Kykkos Monastery - Cyprus

Description:

The Kykkos Monastery is located about 20 kilometres to the west of Pedoulas in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus at an altitude of 1318 metres.
 

The Holy Monastery of the Virgin of Kykkos was founded towards the end of the 11^th Century by Alexios I Komnenos, a Byzantine Emperor.

 
The tomb of the first President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III lies 3 kilometres west of the Kykkos Monastery.

 
According to legend, a virtuous hermit, Esaias, who lived in a cave on the Kykkos Mountains, one day came across Byzantine Governor of Cyprus, Doux Manuel Voutoumites. The Governor had got lost in the forest whilst hunting and asked Esaias to show him the way back.
 

Because Esaias was not interested, he would not answer Voutoumites questions which made the Governor angry and he called the monk names and maltreated him.

 
When the Governor returned to Nicosia, he fell ill with an incurable disease called lethargia. He remembered how he had treated the monk and asked God to cure him so that he could return and ask the monk for forgiveness.

 
God had also appeared in front of the hermit and advised him to ask Voutoumites to bring the icon of the Virgin to Cyprus.

 
When Voutoumites heard the monks wish, he considered such a thing impossible as the icon, painted by the Apostle Luke, was kept in the Imperial Palace at Constaninople. Esaias convinced him that this was the Devine wish and they agreed to travel together to Constantinople.
 

Voutoumites could not find a suitable time to ask the Emperor of Constantinople for the icon and sent the monk back to Cyprus with other icons. However, by divine dispensation, the Emperor's daughter fell ill with the same illness that Voutoumites had been struck with. Voutoumites took this opportunity to assure the Emperor that if he sent the holy icon of the Virgin to Cyprus, his daughter would be cured.
 

The Emperor agreed and his daughter became well instantly. However, the Emperor did not want to part with the icon and had an exact copy of the icon painted to send to Cyprus. In the evening, the Mother of God appeared in the Emperor's dream and told him of her wish for the icon to be sent to Cyprus and the copy to be kept by the Emperor.

 
The next day the Royal boat set sail to Cypru with the icon. When it reached the coast, Esaias was waiting and it was taken to Kykkos where a new church and monastery was built.

 
According to another tradition, a bird with a human voice flew around the area singing:

 
Kykkou, Kykkou, Kykkos' hill
A monastery the site shall fill
A golden girl shall enter in
And never shall come out again

 
In 1974, Archbishop Makarios was under pursuit by the military junta and headed to the Monastery to take refuge there. As a result of this, the building was hit by tank fire and part of it collapsed.