Qualla: Kykkos Monastery https://qualla.com/kykkos-monastery en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/p/r/kykkos-monastery-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Kykkos Monastery https://qualla.com/kykkos-monastery Kykkos Monastery: Introduction https://qualla.com/kykkos-monastery/ Photo credit SigTif, CC BY-SA 4.0. The icon is never seen. It hangs in the catholicon of Kykkos Monastery, 1,318 meters up in the Troodos Mountains of central Cyprus, but its top half remains permanently covered by an embroidered cloth and a silver riza. According to monastic tradition, anyone who looks directly at the image will be struck blind. The last person to lift the cover was Patriarch Gerasimos II of Alexandria, in 1669 - more than three and a half centuries ago. Even when the fathers carry the icon out in procession during severe droughts to pray for rain, they look away from her face as they uncover her. The icon is supposedly one of three painted from life by the Apostle Luke. The monastery is one of the wealthiest in Cyprus. The mountain road winds up to it through pine forests, and pilgrims have been coming since the eleventh century.

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Image: SigTif | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/p/r/kykkos-monastery-wp/swpr-kykkos-monastery-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Kykkos Monastery: The Hermit and the Governor https://qualla.com/kykkos-monastery/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.5. The founding story comes through Vasil Grigorovich-Barsky, a Ukrainian pilgrim who walked across half the Eastern Mediterranean in the 1730s and recorded the traditions he heard. According to Barsky, a virtuous hermit named Esaias lived alone in a cave on the slopes of Mount Kykk...

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Image: CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/p/r/kykkos-monastery-wp/swpr-kykkos-monastery-the-hermit-and-the-governor.mp3 0:06 2 full Kykkos Monastery: The Icon from Constantinople https://qualla.com/kykkos-monastery/ Photo credit Son of Groucho, CC BY 2.0. The hermit Esaias, prompted by a vision, told Boutoumites that the only thing that would heal him was to bring an icon of the Virgin from the imperial palace in Constantinople back to Cyprus - one of the three icons tradition said had been painted by Luke himself. The two of them...

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Image: Son of Groucho | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/p/r/kykkos-monastery-wp/swpr-kykkos-monastery-the-icon-from-constantinople.mp3 0:06 3 full Kykkos Monastery: Locusts and Drought https://qualla.com/kykkos-monastery/ Photo credit Marek Ślusarczyk (Tupungato) Photo portfolio, CC BY 3.0. The icon is credited with miracles still recounted on the island. In 1760, when locusts were devastating Cypriot crops - a recurring catastrophe in those centuries - the fathers carried the icon out in procession. The locusts dispersed. Locals attributed the deliverance to the Vi...

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Image: Marek Ślusarczyk (Tupungato) Photo portfolio | CC BY 3.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/p/r/kykkos-monastery-wp/swpr-kykkos-monastery-locusts-and-drought.mp3 0:06 4 full Kykkos Monastery: Makarios and Independence https://qualla.com/kykkos-monastery/ Photo credit Hagai Agmon-Snir حچاي اچمون-سنير חגי אגמון-שניר, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1926 a young Cypriot named Michalakis Mouskos arrived at Kykkos Monastery as a thirteen-year-old novice. He would grow up to become Archbishop Makarios III, the first president of independent Cyprus, and one of the most consequential figures in the island's modern history. Mak...

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Image: Hagai Agmon-Snir حچاي اچمون-سنير חגי אגמון-שניר | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/p/r/kykkos-monastery-wp/swpr-kykkos-monastery-makarios-and-independence.mp3 0:06 5 full Kykkos Monastery: The Mountain Road https://qualla.com/kykkos-monastery/ Photo credit Gerhard Haubold, CC BY-SA 3.0. Kykkos is hard to reach. The drive from the coast climbs through Pedoulas and Prodromos, switchback by switchback, through forests of black pine and golden oak that thicken as you ascend. Visitors arrive at a complex larger than they expected - the monastery houses a museum of By...

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Image: Gerhard Haubold | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/p/r/kykkos-monastery-wp/swpr-kykkos-monastery-the-mountain-road.mp3 0:06 6 full