Pafos :: Cyprus

Christianity is interwoven into the embroidery of Cypriot history. Which is not surprising, when you consider that Cyprus is the Mediterranean island closest to the Holy Land. It was in 45AD that Paul the Apostle traveled with St. Barnabas to Cyprus. He succeeded in converting the Roman proconsul in Pafos, Sergius Paulus, to the Christian faith, making Cyprus the first country ever to be governed by a Christian leader. Later, according to the biblical account, St. Lazarus was resurrected from the dead by Christ and sailed from Bethany to Cyprus where he lived for another 30 years. His sarcophagus is in the crypt of St. Lazarus Church in Larnaka.

The new religion was not officially recognized until the Byzantine period. In 313 AD freedom of worship was granted to all by the imperial decree of Emperor Constantine and many of the stricter Roman laws were repealed. Emperor Theodosius ordered the pagan temples to be closed in the late fourth century AD. The Patriarch of Antioch tried to bring the Church of Cyprus under its jurisdiction but the Cypriots resisted to this. The timely discovery of the relics of St. Barnabas with the handwritten copy of St. Matthew’s Gospel by the then Archbishop of Cyprus, Anthemius gave proof that the Church of Cyprus was established directly by the Apostles Paul and Barnabas and thereof of Apostolic foundation.

Anthemius, Archbishop of Cyprus brought the relics and the gospel to Emperor Zeno in Constantinople. Zeno declared the Cyprus church autocephalous, (meaning self-governed) and conferred to the Cyprus Archbishop certain royal privileges. Saint Barnabas, a Cypriot himself, is the founder of the Church of Cyprus.