The inscription on the bottom of the arch indicates that the temple was dedicated by Lavrentios, monk and abbot of St. Andronikos Monastery, to “St.

[1] The inscription reads (in Greek): The name St. Themonianos mentioned in the inscription is almost certainly a corruption on the name of St. Euphemianos, a local 12th-century saint who led an ascetic life in a cave near the village of Lefkoniko in the plain of Masaoria, and was one of "three hundred" Palestinian refugees who fled to Cyprus during the Arab persecutions against the Christians.

Before the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, thousands would visit the church on the Saint’s feast day on November 14.

The dome fresco with Christ Pantokrator and an apse depicting the Virgin Mary were cut into 38 pieces, and shipped to Germany by Aydın Dikmen, the Turkish art dealer and notorious smuggler, who claimed they originated from an abandoned church in southern Turkey, and prepared to sell them into the European art market.

A February 1992 agreement signed by the Church of Cyprus and the Menil Foundation specified that the Menil Foundation will take care of the frescoes and cover the ongoing costs of conservation in exchange for the right to present the frescoes for a period of twenty years, concluding in February 2012.