Among the surviving Byzantine evidence, the group of Cretan cycles today represents one of the richest examples of the pictorial Akathistos tradition, broadly datable to the late fourteenth to early fifteenth century. Five full pictorial cycles and one fragmentary are found in the following Cretan churches: the Panagia church in Meronas, the Panagia church in Roustika, the katholikon of the monastery of the Hodegetria, the katholikon of the monastery of Saint Phanourios at Valsamonero, the katholikon of the monastery of Panagia Kardiotissa at Vorroi, and the Panagia church of Kavousi. Thus, the group of Cretan testimonies, such rich as it is, first and foremost invites one to consider the surviving testimonies together, in search of the patterns according to which they were composed and executed. It is from this perspective that I turn to examine the Cretan cycles of the Akathistos, with the aim of exploring the history of their compositional processes. What is their historical environment and is it of broader dynamics? Were these cycles installed in their material context (their architectural space and iconographic programme) by following a specific pattern? And did the composition of their iconographic schemes really rely on one common archetype or was the process in fact more complicated? In trying to answer these questions, I shall first try to set the Cretan cycles in their historical context. Then I will focus on their architectural and iconographic contexts, as well as on their iconographic content.