Monks at Kykkos Monastery on Wednesday strongly denounced the spread of fake news circulating online, falsely claiming they discovered a “miracle drug” to cure serious and deadly illnesses, available for purchase via the internet.​

The hoax features an AI-generated interview with the monastery’s abbot promoting the “miraculous discovery”, alongside fabricated photos of him with doctors.

The drug’s recipe is outlined in detail in the fake news story, after the abbot, Father Andreas “agreed to speak publicly about the secret recipe, which the monks have kept secret here for generations”.

It was claimed that patients visited the monastery after they had been cured upon receiving the ‘miracle drug’ which, according to the misinformation, “contains 27 rare extracts, recognised in the ancient monastic tradition for their effectiveness in treating joints and the spine”.

The fake news goes on to list groups of Cypriot doctors and individuals from Larnaca who were successfully treated, going as far as to specify their alleged names: Elisabeth Marciniak and Krzysztof Mazur.

“The monastery strongly condemns these misleading publications, which seek to deceive and economically exploit vulnerable people,” the Kykkos monastery stated on Wednesday.​

They urged the public to exercise caution with such deceptive content, which preys on religious faith and hopes for cure.​