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Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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GIOVANNI MARITI
Travels in the Island of Cyprus
page 61

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CHAPTER Χ. EXCURSION FROM LAPASIS TO THE CONVENT OF ST CHRYSOSTOM. IN going to the convent of St Chrysostom, which lies under the castle of Buffavento, the northern range is crossed by steep and difficult paths ; the sea is lost to view, and the mountains run parallel with it towards the east. One passes the village of Sicorudi, which is inhabited and cultivated, and then Vunâ, otherwise called St Romano from a church dedicated to that saint. It belongs to the Maronites, who are the principal inhabitants of the village. Keeping on the same road one finds, 12 miles from Lapasis, the monastery of St Chrysostom, tenanted by Greek monks of the order of St Basil. This monastery had its origin as far back as the days of the first Christian Emperor. I noticed that the church was of more modern workmanship, and one of the monks told me that it was built later by a noble Cypriot lady, who has also enlarged their monastery. The church is small, with a marble pavement, and pictures in the Greek style. In the porch is a sepulchral stone over which the Greeks keep a lamp continually burning, for they say that this is the tomb of that noble lady who built the church. Near her are buried two female slaves, who were her favourites, and whom in death she wished to have near her, in gratitude for the trouble they took in helping and tending her in her last illness. Near this is another smaller church, also old, but it is no longer used for divine service

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