Lovelorn destroying Cyprus saint’s tomb
NICOSIA (Reuters) – Unhappy lovers in Cyprus have been taking so much stone from the tomb of Saint Agapitikos to use in love potions that soon there won’t be anything left. Dust from the grave in the courtyard of the church in the village of Arodes in Paphos district has been used for centuries by the lovelorn, who are supposed to slip it into the drink of their objet d’amour. But in recent years so many have been filching shards of stone that a quarter of the tomb has disappeared. «In the last few years I don’t know what’s come over people, but they are flocking to the tomb for the stuff,» said Mayor of Arodes Matthaios Stefanou. «Just the other day locals saw some people visiting the tomb, and they were there for a very long time; in the end they walked off with a huge chunk of stone, maybe even half a kilo of it.» The island’s antiquities department has been called in to help.