4VIP Tour

Thecla (30 AD-circa 120 AD) was a saint of the early Christian Church, an ardent follower of Paul the Apostle and who decided on self-abnegation later in her life. Shielded by divine intervention three times in her life, her martyred remains were interred in Ma'loula, Syria. A Greek Orthodox nunnery of St. Thecla, Deir Mar Takla was built near her cave tomb, and is a pilgrimage site with a holy well. The Holy Monastery of Ayia Thekla, built by St. Helena of the Crosses in the 327 AD is located about 500 metres south of Mosfiloti village in Larnaca District. The holy water issuing from a spring there heals skin problems, including difficult ones like eczema, besides clearing issues with the eyes and the head. It reportedly helps to find a spouse for marriage.

• People come from all over the globe to this Monastery to be treated for many illnesses and bring with them the affected parts of their body moulded in wax. They tie these moulds to the icon of St.Thekla and then pray to be healed in the tomb under the church. This is where they get a paste of healing mud oozing out of the ground. The fount of the Holy water is right next to this patch and has been proven to treat many other illnesses. Women come there and splash this holy water onto their faces in an effort to retain their youthful looks. VIP Tours comes here on a religious tour.
• To this day, devotees light candles in worship and touch a part of the relics with photos of their near and dear who have medical or physical disabilities and pray for deliverance.
• When Thekla took the vow of chastity, her fiancé and mother both condemned her as a woman possessed and she was sentenced to be burned at the stake. She escaped the fire through divine intervention and followed Paul to Antioch, where she caught the roving eye of a rich and powerful man named Alexander. She spurned and fought him off, hurting him physically, and was condemned to be thrown to the beasts. Again, she was saved by divine intervention. Help from the Almighty saved her a third time when the Syrian mountains opened miraculously to protect her from her persecutors.
• In the 4th century AD, when 90 year old Saint Helena (sanctified for finding the three crosses, nails, and title under a pagan temple and identifying the true cross in 325 AD) arrived at the region where the monastery stands today, she and her followers were dehydrated. She prayed to God and Holy Water started flowing from the earth that helped her and her escorts to cool down. She then constructed a church over this spot, which she dedicated to the early martyr and equal to Apostles, Saint Thekla.
• Water from this source is curative and has a peculiar and unique taste and it is this water that people use to wash their sins away and ask for Her blessings. Pilgrims also take water home from this source, as water that is blessed by Saint, which may lead to a miraculous recovery of health.
• At least three places claim to be her site of burial: Meryemlik [Ayatekla], Turkey; Ma'loula, Syria and Rome, Italy. Many others claim to have parts of her remains, including Meniko and Mosfiloti. That said, the Monastery is certainly a place to see in Cyprus and believers flock there in the hope of a blessed recovery from personal problems.