Isaiah of Kykkos

Venerable Isaiah of Kykkos was the founder of the royal and stavropegial Kykkos Monastery in Cyprus, dedicated to the Mother of God the Merciful. The monastery keeps the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God, which according to tradition was painted by the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke. This came about thanks to the wonderful persistence of an old hermit, Venerable Isaiah.

We do not know where he was born, who his parents were or what education he had. We know only that around the eleventh century he practised asceticism in a cave in the region where the great monastery stands today. According to tradition, when he was praying on his knees he heard the song of a strange bird, which kept saying: "Kykkos, Kykkos, the mountain will become a monastery; a golden lady will enter and never leave." The old man heard but could not grasp the meaning.

Around the year 1100 the duke Manuel Boutomites, governor of Cyprus, who lived at Nicosia, went in summer to the mountains, to a village in Marathasa. One day, hunting wild goats, he became separated from his companions and came to Isaiah's cave. He asked him who he was, but the hermit did not answer and tried to hide. Angered, the duke insulted and beat him. In a calm voice and with tears the monk told him that he was a servant of Christ and that the Lord would repay him. Back in Nicosia, the duke fell gravely ill, his limbs paralysed. He remembered the hermit's words, prayed with tears and was healed. The next day he set out for the mountains to ask forgiveness.

That night the Mother of God showed Isaiah in a dream that the duke would come to ask forgiveness, and told him to ask him to bring to Cyprus the icon painted by Luke, kept in the palace. The next day the old man forgave the duke from his whole heart and asked him for the icon. Boutomites, thinking this almost impossible, promised to try and took the hermit with him to Constantinople. Isaiah stayed at a monastery, and the duke did not dare mention it to the emperor Alexios. The hermit could not bear life in the busy monastery of the City and returned to Cyprus; the duke gave him two icons, one of Christ enthroned and one of the Holy Trinity, with the Mother of God, Isaiah and Boutomites painted below, and money. Isaiah built a church in the name of the Holy Trinity and placed the icons in it, and made cells around it. At the palace the emperor's eldest daughter fell ill with the same illness, and then the emperor himself. The Mother of God appeared to him in a dream and reminded him of his promise. He ordered the imperial ship prepared, the icon put on board and a pious priest-⁠monk found as abbot, and sent money for a church. The ship reached a harbour at Tylliria, where Boutomites, Isaiah and thousands of Christians came. The duke handed the hermit the icon and the money; Isaiah built the monastery and placed the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God in its church. He lived the rest of his life in the monastery and fell asleep in peace.

He is commemorated on 10 September, according to the calendar of the Church of Greece (new style).