Qualla: Church of Cyprus https://qualla.com/church-of-cyprus en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/r/8/church-of-cyprus-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Church of Cyprus https://qualla.com/church-of-cyprus Church of Cyprus: Introduction https://qualla.com/church-of-cyprus/ Photo credit Молли, CC BY-SA 4.0. Few church leaders anywhere in Christianity sign their letters in red ink made vermilion with cinnabar. Fewer still wear Tyrian purple under their vestments and carry a gilt silver staff topped with a gold globus cruciger instead of the regular bishop's crozier. The Archbishop of Cyprus, head of the autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus, has been doing all three since the 5th century. The privileges were granted personally by the Byzantine Emperor Zeno after the archbishop sent him a peculiar diplomatic gift: word that the relics of Barnabas, founder of the Cypriot church, had been found in a vision, with a copy of the Gospel of Matthew on his chest. Zeno, presented with this evidence, confirmed that the Church of Cyprus answered to no patriarch. It still doesn't.

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/r/8/church-of-cyprus-wp/swr8-church-of-cyprus-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Church of Cyprus: The First Christian Country https://qualla.com/church-of-cyprus/ Photo credit Pavlos1988, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cyprus has a strong claim, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, to being the first place ruled by a Christian leader. Paul the Apostle landed on the island during his first missionary journey and converted the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus, making him a Christian governor of a ...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/r/8/church-of-cyprus-wp/swr8-church-of-cyprus-the-first-christian-country.mp3 0:06 2 full Church of Cyprus: Independence by Vision https://qualla.com/church-of-cyprus/ Photo credit Dickelbers, CC BY-SA 3.0. By the 5th century, the Patriarch of Antioch claimed jurisdiction over Cyprus. The Cypriot clergy denounced the claim before the Council of Ephesus in 431, and the Council ruled in their favor with a careful conditional clause: if it has not been a continuous ancient custom for t...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/r/8/church-of-cyprus-wp/swr8-church-of-cyprus-independence-by-vision.mp3 0:06 3 full Church of Cyprus: Exile and Return https://qualla.com/church-of-cyprus/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. Arab raids battered Cyprus for decades during the Byzantine-Arab wars. During the reign of Justinian II, the great cities of Constantia (the renamed Salamis), Kourion, and Paphos were sacked. The emperor advised the archbishop to flee, and the entire surviving Cypriot population ...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/r/8/church-of-cyprus-wp/swr8-church-of-cyprus-exile-and-return.mp3 0:06 4 full Church of Cyprus: The Latin Centuries and the 13 Monks of Kantara https://qualla.com/church-of-cyprus/ Photo credit Viaggiamocela, CC BY-SA 4.0. After Richard the Lionheart conquered Cyprus in 1191, the island fell under Frankish, then Venetian, Catholic rule for nearly four centuries. The Catholic kings reduced the number of Orthodox bishops from fourteen to four, exiled them from their towns, and placed each under the l...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/r/8/church-of-cyprus-wp/swr8-church-of-cyprus-the-latin-centuries-and-the-13-monks-of-kantara.mp3 0:06 5 full Church of Cyprus: Makarios, Then 1974 https://qualla.com/church-of-cyprus/ Photo credit Deror_avi, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1950, Cyprus elected as its archbishop a 36-year-old man named Makarios III. He had founded the Apostle Varnavas Seminary the year before. He organized the 1950 referendum on enosis, the proposed union of Cyprus with Greece. From 1955 to 1959, while still wearing his vermilion...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/r/8/church-of-cyprus-wp/swr8-church-of-cyprus-makarios-then-1974.mp3 0:06 6 full Church of Cyprus: The Mosaics That Came Home https://qualla.com/church-of-cyprus/ Photo credit Vit, CC BY-SA 4.0. The most famous case of recovery involved the 6th century mosaics of the Panagia of Kanakaria church, plundered after 1974 and offered for sale in Indianapolis to an American art dealer. The Church of Cyprus sued. Federal courts in Indianapolis and Chicago ruled, in landmark cult...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/r/8/church-of-cyprus-wp/swr8-church-of-cyprus-the-mosaics-that-came-home.mp3 0:06 7 full