1735
Once again I crossed the stream at the ford and walked through the neighboring mountains for an hour and I arrived at the monastery of the True Cross, called Kouka, named after the village in which it is found. When I visited the village it was deserted, with only one or two houses. The small monastery, like the previous one of Saint Maura of which I have spoken, is under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Kition. Originally there was no monastery, only a village church. When the village was abandoned and the church stood empty, a hieromonk with novices settled there to look after the place, and on his death another one and then another, and so they have replaced one another until the present day, feeding themselves from their own labors in agriculture.
After having spent the night there, I started to ascend the previously-mentioned, famous, and highest mountain, Mount Troodos.
*Bishop of Kition = Archbishop of Cyprus
“The blessed Helena…
the good mother of the Cypriots,
has left holy votives from this cross in other parts of the island,
as in the village of Kouka pieces of holy wood.”
Archimandrite Kyprianos, Ἱστορία χρονολογικὴ τῆς νήσου Κύπρου, Venice 1788, p. 142.
