in 1819 a chapel was built in their honor where parts of their relics are preserved. A holiday in their honor was set and joint church service. An icon with their images is also preserved there. Two of the saints depicted on the icon are Bulgarian. Ignatios of Stara Zagora as a young man stayed at the Rila Monastery with his uncle the monk Ignatios in the hermitage St Luke. Later in Mount Athos he took this name at Mount Athos. Onufrios of Gabrovo became a monk in 1808 under the name of Manasios in the scythe St Nikolaos at the Troyan Monastery. Later he travelled to Mount Athos and started to prepare for his martyrdom and takes the great schima with the name Onufrios.

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