It was notated in the writings of Father Stephen de Lusignan in 1580 and the Byzantine monks at the Monastery of St. Nicholas that they were given the lands surrounding the monastery provided that they take care of at least 100 cats and feed them two times a day. The cats were so well trained that they would come for one bell to eat and when it rang 2 times they knew it was time to go out and hunt snakes once again.

The monastery was completely destroyed during the Turkish invasion and the cats that were not killed soon wandered around the island. Strays toady can sometimes be linked to those cats, and are well taken care of by the residents.

The monastery was rebuilt and was abandoned several times. In most recent history a group of nuns was assigned to live there in 1983. They arrived to an empty monastery not one cat was in sight. They soon found that the snakes had taken over an just like Saint Helena they begin to gather up cats to take care of the situation.