Filenews 7 August 2023 - by Dora Christodoulou
The previously unknown, even to most Paphians, chapel of St. Hilarion, located on the impressive rock of the community of Episkopi, north of the city of Pafos, is now becoming a pole of attraction for more and more travellers.
The increase in visitors to the impressive rock, which is the largest single rock volume in Cyprus, contributed to the publicity of this chapel.
Saint Hilarion arrived in Pafos at the age of 63, after first going to Egypt to visit the Holy Monastery of Anthony the Great and then to Sicily where he healed an officer of the imperial guard from demonic insult. From there he departed for Cyprus.
When he arrived in Pafos, which had been destroyed by a great earthquake, he first settled in its ruins and later continued his beloved ascetic life on a high and rugged mountain, outside today's village of Episkopi, next to a pagan temple.
At the age of 80, the miraculous ascetic fell ill and died in 371 A.D. His disciple Hesychius, who lived with the saint, took the holy relics and transferred them to Palestine, to the Holy Monastery of Maiuma.
Later, Pafians of the area erected, not far from the hermitage of the Saint, a temple that survives until today, but has been abandoned due to the humidity of the place. A new church was built on the top of the hill, in the village of Episkopi, in honour of the saint, in order to keep intact his spiritual presence in the district of Pafos.
