The monastery is located on the Akrotiri peninsula, near the city of Limassol. Since the main occupation of the population in Cyprus was fishing, farming and seafaring, the temple was consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas, the patron Saint of sailors and fishermen.
It was first mentioned by travellers in the fifteenth century, but the fullest account is given by Felix Fabri, a Dominican who visited Cyprus in 1480. He mentions Saint Nicholas as an isolated monastery "surrounded by serpents" where the monks kept cats to protect themselves.
A century later in the sixteenth century the holy Empress Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great imports hundreds of cats from Egypt and Asia to whittle down the area's snake population. Cats multiplied rapidly and within a few years the island was cleared from the snakes. Since then the cat has become the beloved animal of the island.
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