Repeated calamities had struck Cyprus during the first half of the 4th century, which caused, according to the sources, extensive destruction and devastation and brought great misfortune. The nightmarish sight of the island was connected by the (subsequent) ecclesiastical tradition with a visit by Agia Eleni / Saint Helen to Cyprus, as well as her acts which as if by miracle brought an end to the accumulated evils.
In the "Bios / Life" of Saint Spyridon, initially, a drought in Cyprus is repeatedly noted "which lasted a long time" and occurred after his ascent to the bishopric throne of Termithous, therefore during the first decades of the 4th century. Even though it is reported that the drought was terminated at some stage, after the pleas of Saint Spyridon, however, it is added that a famine occurred and those who were trading with corn were benefiting, at the expense of the people.
Theophanis Omologitis, a Byzantine chronicler and scholar monk of the 7th - 8th century, in his work "Chronographia" reports that in the year 5824 since the creation of the world, or year 324 since the birth of Christ, ... "in the year of the seventh indiktion..." (which date is difficult to calculate exactly and perhaps was 317, or more probably 332), a great famine had occurred in the East. He adds that many people were gathered and were obliged to make invasions in Antioch and Cyprus, to snatch whatever they could find, to force the store houses open and loot while the price of wheat reached 400 silver coins for one "modion / bushel". Theophanis does not provide specific evidence as to this great famine (which evidently was the result of a prolonged drought that destroyed the crops) had struck Cyprus as well, if Cyprus had only suffered invasions, or even if Cypriots had made invasions in Syria and elsewhere, because he speaks vaguely. He reports, particularly "of the countries of Antiochians and Cyprus" and generally " the East" adding that the people made invasions against each other. Georgios Kedrinos also speaks of a "big famine in the East" ("Synopsis of Histories", byzantine chronicler of the 11th century, who based his theories on those of Theophanis and on other anteriors. Kedrinos places this in the 28th year of reign of Constantine the Great, in 333 (or 332 AD).
Both these chroniclers, Theophanis and Kedrinos note also, with the same chronologies of the famine (that is in 5824 since the creation of the world the first, and the second in the 28th year of reign of Constantine the Great), that a disastrous earthquake occurred in Cyprus. Generally, it is accepted that the earthquake happened in 332 AD The two chroniclers report\, that Salamis, especially, was one of the Cypriot cities struck more. The city was wrecked, they note, and too many people were killed. (Theophanis P.G. 108, Kedrinos P.G. 121)
Salamis, in particular, is reported to have been struck gravely by a second earthquake, 10 years later, that is in 342 AD. (Theophanis reports the same event happening in the year 5834 since the creation of the world or 334 since the birth of Christ).
Theophanis reports that most of the buildings of the city were destroyed and fell in ruins. This second earthquake occurred during the days of Constantios, son and heir of Constantine the Great.
More expressive is Ioannis Malalas, Byzantine chronicler of the 6th century, who gave us his work "Chronographia: "Salamis suffered a calamity, this city of Cyprus, by an earthquake and its greatest part plunged into the sea and the rest tumbled to the ground and nothing was left standing..." (Chronographia, 12, 415)
However, before these terrible catastrophes caused by earthquakes, Saint Helen had passed through Cyprus.
And she found the island nearly deserted and in a state of great misfortune.
Saint Helen, mother of Constantine the Great was quite old when she passed through Cyprus, after a stay of approximately one year in Palestine, where it is believed that she had found not only the Holy Sepulchre, but the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified, nearly three centuries earlier, as well. It is not known if she had passed from Cyprus also the previous year when she was going to Palestine, however it is probable since the sea route there passed by the island. The ecclesiastic tradition, however, considers that Saint Helen had passed from Cyprus when she departed from Palestine and after having discovered the Holy Cross. This happened in 327 AD, and given that Saint Helen was born in 247 AD, she was then 80 years old. She died the next year in 328 AD.
The daughter of a inn owner, Agia Eleni / Saint Helen was born in Drepanon of Bithynia (later named Elenopolis in her honour), and there met her - around 270 AD - a noble officer of the Roman army, Constantios Chloros, and married her. When later (in 290 AD) Constantios was to be proclaimed Caesar of the province of Galatia (during the reforms of Diocletian), he divorced Helen to marry Theodora, niece of augustus of the West Maximianus. Constantios had married on the basis of a provision of a special law which permitted the marriage of officers to women of humble origin, but he was obliged to divorce her in order to become Caesar, since the Roman legislation considered such marriages to be incompatible with high posts. Helen showed understanding, retired from public life and remained in the East. She reappeared after the nomination of her son Constantine the Great to monarch. It is reported that she had reprimanded him and expressed horror when Constantine the Great killed his own son - Crispus - but it is also believed that she was perhaps involved in the murder of the wife of Constantine the Great.
