The principle religion in Cyprus is Orthodoxy. The biggest part of Cyprus population (around 78% of the total population) belong to the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus. The Turkish – Cypriots (18%) are Muslim. There are also other minorities such as the Maronites and the Armenian Apostolics, Jewish and Roman Catholics which make up about 4%.
The Greek – Orthodox Church unlike the Western Church emphasizes on the resurrection of Jesus rather than his birth and therefore Easter is a much bigger celebration. Even if it recognized the seniority and prestige of the ecumenical patriarch in Constantinople, remains autonomous.
In the Orthodox Church, the most important activity is the liturgy. It recognized seven sacraments: baptism in infancy, followed by confirmation with consecrated oil, penance, the Eucharist, matrimony, ordination, and unction in times of sickness or when near death.
In Cyprus, there are many Churches in each town and village, each one devoted to a different Saint, or to the Virgin Mary. Most people attend Church during festivities such as Christmas, Easter, weddings, christenings, funerals or on Sundays. Apart from the many Churches there are also many monasteries which can be dated thousands of years ago.
Below you can see a short list of churches in Cyprus as well as some of the monasteries in Cyprus.
If you want to see the full list of churches including a map displaying the location of each of the churches please visit: Cyprus churches
If you want to see the full list of monasteries including a map displaying the location of each of the monasteries visit: Cyprus monasteries
