The monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats is located south of largest lake in Cyprus, the Limassol Salt Lake. It's one of the oldest monasteries in Cyprus and according to legend, it was created by Saint Helen, 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 [image struggle] when the use of religious images or icons was opposed by religious and imperial authorities within the Eastern Church and the temporal imperial hierarchy.
Legend has it that St. Helen created the monastery and not only she left a piece of the Holy Wood there but she also brought hundreds of cats in order to eradicate all the poisonous snakes which gathered around the island following a terrible drought. Many of the inhabitants left their homes and moved off the island. They came back after the snakes left. The use of the cats was soon known and the practice was followed by most of the monasteries in Cyprus.
The monastery was first inhabited by monks. It was destroyed by a great earthquake in the 16th century but then reconstructed and it functioned until 1570 when the Ottoman Empire conquered the island and all monks were slaughtered. The monastery was reconstructed again in the 18th century but abandoned for a century after that.
Another legend has it that Constantine the Great had asked Governor Kalokeros to help eradicate the snakes in the area. He brought 1,000 cats and granted the surrounding lands to the monks on one condition: the monks should take care of the cats in order to be protected from the poisonous snakes.
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