A little before her death (in 328 AD) Saint Helen went to Palestine in 326 AD where it is believed that she discovered the grave and the cross of Christ the following year, in Jerusalem. According to the tradition she financed the construction of Christian churches there (as for example that of the Resurrection, of the Ascension, but also of the Nativity in Bethlehem), and did the same in Cyprus. The local - Cypriot - tradition says that Saint Helen had found Cyprus nearly deserted.
Given that her visit to Cyprus was placed in 327 AD (and in 326 AD if she came twice), it appears that she preceded the terrible earthquakes of 332/333 and 342. If, therefore we believe the tradition, then we must consider that the desertion was not due to the extensive destruction from earthquakes. The tradition does not speak of earthquakes, but of drought, indeed a prolonged one. The medieval chronicler Leontios Macheras (Explanation of the sweet country Cyprus", called Chronaka / Chronichon = Chronicle, "Philokypros", 1982 and Dawking O.V.P. 1932, paragraph 3) renders the old tradition as follows: "Constantine the Great, after his baptism saw that Cyprus remained without inhabitants for 36 years, after a great famine which occurred because of the drought that destroyed all the crops. The famine was great and all the waters from the springs stopped, and the people moved from place to place with their animals in order to find water and help their animals live. Everywhere it was dry: the wells and the springs, and the people left marvellous Cyprus and went here and there, where each found rest. And the island remained without inhabitants for 36 years".
Chronologically these nightmarish events are supposed to have occurred after the baptism of Constantine the Great, although the emperor does not seem to have been baptised at all. In any case, they are placed during his days. However, did these events really happen?
First, we must say that the drought, which lasted 36 years, seems to be particularly exaggerated. If we take into consideration that rain came after Saint Helen left pieces of the Sacred Wood of the Cross in Cyprus - that means in 327 AD - we must estimate that the drought continued until then, since 290/291! This does not seem correct since we have other testimonies that life on the island continued. The participation of the Cypriot bishops, on the other hand, in the first Ecumenical Synod (325 AD) overthrows the assertion that the island remained without inhabitants at least until 327 AD. Consequently, this is the second reason why the report regarding the desertion of Cyprus by its inhabitants is exaggerated.
Besides, we have seen a little earlier that not only a drought has been testified, (see "Life" of Saint Spyridon) but also a great famine "in the East" (in 317 or 332/333 AD, according to the chronicler Theophanis) as well as movements of populations, attacks and looting in order to secure food. Thus, we are led to the conclusion that perhaps droughts did occur and some people did leave the island. However, we cannot accept the view that Saint Helen found Cyprus totally deserted and destroyed; with some problems (serious or not), yes, we can accept that. The big destruction (and the diminishing of the population due to mass deaths which probably caused epidemics) occurred later in 332 AD; and in 342 AD, the terrible earthquakes which demolished cities and villages and killed many people. So, the subsequent tradition associated the great destructions yet to come (a little later), with Saint Helen's prior visit to Cyprus.
In the next paragraph of his work, Leontios Macheras supports that Saint Helen had passed from Cyprus (for the first time in 326 AD) on her way to Jerusalem: "When Constantine the Great turned from idolatry to the faith of Christ together with those he had with him in Rome, then Saint Helen received instructions from her son, to go to Jerusalem and search for the Holy Cross. So, Saint Helen came to the East, arrived in Cyprus, disembarked in the region near Limassol and found the island deserted. She felt great sorrow when she saw such a beautiful island deserted, and immediately departed and went to Jerusalem..."
In the narrative of Saint Helen's visit to Cyprus the following year (327 AD) when, the Holy Cross had already been found, Leontios Macheras was based (as he writes) in the (previous?) work of Saint Kyriakos.
Saint Kyriakos was not a Cypriot. According to tradition he was a Jew named Judas, and he was the man who was obliged by Saint Helen to indicate the locality where the Holy Cross was hidden. Later he was baptised, and became indeed bishop of Jerusalem; he suffered martyrdom during the days of emperor Julian the Paravatis. The Church celebrates his memory on the 18th October. There are no preserved manuscripts, that can be considered undoubtedly to be his writing. The work (on manuscript at the British Museum) considered to be his own is dated later and is not Cypriot. The language in which the text was written is simple and comprehensible but certainly not the language of the 4th century.
The two texts, supposed to be those of Saint Kyriakos and of Leontios Macheras are almost completely similar, as to the narrative of Saint Helen's actions in Cyprus.
