{"id":16343,"date":"2012-06-13T11:33:08","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T09:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=16343"},"modified":"2012-06-13T11:33:08","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T09:33:08","slug":"the-holy-monastery-of-saint-nicholas-of-the-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2012\/06\/13\/the-holy-monastery-of-saint-nicholas-of-the-cats\/","title":{"rendered":"The Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By following\u00a0comments at Chris’ blog<\/a>, I came across the fascinating story that I haven’t heard before – the story of\u00a0The Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats\u00a0is regarded as a sacred cat haven in Cyprus, as it\u2019s name has been linked to felines for almost 2,000 years.<\/p>\n

The original monastery was built in 327 AD, by Kalokeros, the first Byzantine governor of Cyprus, and patronised by Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great. At that time, a terrible drought affected the whole of Cypus, and the entire island was overrun with poisonous snakes which made building the monastery a dangerous affair. Many of the inhabitants left their homes and moved off the island, for fear of the snakes, but Saint Helena came up with a solution to the plague \u2013 she ordered 1,000 cats to be shipped in from Egypt and Palestine to fight the reptiles.<\/p>\n

In the following years, the cats did their duty, hunting and killing most of the snakes in the Akrotiri Peninsula, which soon came to be known as the “Cat Peninsula”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

By following\u00a0comments at Chris’ blog, I came across the fascinating story that I haven’t heard before – the story of\u00a0The Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats. The\u00a0Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats\u00a0is regarded as a sacred cat haven in Cyprus, as it\u2019s name has been linked to felines for almost 2,000 years. … Continue reading The Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,22,109],"tags":[1248,286,841,3026],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-16343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-cyprus","category-limassol","tag-cats","tag-history","tag-nature","tag-snakes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t