In 1760, Abbe Giovanni Mariti described Lefkara as a beautiful village with a church dedicated to the Holy Cross. He made some funny comments though regarding the acquisition of the piece of the Holy Cross within the church. He wrote that the authenticity of this relic was doubted because some Greek priests played a nasty game; they said that this relic was presented to them and to be able to verify its authenticity they wanted to compare it with the real piece of the Holy Cross deposited by Saint Helena at the Stavrovouni Monastery. They were given permission to compare the two pieces and while doing so, shuffling and reshuffling them around, at the end, no one knew which was which. Returning to their village they claimed theirs was the true piece of the Holy Cross. The disagreements and quarrels lasted for many years.
The ‘Did You Know’ series is made possible with the support of OPAP (Cyprus) and the Active Citizens Fund.