We show here, the text of Leontios Macheras (paragraph 8) which is identical to that of Saint Kyriakos, and which we borrowed from Kyriakos Hadjioannou (Ancient Cyprus at the Greek sources A', 1985, page 392 - 393 AD" and "Cypriot Chronicles" No. 11, 1935, page 14):
"And Saint Helen embarked upon a vessel and sailed to Cyprus, and when she disembarked she took out the box with the two big crosses, and put it on the ground. Where she disembarked, they named the locality Vasilopotamos, and as soon as she disembarked she had her lunch. She was tired from the sea and she slept, and she saw a dream that a young man told her "My Lady Helen what you did in Jerusalem - where you built many churches, the same you must do here, because this is the wish of God. So as of today until the end of this world this country be inhabited with people and not disappear. And in this place you must build churches in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and in the name of the Holy and life giving Cross, put inside the sacred items you hold". When she awoke from her sleep she searched for the box with the big crosses. And oh! the big cross was gone. Saint Helen sent for its recovery, and it was found on the mountain called Lymbia - for the cross of the faithful bandid. There, she built a church of the Holy Cross, and put in the heart of the cross a piece of the Sacred Wood. Afterwards, she saw a column of fire from the earth to the sky and she went to see the vision, and she found the one small cross from the four crosses at the bank of the river. Then, a voice from the sky came to her: "Helen, prepare to build a church also at the place called Tochni", and as soon as Helen built a church of the Holy Cross and a bridge to enable the people to pass over the river and decorated the small cross with gold, silver and pearls, then God sent rain on earth. It was proclaimed everywhere - the Grace and the Mercy of God, and the power of the Holy and life giving Cross, and Cyprus started to be inhabited again and the people returned to their houses. After them, many colonists followed and inhabited the island. Immediately the Holy Lady Helen had completed the buildings she embarked upon the vessel and returned to Constantinople to her son king Constantine the Great and first Orthodox king."
The reader will notice, certainly that both texts make reference to crosses (and not just to one cross), which Saint Helen brought with her. It was always, according to the tradition, the Cross of Christ and those of the two thieves. Seeing that the crosses had remained together for so many years, Saint Helen not only did not separate them, but after dismantling them, she mixed their wood and renailed them. She also made a small cross from the wood of the footstool of the Cross of Christ.
One of the big crosses was lost in Cyprus, and by miracle was found on the summit of the mountain Olympia (according to Macheras) or Lympia (according to Saint Kyriakos) which was named so "from the name of the good thief", one of the two thieves who were crucified with Christ - supposed to have been called Olympas!
However, it was the mountain "Stavrovouni" which until then bore the name "Olympus", the same name with the known divine mountain of ancient Greece. The testimony we have from Stravon is the same as that from Eustathios, who confirms: "..In Cyprus there was a mountain between Kition and Amathus, called "Olympus...".
It is then quite possible that a temple of Zeus (worshipped often on summits of mountains), existed on that summit, and that the ancient name of the mountain was abandoned with the transformation of the place to a place of worship by the Christians. The name of the thief - Olympas - was invented later in order to justify the ancient name of the mountain.
On its summit, it was reported that Saint Helen then built a church in the name of the Holy Cross. Thus, the tradition - particularly strong until today - says that the monastery of Stavrovounion was built by Saint Helen in 327 AD. The same is believed for the church in the village of Tochni, which according to tradition was also built by Saint Helen by divine order.
When Saint Helen then endowed Cyprus with churches, leaving on the island pieces of the Sacred Wood, the rains came and terminated the lengthy drought. The fugitive Cypriots returned to their island and inhabited it again and life continued!
Certainly a beautiful and captivating tradition, however, a little later came the terrible earthquakes, which brought great destruction with them. The Byzantine official who was sent to help relieve the Cypriots, Kalokairos, as we have seen earlier, chose to revolt, but as a result, lost his life.
Saint Helen died the following year (325 AD). Her son, Constantine the Great, proclaimed her Augusta, and cut coins with her image and honoured her also in other ways. The Church proclaimed her and her emperor son saints and apostles and celebrates their memory on 21st May.
Constantine the Great died only 9 years later (21st May 337 AD) in Nikomedia.
We have seen earlier that from the terrible earthquakes of 332/333 and 342 AD, Salamis was struck gravely. We must consider, however, that the destruction was much greater than that. If the earthquakes were strong enough to destroy the giant buildings of Salamis completely, it must have literally smashed the small houses of the villagers and the simple people. The southern and south-western regions of Cyprus did not suffer much destruction but suffered by earthquakes some years later. Kourion and Paphos in particular, were struck by strong earthquakes around 365 AD, a fact which is proven by archaeological research. The human skeletons, were found in Kourion, testify the abruptness as well as the force of the earthquake that had killed them.
