By Andrew Adamides
NUN Nectaria Tryphonos returned to the Ayios Iraklidios convent late last night after allegedly being snatched from there earlier in the day.
Police issued a statement last night saying they had been made aware of Nectaria’s wherabouts and had taken her to Paphos police headquarters. In a statement she made there, the nun said she did not wish to file a complaint against anyone and only wanted to go back to Ayios Iraklidios.
The astounding events surrounding priest Papakyriakos Tryphonos’ daughter Nectaria, 23, started to unfold at around 9.15am, yesterday, when a black taxi, registration unknown, drew up outside the Nicosia convent. Two women described as being between 40 and 45 got out of the car, approached and embraced Nectaria.
They then told the abbess the young nun would go with them to visit her paralysed sister.
As the three then walked to the waiting taxi, a white and blue minibus drew up. While the taxi driver shouted out “Come quietly, everything is OK.”, between 12 and 20 people got out of the minibus and grabbed Nectaria, bundling her into the vehicle. It then headed off towards an unknown destination.
The minibus, driven by a balding man of around 40, was later traced to the Paphos-based Aphrodite Taxi company.
A search by Paphos police failed to locate any of the minibuses owned by the company, but it is known that one answering the description of the vehicle used in the snatch departed the firm’s headquarters for Nicosia early yesterday morning. Carrying the licence number EET669, it was allegedly driven by Panicos Michael Zacharias and was believed to be transporting German tourists.
As soon as they realised what had happened, nuns at the convent alerted police, who began a search for the missing nun.
Speaking later at the family’s home village of Letymbou, Paphos, Nectaria’s father, Papakyriakos, who was outraged when his daughter absconded to the convent, told CyBC reporters only he knew where she was and refused to comment further.
Nectaria first hit headlines when her father staged a hunger strike just after she entered the convent, claiming she had been brainwashed into joining the order.
She had, he said, never shown any leanings toward a monastic way of life prior to sudden decision.
Last Friday, however, Nectaria hit back at these statements, and calls for pressure to be put on the church to “release” her by writing an open letter to the media. In it, she asked to be left alone as she was “old enough” to know what she wanted, and that was to remain where she was.
But Papakyriakos claimed his daughter was being threatened with divine punishment in order to prevent her from leaving the convent. Engaged to be married, Nectaria was a student at the Cyprus University before her decision to enter the convent.
