Stavrovouni Monastery

Stavrovouni Monastery

Stavrovouni Monastery is a famous monastery of Cyprus, which was founded by Queen Helena, the mother of St. Constantine, returning from Jerusalem, where she found the Life-Giving Cross. It is located 43 km from Larnaca on top of Mount Olympus.

General Information

In 326 AD, Empress Helena traveled to the site of Christ’s execution. She found and cleared Golgotha and discovered three crosses – the cross on which the Savior was crucified and two crosses to which the robbers were nailed. Elena also has found out nails with which Christ has been crucified. Since it was impossible to know on which cross the repentant robber died, Helena changed places of cross bars on crosses so that on each cross there was a part of a cross of the repentant robber. Later St. Helena had a vision: an angel ordered the queen to destroy the pagan sanctuary on the mountain and build a church there. The Empress founded the church, where she left parts of the Cross, and at the end of the XI century, a monastery arose on this site. It survived many trials: almost every 100 years it was completely destroyed and rebuilt. Orthodox monks lived in the monastery until the XIII century, then the monastery was transferred to the Benedictines. In 1426 the Egyptian Mamelukes destroyed the monastery to the ground; the Benedictines rebuilt Stavrovouni and returned it to the Orthodox monks a century later. In 1,571 the Turks captured Larnaca and destroyed the monastery again. For almost a century it stood in disrepair; in 1660 the monks began to rebuild it again. In 1888 the restored and rebuilt monastery burned down. A year later, on the ashes, the monk Dionysios Christidis formed a monastic community, which adopted the strict statutes followed by the monks of Mount Athos. The monastery adheres to it to this day. The monks keep the household, just as their predecessors did hundreds of years ago. Bees are raised in the monastery.

The oldest part of the monastery is the foundation. The other parts of the building were erected in the XVIII century. In the main monastery building there is a small church of St. Helen and Constantine. The Stavrovouni Monastery has a unique library with several thousand books and manuscripts. There are two temples adjoining the library: the chapel of St. Nicholas to the north and the church of St. Spiridon of Trimiphunt to the south. The main church has a long narrow corridor that leads to a veranda at the back of the church. It offers a stunning view of Larnaca.

A particle of the Life-Giving Cross is inside a silver-encased cypress cross that stands on a low wooden Calvary in the main monastery church of the Exaltation of the Honorable Life-Giving Cross, in the southern part of the right tier of the iconostasis.

Stavrovouni Monastery is open every day from sunrise, except for the time from 12:00 to 13:00 (until 15:00 in summer). Visitors are not allowed on Green Monday and the day following this date.