The monastery of Saint
Nicholas of the Cats is located to the south west of the Akrotiri Salt Lake. It is one of the oldest monasteries in Cyprus and,
according to the tradition, it was built under the patronage of Saint Helena,
the mother of Constantine the Great, in the 4th century. It is
believed that the monastery was a shelter for fugitive monks who were
prosecuted during the Byzantine Iconoclasm.
Legend has it that St
Helena oversaw the building of the monastery and not only
left a piece of the True Cross there but she also brought hundreds of cats in order to rid
the island of all the poisonous snakes which had overrun it due to a terrible
drought that forced many of the inhabitants to leave their homes and emirgrate. They came back after the snakes
left. The use of the cats was soon known and the practice was followed by most
of the other monasteries in Cyprus…
* The whole article is available on the
Official Online City Guide “All About Limassol”
http://allaboutlimassol.com/en/the-holy-monastery-of-saint-nicholas-of-the-cats