In one case, three skeletons were found embracing: of one man, who tried to protect his wife, who tried to protect her small child. In another case, a skeleton of a girl, killed with her horse, which tried to help her escape was found. The skeleton of a man in a contracted position of anguish with hands trying to protect his head was also found.
![[The three embraced skeletons - Image]](IMGLINKOFF.gif){kind=small}
[The three embraced skeletons]
[A human skeleton in Kourion]
All this destruction contributed, certainly, to a temporary regression and decline of the island, even if there was imperial help. Emperor Constantios, son and heir of Constantine the Great, helped financially with the rebuilding of Salamis after the calamity of 342 AD, as Ioannis Malalas testifies (Chronographia 12, 415), "Constantios rebuilt Salamis, and offered other numerous benevolence and built buildings, and exempted the surviving inhabitants from taxes for five years; and after he erected various buildings in this city, earlier named Salamis, then it was renamed Constantia from his name. This is now the capital of Cyprus". That is in the 6th century, when Malalas lived.
Salamis was rebuilt, but covered then a smaller area than before - according to the findings of archaeological research, and in honour of Constantios was renamed Constantia.
The drought, the earthquakes, the deaths and the ruins, gave birth to the known legend of the poisonous serpents which prevailed on the island and which were fought with the cats bred in the monastery of Saint Nikolaos. The connection again of the destruction and the desertion with Saint Helen's visit, who "terminated the evils", must be sought in a subsequent ecclesiastical propaganda, that apparently served the expectations and the hopes of the faithful, and also the defence of the church of Cyprus against the efforts basically of the church of Antioch as we shall see later, for wanting to prevail.
It must be noted that beyond the powerful tradition recorded by Leontios Macheras, and the text attributed to Saint Kyriakos, there is no tangible proof or testimony for the visit (or visits) of Saint Helen to Cyprus. On the contrary, the excavations as well as the written sources testify that not only was Cyprus not deserted, but there was a relative prosperity on the island (for example the reference to a despatch of 30 ships from Cyprus to Licinius in 323 / 324 AD, 2 or 3 years before the arrival of Saint Helen, shows that there were people on the island as well as economic and other possibilities).
Besides, the tradition for the discovery of the Holy Cross by Saint Helen can be certified historically either. Indeed, some reports for the discovery of the cross, of the 4th century, do not mention Helen. Most characteristic, is also the fact that Eusebios of Caesaria (contemporary of Constantine the Great and his friend and biographer) does not make any allusion or reports regarding the discovery of the Holy Cross. A sensational fact, which if it happened, could not have been ignored. Eusebios reports benefactions of Saint Helen in Palestine and generally in the East, which included construction of churches (testified also in other sources), but without making any particular reference to Cyprus.
On the other hand however, it is not possible to ignore the long and powerful tradition for the visit and works of Saint Helen in Cyprus. Since her benefactions and erections of Christian churches in the east are mentioned, it is possible to consider that such benevolent acts had also been made in Cyprus - which belonged completely to the Eastern province.
Consequently, we can come to the conclusion that Saint Helen passed most probably from Cyprus, where perhaps she had constructed some churches, but the miracles, the desertion, the snakes, and other such events belong to the sphere of legend, fortified later by the relative propaganda. The adoption of the legend by the official Church does not, however, transform the events to History.
Another serious point, which must be commented on, is the reported arrival and establishment of some emigrants to Cyprus, after Saint Helen's visit. When rain came again - certifies Leontios Macheras - the Cypriots returned to their island "and with them came many emigrants and inhabitants". This is recorded in a similar text, supposed to constitute testimony of Saint Kyriakos.
Archimandrite Kyprianos (Chronological History, 1788, page 98) is more specific, although we do not know on which sources he relied. After reporting that Saint Helen left pieces of the Sacred Wood and other votives (such as chips of the Holy Wood in the village Kouka and "part of the rope with which the unlawful tied the Lord" in the village Omodos) on the island, he certifies that she took care that Cyprus, "deserted and almost uninhabited by people" be re-inhabited. Therefore, he writes that Saint Helen "invited married couples from the surrounding countries of Cyprus, Arabia, Syria and the East, and donated land to them, with the privilege for its cultivation and having made donations, she sailed to Constantinople".
Archimandrite Kyprianos does not report the return of Cypriots themselves (which is reported by Leontios Macheras), he alleges that new inhabitants were invited and came from Arabia, Syria, and the East. Elsewhere archimandrite Kyprianos alleges that the "inhabitants in the villages (of Tillyria), Tilliroi, people coming from the island Tilos near Rhodes, came and inhabited the island since the time of Saint Helen, with the promise to guard the coastal areas".
