During the Ottoman rule of Cyprus from 1571 to 1878, the year Cyprus came under British Rule[1], the Maronites suffered from harsh oppression, religious persecution, military conscription, and head taxes.[2] The Ottoman forces initiated their occupation of the island by first burning Limassol and looting the surrounding villages. They meticulously and savagely destroyed Nicosia. Only 235 adult males remained there. Among these survivors, there were 21 persons, made up of Armenians and Maronites. The Ottomans governed Cyprus by a governor named Pasha, who represented the sultan, and two assistants residing in Paphos and Famagusta. They introduced the millet system, which divided Ottoman subjects on religious lines. Non-Muslims, Christians and Jews, or People of the Book, were classified as dhimmis (protected people) who were free to practice their faith but required to pay the Jiziye, or head tax.[3]

At one stage, after they guaranteed full control of the island, the Ottoman forces “massacred bishops and heads of monasteries and turned Catholic churches into mosques.”[4] They showed no mercy to either Orthodox or Latin. Consequently, the Maronites who lent allegiance to the Latins were forced to either become Muslims or join the Orthodox church. Many Maronites were killed, exiled, imprisoned, or enslaved. Some fled to Lebanon and others participated in uprisings encouraged by the Venetians, trying to overthrow the Ottomans and regain the island. Many Christians, mainly Armenians, Maronites and Albanians, driven by a combination of economic and political incentives, surrendered to pressure exerted by the Ottoman authority and, in despair, converted to Islam to survive and be saved from religious persecution and oppressive burdens (tax, military service, etc.) Stravro Skendi commented on the converts of Cyprus to Islam:

The Crypto-Christians of Cyprus descended from Catholics who renounced their faith to escape persecution. This persecution was not Muslim alone. It has been maintained by Catholic writers that the Catholics of Cyprus were Maronites… who after the fall of the island were submitted to humiliating treatment on the part of the Greek Orthodox bishops, now taking revenge on the Catholic Church.[5]

In 1673, the Maronite Archbishop was forced to leave Cyprus for Lebanon. By 1686, there were only 150 Maronites in just eight villages. In 1735, a Monastery for the Prophet Elias was built near the village of Ayia Marina Skylouras. The number of Maronites gradually increased. During Ottoman rule, the Maronites of Cyprus faced difficult times. They resorted to France’s ambassadors and consuls to protect them and improve their treatment by Cyprus's local authorities (Pasha). It is important to note that following the signing of the capitulation treaty with the Ottoman Porte in 1535, France acted as the protector of the Empire’s Christian religious minorities to secure its interests. French diplomats protected the Maronites in particular and their doors were always open to them. They saw them as “a community that could give it [France] a foothold into the economic potentialities of the Levant.”[6] France's protection helped the enduring Maronite community to survive. A small group of this community benefited commercially and economically and gained social mobility, especially those who married Frenchmen or worked as interpreters. France’s protection also helped to end the Maronites' subjection to Greek bishops following a firman issued by the Ottoman sultan in 1848.[7]