 Maronite Cypriots in traditional folk costume | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 13,170 (2021)[1] | |
| Languages | |
| Cypriot Arabic,Cypriot Greek | |
| Religion | |
| Maronite Church – CatholicChristianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Maronites,Lebanese people,Lebanese Cypriots,Greek Cypriots,Turkish Cypriots,Armenian Cypriots |
Maronite Cypriots are anethnoreligious group and are members of theMaronite Catholic Archeparchy of Cyprus whose ancestors migrated from theLevant during theMiddle Ages. A percentage of them traditionally speak avariety ofArabic known asCypriot Arabic, in addition toGreek. People speaking this Arabic dialect originate from one village, specificallyKormakitis. AsEastern Catholics of theWest Syriac Rite, they are infull communion with theCatholic Church ofRome.
As of 2025[update] the Archbishop of Cyprus wasSelim Jean Sfeir, born inRayfoun, Lebanon on 2 September 1958. He was ordained Archbishop on 19 June 2021. He succeededJoseph Soueif, who had been installed as the Archbishop ofTripoli, Lebanon in 2020.
Legally defined in theConstitution of Cyprus as a religious group within theGreek Cypriot community, which they chose to join by vote just before independence alongside their fellowRoman Catholics of theLatin Rite and theArmenians. While Maronites are part of the Greek Cypriot electoral register when voting for president and members of the house of representatives, they also vote for a special representative that is not an MP but corresponds to the now non functioning communal chambers of the Greek and Turkish communities.[2]
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In the 13th century there were about 50,000 to 80,000 Maronites inCyprus, living in 60 villages.[3][4] Most came to Cyprus with the Crusaders who retreated to Cyprus following their defeat in Levant. However, the reported number of Maronites in Levant at that time was approximately 40,000 people, so it is unlikely that the number of people arriving to Cyprus would have be more. The estimated number of Maronites, who, as mentioned lived in 60 small mixed with local population, villages in Cyprus, mainly in Pentadaktylos and Karpas area, is approximately 12 to 13,000 people. Many of these returned to Levant during Venetian rule of Cyprus, due to the heavy taxes and this explains their reduction to approximately 2,000 souls at the beginning of the Ottoman rule of Cyprus.
The number of Maronites kept declining through the Ottoman rule; 19 Maronite villages were recorded in 1599 byGirolamo Dardini, in 1629, Pietro Vespa records that the community of 1500 Maronites is served by 11 priests, in 8 churches; Giovanni Battista da Todi records 800 Maronites, distributed across 10 villages, and served by 12 priests, in 1647, but fourteen years later, in 1661, he counts only eight villages with Maronite populations 125. In 1669, we find 1,000 souls distributed in 10 villages. Dominique Jauna records a total of 1,000 Maronites and Armenians, around 1747. In 1776, the patriarchate of Lebanon lists 500 Maronites. The 1841 Ottoman census of Talaat Effendi gave a figure of 1,400 Maronites, including 100 in the kaza ofMorfou, 1,000 in that ofLapithos-Cérines, 300 in that of Nicosia. In the 1891 census, out of 209,286 Cypriots 1,131 were Maronites, the figure rose to 1,350 in 1921 and 1,704 in 1931.[5][6][7]
Until theTurkish invasion of 1974, the town ofKormakitis was known as a centre of Maronite culture.[8] Kormakitis village, was inhabited by approximately 50% of the Maronites of Cyprus. Its characteristic is that its people, mainly the elderly, spoke their own dialect, not spoken by Maronites living in the other villages. The dialect was obviously an Arabic dialect influenced by the local languages, Greek and Turkish.
According to the 1960 census, there were 2,752 Maronites, mainly in the four northern villages of Kormakitis,Karpaseia,Asomatos, andAgia Marina. Following thehostilities between the Greek and Turkish communities that led to the de factodivision of Cyprus, most Maronites dispersed to the south. Only about 150 mostly elderly people remained withinNorthern Cyprus. As of 2010[update], the total estimated population is about 5,000–6,000, primarily in the southern area of Nicosia.[5][9]
75% of Maronites live inNicosia, 15% inLimassol, and 5% inLarnaca.[8]
Migrations also occurred over the following centuries, culminating in the mass migration of the 13th century when, according to the French historian Mas Latrie, they reached 80,000 and lived in 60 villages.
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