Kormakitis, Cyprus – The fitful chirps of birds are the only sounds to break the silence, as Iosif Skordis, a robust 89-year-old with a taste for fuzzy wool caps, unhurriedly takes his usual seat on the narrow balcony outside this decades-old cafe.

Turning slightly to his right, he points through an open green door to the handful of men – all in their 60s, at least – huddled around a card game beneath yellowed posters of Catholic popes and Lebanese leaders.

“These ones over there, they are the youngest of those of us still living here,” Skordis says between sips of coffee, as afternoon breaks in Kormakitis.

This tiny hilltop village in the horn of northwestern Cyprus is home to some 100 elderly Maronites, followers of one of the Catholic Church’s oldest branches.

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