In the seventeenth century, Esphigmenou entered into a period of decline due to serious financial difficulties. The monastery began a recovery during the following century. This recovery was aided by Grigorios, Metropolitan of Meleniko who made payment of the monastery’s monastery's debts his main project.

In early part of the nineteenth century, Theodoritos of the Lavra, as the [[abbot]] of Esphigmenou, reorganized the monastery as a coenobium and began the construction of a new [[katholikon]] in 1806 on the site of an earlier [[church]] built in 1010. He built other new buildings such as a new [[refectory]] as well. Between 1821 and 1832 Esphigmenou ceased to exist as a monastery as the Ottoman Turkish army commandeered and used the monastery buildings as barracks during the Greek war for independence. With the departure of the Turkish forces, the monastery was restored by Agathangelos Ayiannanitis. The rebuilding effort continued until 1870 and resulted in the construction of the monastery’s monastery's modern buildings. These included the addition of a exo[[narthex]] on the katholikon, construction of the [[bell tower]] and a number of [[chapel]]s and the southern gateway.

The monastery library contains 372 manuscripts and over 8,000 printed books. Among the treasures held by the monastery, Esphigmenou’s Esphigmenou's most treasured possession is the [[icon]] of Our Lady Eleousa. In addition to relics of [[saints]], the monastery possesses the so-called cross of Pulcheria and a large part of the tent used by Napoleon. The tent remnant is used as the curtain for the [[sanctuary]] door in the katholikon on the feast day of the Holy Ascension.