Church of Cyprus
Church of George III | |
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Monasteries | 67 |
Language | Koine Greek |
Headquarters | Nicosia, Cyprus |
Territory | Cyprus |
Founder | Barnabas the Apostle |
Origin | Roman Cyprus |
Independence | AD 431 or earlier |
Recognition | AD 431 (Council of Ephesus), AD 478 (Roman Empire) |
Members | 838,897[1] |
Official website | www |
Part of a series on the |
Eastern Orthodox Church |
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Overview |
The Church of
History
Roman era
According to the
A few of the bishops who helped spread Christianity on the island were Lazarus, the Bishop of Kition, Herakleidios the Bishop of Tamasos, Avxivios the Bishop of Soloi, and Theodotos the Bishop of Kyrenia.
Towards the end of the fourth century, Christianity had spread throughout the island. During this time St. Epiphanius was Archbishop. His seat was in Salamis, which was renamed Constantia.
Byzantine era
This independent (autocephalous) position by ancient custom was recognized against the claims of the
In 478, Archbishop
Cyprus suffered greatly from Arab invasions in the following centuries, and during the reign of Justinian II the cities of Constantia, Kourion and Paphos were sacked. At the advice of the Emperor, the Archbishop fled to the Dardanelles along with the survivors, and established the city of Nova Justiniana (Greek: Νέα Ιουστινιανή, Néa Iustinianē), named after the Emperor, at Erdek near the city of Cyzicus. In 692 the Quinisext Council reconfirmed the status and privileges of the exiled Archbishop and in 698, when the Arabs were driven out of Cyprus, the Archbishop returned but retained the title of "Archbishop of Nova Justiniana and All Cyprus": a custom that, along with the "three privileges", continues to this day.
Crusader era
After the establishment of the Kingdom of Cyprus, the Catholic kings gradually reduced the number of Orthodox bishops from 14 to 4 and forced those away from their towns. The archbishop was moved from Nicosia to the region of Solia, near Morphou, the bishop of Larnaca was moved to the village of Lefkara etc. Each Orthodox bishop was under the Catholic bishop of the area. The Catholic Church tried on occasion to coax the Orthodox bishops to make concessions on the differences in doctrine and practices between the two churches, sometimes with threats and sometimes using violence and torture, as in the case of the 13 monks at Kantara monastery.[citation needed] Moreover, the properties of many monasteries were confiscated. The persecutions, especially during the Frankish period, did not succeed in uprooting the faith of the Greek Cypriots.
Despite initial frictions, the two churches gradually managed to coexist side by side peacefully. The local Orthodox Christians shared some of the benefits of the economic development of Cyprus and especially Famagusta at the time. The Orthodox cathedral of St George (known as Saint George of the Greeks – today in ruins) is almost as high and monumental as the nearby Catholic cathedral of St Nicholas (a mosque since 1571), and is also an example of an interesting fusion of gothic and Byzantine architecture.
The Franks were succeeded by the Venetians in 1489 without any significant change to the status of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Cypriot independence
In 1950, Makarios III was elected Archbishop. While still Bishop of Kition he had demonstrated strong intellectual and national activity. In 1949 he founded the Apostle Varnavas Seminary, and in 1950 he organised the referendum on the Union (Enosis) between Cyprus and Greece. While archbishop he was the political leader of the EOKA liberation struggle in the years 1955–1959. The British exiled him to the Seychelles because of his activities.
In 1960, Archbishop Makarios III was elected President of the newly established republic of
Turkish invasion
The coup d'état was followed by the Turkish invasion of 20 July 1974 which significantly affected the church and its flock: as 35% of Cyprus' territory came under Turkish occupation, hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Christians were displaced and those that could not or did not want to leave (20,000 initially) faced oppression. As of May 2001 figures only 421 Greek Orthodox Cypriots and 155 Maronites remain in North Cyprus.
The destruction of Christian monuments was another important consequence.[6] Churches containing Byzantine icons, frescoes and mosaics have been pillaged by antiquities dealers and sold on the black market. One of the most prominent cases of pillage was of the mosaics of Panagia of Kanakaria of the 6th century AD, which were finally returned to the Church of Cyprus, following rulings by federal courts in Indianapolis and Chicago.[7] In Northern Cyprus, there are 514 churches, chapels and monasteries, many of which were converted to mosques, museums or abandoned.[8]
Recent events
On 3 August 1977, Makarios III died and was succeeded by Archbishop Chrysostomos I. In 1979, the new Statutory Charter of the Church of Cyprus was drawn up and approved replacing the old one of 1914.
In old age, Archbishop Chrysostomos suffered from Alzheimer's disease and was unable to carry out his duties for a number of years. In May 2006,
Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Paphos, 65, was elected the new archbishop on 5 November 2006, after a long-running election campaign, becoming Archbishop Chrysostomos II, Archbishop of Nea Justiniana and All Cyprus.
