The monastery was then ravaged by the Ottomans in 1799, however the monks had already retrieved the valuables and abandoned it. S. Kosanović (Serbian Learned Society, 1871) wrote that "... 58 years ago [ca. 1813] the church was destroyed when Omer Akn, an evildoer, came with two others and terrorized and extorted the hegumen." The monastery was then restored by hieromonk Makarije of Vraćevšnica, with the help of Jovan Savić and priest Vid, in 1833. However, the same year, "Turks" from Kolašin attacked the monastery and "dispersed the [monastic] brotherhood", and the church was renovated only in 1866, when "archimandrite" Mihailo Dožić-Medenica (1848-1914) was sent as an administrator. It became the "centre of the spiritual and political life and aspirations for freedom in the wide area of Potarje", Dožić also established a school that was operated secretly in the monastery, the first school in the valley of Tara — this was a very significant step towards national awakening here and in surrounding regions. The school was temporarily moved to the nearby cave during Ottoman attacks. Dožić also organized an insurgent battalion in the region, active between 1875 and 1878 (during the Montenegrin–Ottoman War (1876–78)). The Ottomans had the monastery emptied and the quarters burned in 1877. The monastery was renovated in 1905. After the First Balkan War, the region was liberated and became part of the Kingdom of Montenegro. During World War I, the Montenegrin army heavily defeated the numerically stronger Austro-Hungarian army in the Battle of Mojkovac.