According to tradition when the mother of the emperor Constantine the Great set-off for the Holy Land, with the intention to find the True Cross, a storm oblidged her to make a halt in Paros. On her way to the ancient town she found one of the first chapels of the new religion dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin and stopped to pray. There she promissed that if she found the True Cross and returned safely to her home, she would have a fine church built on that spot in Paros.