Life
Kyrillos Loukaris was born in Candia, Crete on 13 November 1572, when Crete was part of the Venetian Republic's maritime empire. In his youth he travelled through Europe, studying at Venice and Padua, and at Geneva where he came under the influence of the reformed faith as represented by John Calvin. Lucaris pursued theological studies in Venice and Padua, Wittenberg and Geneva where he came under the influence of Calvinism and developed strong antipathy for Roman Catholicism.
In 1596 Lucaris was sent to Poland by Meletios Pegas, Patriarch of Alexandria, to lead the Orthodox opposition to the Union of Brest-Litovsk, which proposed a union of Kiev with Rome. For six years Lucaris served as professor of the Orthodox academy in Vilnius (now in Lithuania).
Due to Turkish oppression combined with the proselytization of the Orthodox faithful by Jesuit missionaries, there was a shortage of schools which taught the Orthodox Faith and the Greek language. Roman Catholic schools were set up and Catholic churches were built next to Orthodox ones, and since Orthodox priests were in short supply something had to be done. His first act was to found a theological seminary in Mount Athos, the Athoniada school.
He sponsored Maximos of Gallipoli to produce the first modern Bible translations into Greek.
Read more about this topic: Cyril Lucaris
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