Sir Harry Luke

In his book Cyprus: a Portrait and an Appreciation, written in 1957, Sir Harry Luke describes an unusual icon he saw in a church in Cyprus.

I might mention a pleasant icon in the church depicting a dog-faced S. Christopher. The legend has it that the saint, a particularly good-looking young man, was heavily pursued against his will by the women and girls. When finally, the King tried to tempt him with his two beautiful daughters, Christopher prayed to be made less attractive, so he was given the face of a dog. In recent years the Holy Synod of Cyprus, turning aside for the moment from its more congenial preoccupation with politics, has decreed that no more dog-faced Christophers shall be produced by the iconographers.

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