People on Cyprus relate that Saint Helen, mother of the great emperor Constantine, when returning from Jerusalem where she had obtained the True Cross of Christ, arrived on Cyprus. She saw that the whole island was deserted and overgrown with dense forest and wishing to settle it with people, she ordered wherever possible for a fire to be kindled to clear a space and to chase away venomous beasts. When this order had been carried out, the fire burnt everywhere, except for the place which has just been mentioned. Here they tried many times to kindle fires, but they extinguished themselves, and this is why, as I have mentioned before, the place is called one which cannot be burnt.
When Saint Helen returned to Constantinople she sent to Cyprus quite a large number of people, both monks and lay people and founded a number of monasteries and churches. She also sent a sizeable portion of the Life-Giving wood, which until the present is preserved in the church of the Holy Cross in the village of Lefkara, of which I have spoken at length earlier when I depicted the church with its cross on a sheet of paper.
