[5] Today it is in North Macedonia, but at that time the area was part of the Byzantine Empire, included in a province named Bulgaria.

[7] His decision to leave the world and remain pure squares well with the great religious awakening that was reverberating throughout Christian Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

[9][10] During the reign of Emperor Ivan Asen II (r. 1218–1241) the relics of the saint were transferred from the monastery to the then capital of Bulgaria — Tarnovo, and placed at the Church of St.

After the Ottoman invasion of Bulgaria at the end of the 14th century, the traces of the holy relics of Saint Gabriel were lost.

[11] The church located at the present-day monastery was built by Despot Jovan Oliver, a nobleman under the Emperor Stefan Dušan (r. 1331–1355).