After the death of Chrysostomos II, the 2022 Cypriot archiepiscopal election was called to choose his successor.[9][10]
Administration and Holy Synod
The
.Metropolises and Metropolitans
- Metropolis of Paphos and Exarchate of Arsinoe and Romaeon: Tychikos (2023-)
- Metropolis of Kition and Exarchate of Larnaca and Pano Lefkara: Nectarios Spirou (2019–)
- Metropolis of Kyrenia and Exarchate of Lapithos and Karavas: Chrysostomos Kykkotis (2011–)[11]
- Metropolis of Limassol, Amathus and Kourion: Athanasios Nikolaou (1999–)
- Neophytos (Omiros) Masouras(1998–)
- Metropolis of Constantia and Ammochostos: Vasileios Karayiannis (2007–)
- Metropolis of Kykkos and Tillyria: Nikiphoros Kykkotis (2007–)
- Metropolis of Tamassos and Oreini: Isaias Kykkotis (2007–)
- Metropolis of Trimithous: Varnavas Stavrovouniotis (2007–)
Dioceses and Bishops
- Diocese of Karpasia: Christophoros Tsiakas (2007–)
- Diocese of Arsinoe: Nektarios Spyrou (2008–)
- Diocese of Amathus: Nikolaos Xiouri (2007–)
Titular Dioceses and Bishops
- Diocese of Ledra: Epiphanios Mahairiotis (2007–)
- Diocese of Kytros: Leontios Englistriotis (2007–)
- Diocese of Neapolis: Porphyrios Mahairiotis (2007–)
- Diocese of Mesaoria: Grigorios Hatziouraniou (2008–)
The Holy Synod meets regularly in the first week after Easter and in the first fortnight of the months of February and September. It meets in ad hoc sessions when it is deemed necessary or when two of its members put forward a request.
Religious sites in Cyprus
- Nine Byzantine churches in the Troödos mountains are listed by UNESCO as World Heritage sites, pictured here.
- Kykkos Monastery, guardians of the holy Kykkotissa Icon, an unusual representation of the infant Jesus kicking with joy on his mother's lap.
- Icons smuggled from the Bishopric of the Holy Metropolis of Kyrenia and Church of Panaghia Asinou in the northern Turkish-occupied part of the island were repatriated by a collector in the United States of America in 2007.
- Icons from Kalopanayiotis village stolen even earlier, before the division of the island, have also been returned to the Church's custody.
- Some estimate that since 1974 looters have stripped an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 icons; several dozen major frescoes and mosaics dating from the sixth to the fifteenth century; and thousands of chalices, wooden carvings, crucifixes, and Bibles. Efforts by the Autocephalous Church of Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus to return some of these objects are described in a 1998 issue of Archeology magazine but the majority remain lost.
- Churches in capital Nicosia such as Chrysaliniotissa Our Lady of the Golden Flax, Panayia Chrysospiliotissa Our Lady of the Gold Cave and the Archangel Michael Trypiotis Church, along with the Byzantine Museum of the Archbishop Makarios III Foundation, listed for interested visitors
- Monasteries listed separately.
See also
References
- ^ CNEWA - Orthodox Church of Cyprus
- ^ "Cyprus: An Island Rich in Christian Tradition". CNEWA. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
- ^ "History of Church of Paphos". www.impaphou.org. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
- ^ Burkiewicz, Ł. "The beginnings of Christianity in Cyprus. Religious and cultural aspects".
- JSTOR 985575.
- ^ Bachman, Carolyn (2003). "An Introduction to the Issue of Preserving Cultural Heritage". Brown Classical Journal. 15. Archived from the original on 2006-09-11. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
- S2CID 147162639.
- ^ Morris, Chris (2002-01-18). "Shame of Cyprus' looted churches". BBC. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
- ^ "Στις 18 Δεκεμβρίου 2022 οι Αρχιεπισκοπικές εκλογές, για πρώτη φορά ψηφοδέλτιο". AlphaNews.Live (in Greek). Retrieved 2022-11-14.
- ^ "Archbishop elections on December 18 (Update 3) | Cyprus Mail". Cyprus Mail. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
- ^ Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 11-11-20
Sources
- Coureas, Nicholas (2019). "The Syrian Melkites of the Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus (1192–1474)". Chronos: Revue d'Histoire de l'Université de Balamand. 40: 75–94. Archived from the original on 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- Kiminas, Demetrius (2009). The Ecumenical Patriarchate: A History of Its Metropolitanates with Annotated Hierarch Catalogs. Wildside Press LLC. ISBN 9781434458766.
- ISBN 9780881410563.
- Ostrogorsky, George (1956). History of the Byzantine State. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
- Roudometof, Victor (2010). "The Transformation of Greek Orthodox Ecclesiastical Institutions in Cyprus, 1878–1931". Chronos: Revue d'Histoire de l'Université de Balamand. 22: 7–23.
External links
- Official website (in Greek)
- Official Cypriot Government (about the Church of Cyprus)
- Background on events curtailing religious freedoms and reports of signs of hope, such as the November 30, 1994 celebration of the Eucharist at St. Andrew monastery on the Karpas peninsula, the first event in the north in 20 years, from the CNEWA (Catholic Near East Welfare Association).
- Article on the Church of Cyprus by Ronald Roberson on the CNEWA website
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 701–702.