Petros I. Tsiros

Who is Petros I. Tsiros?

Petros I. Tsiros was born in Limassol in September 1904 and died in May 1984. His father was Ioannis Tsiros, a well known contractor, who was responsible for the construction of Limassol's water tower, a pioneering and advanced project at the time. His mother was Sofia Tsiros, a very respectable and religious Christian woman from the village of Lysi, and was known to be a relative of Grigoris Afxentiou family. Later in life she became a head nun at Ayios Georgios Alamanos monastery, where she is buried .

Petros I. Tsiros was a very well known and respected landowner and a businessman in Cyprus and probably one of the first large scale land developers on the island. But what he will mostly be remembered for is for his extensive charitable activities that included cash donations to old people's homes, the sick and the poor and generally anyone in need. He seemed to get more pleasure in giving than making money. His charitable work extends to donating land for schools, two of which bear his name, and churches one of which was his own parish and was named in his honor of St. Peter and Paul.

Up to date he is the person who has baptized more children in Cyprus that anyone else, about 700 in all, mostly from poor families, as he could not deny anyone when asked. As a good Christian when those parents could not cope with the upbringing of his god children he was always there for them. His present for the poorest of his female godchildren when they grew up and were ready for marriage was some land to build their home on. His poorest male godchildren usually received help for their studies. His permanent weekly aid lists were a for the poor, b medicine for the sick and c for war veterans.