Tilos, a tiny island between Rhodes and Kos, we do not suppose that it could ... colonize Cyprus or even Tillyria. We have the impression that the event was fabricated in order to etymologise the name Tillyria (and the inhabitants Tillyroi), of which others find the etymology in "Illyria", considering there was transfer to Cyprus of "Illyria" inhabitants.
However, it is not possible that the transport and habitation of population or populations in Cyprus was caused by the initiative of Saint Helen, and cannot be testified either. We have the impression that these events were also fabricated in order to justify the continuation of life on the island, after its supposed depopulation. The legend went along with the myth.
Nevertheless, keeping in mind that the movement of population was not improbable at some time during the Byzantine Years, we can accept that it was possible that the Cypriot population was reinforced by transport and establishment on the island of other people, but only after the extensive destruction of 332 AD and 342 AD and the decimation of the Cypriots. If some other Greeks (not Arabs or other Easterners, the presence of whom on the island was not justified at all), came and established themselves in Cyprus after 342 AD, they would have been relatively few. If such mass immigration really happened, certainly it would have serious effects on all the sectors of life in Cyprus, and such are not testified. If Dalmatios had also established some guards at sea side areas, again the number could not be such as to influence the ethnological character of the Cypriots. Establishment in Cyprus of foreign guards (in the form of military colonisations) occurred also later.
If we give faith again, to the ecclesiastic tradition, we must note that during the first half of the 4th century some monasteries were created or existed already in Cyprus.
The monastery of the Holy Cross (more known as Stavrovouni), is considered to have been founded by Saint Helen, after a miracle in 327 AD. Similarly the church of Tochni (built on a bridge), dedicated to the Holy Cross. Saint Helen had built the church and the bridge, "passage for the people", according to Macheras. The construction of a bridge in a place, where for 36 years not one drop of rain had fallen, would certainly not constitute pressing priority for Saint Helen, who, however, built it (strangely), according to tradition! The same tradition places the creation of the monastery in the village Omodos (Limassol district) during the 4th century also, dedicated to the Holy Cross, and for the church of the Holy Cross in the tiny village Kouka (Limassol province), initially the nave of a small monastery. However, the monastery of Saint Nikolaos, in the Akrotiri peninsula (near Limassol), must have been created already in the 4th century, since there had Kalokairos assigned the task of breeding many cats to face the snakes.
[The church of the Holy Cross in Tochni]
[The church of the Holy Cross in the village of Kouka]
The Holy Moni (known also as the Monastery of Priests) in the Paphos province must also have been created during the 4th century, if we believe Efraim the Athenian ("Description of the holy respected and royal monastery... of Kykko", Venice, 1751 pages 63 - 64). Efraim says that he found a manuscript "Life" of Saint Eutychios in that monastery, in which the following were reported: Saint Eutychios and his assistant Saint Nikolaos, demolished the ancient temple of the "fighting and unclean goddess" and with the same materials built in its place the "sacred house and most beautiful church of Virgin Mary, Holy Mother Of God".
In fact there are inscription testimonies testifying that in the place of the Monastery of the Priests, a Greek temple of Hera previously existed, created in the 4th Century BC by the last Paphian king, Nikoklis. As in the case of Stavrovounion (where most probably the ancient temple of Zeus and not of Aphrodite existed in the past, as writes archimandrite Kyprianos, confusing Stavrovouni with the mountain ridge of Olympus at the cape of Apostle Andreas) and perhaps in the case of the monastery of Saint Nicolaos, as well as in other cases, Christian churches were built in the places of ancient Greek temples. Evidently, indeed a consequence as to the parallelism was followed: the temple of Zeus (father of gods and people) is transformed to the church of Christ, the temple of Hera (the first of the female goddesses) is transformed to the church of Virgin Mary!
( In the place of the temples of Aphrodite, churches dedicated to Virgin Mary were constructed, as for example the church of Panagia Katholiki in Kouklia of Paphos ).
If now, all the above mentioned Christian churches had really existed since the 4th Century, this is something which is not proven. The oldest of them are of the Medieval period, but this does not preclude that in the same places other older churches have existed, which they replaced.
The literary testimonies give us the information that, since the 4th century, big basilicas had started to be constructed in Cyprus. The building of many basilicas, particularly in the 5th and 6th centuries in all of Cyprus, indeed basilicas characterized for their great size and luxury, proves that relatively shortly, Cyprus had surpassed the enormous problems caused by the repeated great calamities of the 4th century and had known a new prosperity.
