Cave of St. Sozomenos

 

After Saint Sozomenos lived as a hermit in the cave of Potamia, and was purified of his passions and perfected in virtues, and after he acquired healing powers from God and became a wonderworker, he left the world for his beloved Christ. The grave of the Saint is found today in the left area of the cave which he dug out himself.

In his cave exist murals that were painted between the eleventh and twelfth century, up to the beginning of the sixteenth century. In these murals, four scenes from the miracles of the Saint are presented. These miracles were made for Christians who asked for his help, perhaps while the Saint was still alive, or even after his death.

In the first scene, the Saint is presented outside a church with a bishop's staff in his left hand, while with his right hand he blesses those that came asking for his help. The scene is accompanied by the inscription "Saint Sozomenos healing the sick". In the other three scenes the Saint is depicted curing those who asked for his help, and the following inscriptions are accompanied in these scenes: "Saint Sozomenos curing those who have fever", "Saint Sozomenos makes the one who is in the ground stand up", "The sick woman drinks from the holy water of the Saint". Most of the murals were destroyed by fanatic Turks who especially destroyed the faces of Saints from disrespect and with much fury.

Holy relics of Saint Sozomenos survived up to the fifteenth century, because Machairas reports in his Chronicle that Patriarch Ignatios of Antioch came to Cyprus in 1340 for the purpose of confronting the plague of locusts. For this purpose he made a Cross and he put in it part of the True Cross and Divine Bread from Great Thursday and relics of 46 Saints, among these also a relic of Saint Sozomenos. Next to the village of Potamia, there is the abandoned village of Agios Sozomenos which took its name from the Saint. In this now abandoned village since 1964 due to conflicts with the Turks, there is a church dedicated to Saint Sozomenos.

Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/DHoQKQCciRvkStTP9