St. Mamas monastery in Güzelyurt

There are several legends about St. Mamas. One says, he was a christian saint. After he died, he was buried seaside. The coffin was swept away by tide and made it’s way to the coast of Güzelyurt.
A farmer wanted to move the coffin to a more comfortable place, but it was too heavy to move. The farmer went and returned with two oxen and his sons trying to move the coffin. After a while it became impossible to move the coffin any further, so they build the church around the coffin right at this place.

An other legend has, Mamas lived in a cave near Güzelyurt. A byzantine duke demanted taxes from the locals, but Mamas refused to pay, because he lived in a cave. The duke sent two soldiers to arrest Mamas, but on the way back to Lefkosa, the crossed path with a lion, which was about to attack a lamb. While the soldiers were afraid of the lion, Mamas managed to save the lamb from the lion and continued his journey to Lefkosa on the back of the lion, while carrying the lamb. The byzantine authorities were so impressed that they decided to exempt him from taxes for the rest of his life. Since then, St. Mamas is the saint of tax avoiders.
As a funny side note… That day we went there, there was a tourist guide friend of us, with a german group. That moment we entered the church, she stopped telling about all the icons and moved on to „the two gentlemen, who just entered. They are Cyprus legends and know every place better than all the travel guides“. She continued telling about us instead of St. Mamas church.
Becoming famous in 3… 2… 1…!

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Güzelyurt und St. Mamas Kloster