Therapon of Lythrodontas

Holy Venerable Therapon of Lythrodontas was an ascetic and wonderworker of Cyprus. He came to Cyprus with the company of the "Three Hundred" refugees from Palestine, during the Muslim Arab persecutions of the seventh century. Trained in the desert of Palestine in monasticism, asceticism, prayer, humility, vigil and abstinence, he sought in Cyprus a place fit for ascetic labour and found it near the village of Lythrodontas, in the province of Nicosia, where there was also water.

There, after many spiritual struggles, he received from God the gift of working wonders. The faithful of the surrounding region ran to him to be healed of various sicknesses and to receive right teaching for the profit of their souls. When he departed to the Lord, his body was buried at the place of his struggle. After many centuries his bones were found in a wondrous way: the elders of the village told that, long ago, on the place where the church now stands, people saw at night a light which, as they drew near, appeared over a thornbush. When they cut the bush at its root they discovered the tomb and the saint's bones. Then they built a church in his name. It stood until 1863, when it was replaced by the large church that stands today. In the church a small fragment of the saint's forehead is kept in a silver-⁠gilt reliquary and carried in procession on his feast. He is commemorated on 30 October (new style), together with John Lampadistes.