APOSTOLIC MONASTERY ANDREAS

Founded in the ^12th century, this Greek Orthodox monastery (Apostolos Andreas Manastırı, Μονή Αποστόλου Ανδρέα/Moni Apostolou Andrea) is both a Christian and Muslim pilgrimage site. The present building was erected in 1867 over a "miraculous" spring, a^7th-century Muslim tomb and a ^15th-century chapel. It is dedicated to Saint Andrew, the first of the twelve apostles to follow Christ. According to local legend, in the ^1st century, St. Andrew washed up here and discovered a spring. The spring subsequently attracted Christian pilgrims, and a monastery was built in the ^12th century. The second figure to contribute to the site's reputation was Urwa ibn Thabit. In 650, this Arab warrior died during a raid on Famagusta. He is buried near the Saint André spring, which the Arabs, and later the Ottomans, also attributed miraculous virtues to. Finally, in 1895, another "miracle" took place. Maria Georgiou, a Greek woman from Anatolia, received an apparition from Saint Andrew. She had been looking for her son for seventeen years, and the Apostle told her to come and pray here. On the ship that took her away, she told her story to one of the passengers, a dervish... who turned out to be her son. And both come to pray at the monastery, she an Orthodox Christian and he a Sufi Muslim. And so, at the beginning of the ^20th century, the site became a place of shared pilgrimage.

Christian and Muslim pilgrims. Left untended after the 1974 invasion, the monastery was restored in 2016. As a symbol, the cost of the work was shared by the Orthodox Church of Cyprus and the Islamic organization of the Northern Zone. The entrance to the complex is marked by a fountain used for wudu, the ritual ablution before Muslim prayer. Three 19th-^{and 20th-century} buildings provide accommodation for pilgrims. The main church itself is housed in a large two-storey building erected between 1855 and 1867 and topped by a bell tower. The nave is dominated by a vast carved wooden iconostasis dating from 1867. The most venerated icon, that of St. Andrew, stands next to it, covered with a silver riza. Exiting through the doorway to the south of the nave, you have to descend a few meters to reach the stripped-down ^15th-century Gothic chapel. This may also have been the site of Urwa ibn Thabit's tomb. Finally, outside, the "miraculous" spring is frequented by Christians and Muslims alike.