Get Real! wrote:samarkeolog wrote:The point is, the abbey was a working Catholic abbey until it was given to the Orthodox Church. Not all of the Latins were killed or expelled. I don't know, but I haven't seen anything that says that Bellapais Abbey's monks were either killed or kicked off the island. All I've seen is stuff on their loss of control of the abbey.
UNFICYP’s “The Blue Beret” monthly magazine has an interesting article on the Abbey of Bellapais….
Page 5 of the PDF:
“With the decline of the Latin period in Cyprus, however, the
Catholic Church on the island also declined. The
Order of Premontre was no exception, particularly as
the morals of the monks had lapsed toward the end of
the Venetian occupation.
In 1570, during the Ottoman invasion of Cyprus, the
Abbey was largely destroyed. What was left was
handed over by the Ottomans to the Orthodox clergy.”
Well, to quote Oracle's alternative source - the one I quoted before - 'After the Turkish conquest in 1570, the abbey was given to the Orthodox Church. The buildings were neglected and fell into disrepair, but the abbey church was used as the parish church for the village that grew up around the monastery (presumably populated by descendents of the monks)[/i].'
So what was left and handed over by the Ottomans to the Orthodox clergy was probably the abbey church that the Orthodox priests used. Maybe the monastery was destroyed, but not the abbey church.
Some here might dismiss it as a dubious source, but another website did say that:
With the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1570, the Ottomans seized the Abbey and its property but allowed the villagers to use the Abbey’s church. Apart from some minor alterations to the church in order for it to function as orthodox (e.g. a new iconostasis), the building maintains its original form.... The Abbey’s cloister is a 14th century building and predates the church. Apart from its west wing the rest of the cloister still survives today.
...
Get Real! wrote:http://www.unficyp.org/media/Blue%20Beret%20-%20pdf%20files/2004/BB-01-January%202004.pdf
Oh dear… the Ottomans have done it again by destroying the Abbey! Or could it be that the Abbey was destroyed but the monks miraculously survived due to surgical Ottoman bombing but were murdered by Makarios later on?
As far as I understand it, in general, '[t]he Orthodox Church and population were allowed freedom of worship, but the Catholics were forced to either convert to Islam or Orthodoxy, or leave the island'. To highlight another part of the first quote, 'the abbey church was used as the parish church... (presumably populated by descendents of the monks)'. They probably converted and continued to serve at the abbey church.
Bye-bye Samarkeolog!
Night night.
He must be a relative... he was the undisputed champion at splitting hairs and you're not too far off! 
