The American Lorenzo Warriner Pease was trying to find out information about the Cypriot saints:
Annetta advised me tonight to get a picture of St. Stylianos (Simon the Stilitis, I suppose) and hang it up in the corner of the room as a protection to my children. I made inquiries of her about St. Christopher who is painted in St. Lazarus with a horse’s or donkey’s face, it is difficult to state which, and the hind part like a man’s, as well as the whole body. I asked her if she ever saw such a saint, and how he could have an ass’s head,
- Ah, God is almighty, he can do what he pleases. He made your children, did he not?
- Certainly.
- Well, he can make such things.
- But how so you know?
- Oh, we poor creatures are animals, we do not know better, but worship that which is before us.
- ‘Ah, I see’, said I, ‘you are animals and therefore you worship animals.’
- ‘Oh’, he replied, ‘I fear the Saint.’
- ‘But’, I said, ‘you must fear God.’
- ‘Yes, I fear God- I glorify thee oh, God’.