THE BELLAPAIS MONASTERY
 While the Lusignans dwelled in abbey
and served good benefactors, the Genoese struck and
overran the island in 1373. The abbey subsequently
fell into disgrace. The treasury was smashed open
and the abbey wealth looted including the piece of
precious cross.
The monastery became unhappily the
victim of the onslaught and both moral and physical
decline. The monks of the order dropped into
promiscuity and never regained their former
reputation. Taking only their wives and concubines,
they would accept only their own children as
novices. They let the abbey fall into decay and
lived a life which was far from poverty and
obedience.
After the Ottomans invaded the island in 1570, they
plundered the abbey leaving it slummy. Fate of the
monks and their families being unknown, they
probably got dispersed into nearby settlements.
Apparently the village of Bellapais that grew up
around the monastery became populated by descendants
of the monks.
Later the abbey was given to the
Orthodox Church and it continued to serve for
worship until 1974. Much of the monastic buildings
later fell apart and the stones were used by the
villagers for building of nearby cottages. The
chambers that remained roofed served for farm
implements and fodder stores, and sheep grazed in
the cloisters.
|
