A journey to Damietta ends up in Limassol

Barsky’s second journey to Cyprus the following year, 1727 (from April to July), was unplanned. He was on his way to Egypt, but en route an unfavourable wind, which refused to change direction, obliged the ship to moor off the shores of Cyprus, once again in Limassol. Being unbound by promises and immediate plans, Barsky saw this stop as a sign from above and set off to inspect the island’s shrines in the company of a monk from Athos named Dionysius. They visited the capital Levkosia, Larnaca, and the monasteries of Kikkos, St. Mamas in Morfou and Stavrovouni.

The ship’s captain, seeing that the wind was growing stronger both day and night, while the provisions were almost finished and the water gone bad, took the decision to set course for Cyprus, in order to buy bread and replenish his stocks of water, all the more so since the wind was driving us there anyway. We sailed four more days and with difficulty reached the Cypriot wharves. God alone knows what suffering we endured, drinkers of spoilt foul-smelling water, and we did not even have enough of that, and the captain shared with everyone his water, a little, but it too was difficult not only to drink, but raise it to the lips or nose. Nonetheless, on 26 April we made land in Cyprus, in the town of Limassol.

My arrival on Cyprus for a second time

Having seen that God had brought me to a place it was not my intention to visit, I understood that He wanted me to pay tribute to the holy places of Cyprus. For this, having paid for my passage, I left the ship and the latter sailed homewards, and I myself set off, having joined company with the hieromonk Dionysius of Athos, I for the sake of worship, and he for the sake of collecting alms for the monastery and worship. The place where we moored is called Lemeso [1], this is a small town, the buildings in it are not very beautiful, built of unfired marsh brick [2], it stands on a level, cheerful and soft field, near the seashore, there are many acrid trees [3], that is Turkish carobs, within and around the town many fruit trees, dates, lemons, oranges, pomegranates and an abundance of silk trees, as well as olive and fig trees, bread and wine and other things are sold at little price. There we stayed for four days and set off on mules to the capital of Cyprus, named Levkosia.

Stranstvovaniya Vasiliya Grigorovicha-Barskogo po svyatym mestam Vostoka s 1723 po 1747 / Edited by N. Barsukov. Part 1. 1723–1727 St. Petersburg, 1885. Pages 396–397.

Contemporary photos

Location

Exact coordinates: 34.672400 33.042100

Notes

[1] Limassol, in Byzantine times Neapolis.
[2] Adobe brick.
[3] In this case “acrid trees” are carob trees. Something described as “acrids” (Gr. ακρίδες) is mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew. The evangelist writes that in the desert John the Baptist lived off acrids and wild honey: “ἀκρίδες καὶ μέλι ἄγριον” (Matthew 3:4). This word can have different interpretations. It could refer to an edible form of locusts (locusts can be kosher – one needs only to be hungry and very daring). Another theory is that the “acrids” that John the Baptist ate could have been carobs, which are named as such elsewhere in the Gospel. The Prodigal Son from the Gospel parable (Luke 15:16) was glad to fill his belly with carobs, which pigs ate but nobody would give to him. But in this case in the Greek text is written “ἐκ τῶν κερατίων,” that is “from carobs.”

Literature

Zykova N. V. Palomnichestvo na Kipr pravoslavny (po stopam Vasiliya Grigorovicha-Barskogo). Larnaca, izdatelstvo Russkogo pravoslavnogo obrazovatelnogo tsentra, 2013

© Yuliya Buzykina
English translation by Alastair Gill