Theophan Prokopovich

Feofan Prokopovich
A posthumous portrait from the mid-18th century
Born	18 June 1681 (1681-06-18) Kyiv
Died	19 September 1736 (1736-09-20) (aged 55) St. Petersburg
Occupation	Archbishop

Feofan/Theophan (Eleazar) Prokopovich Template:Lang-uk (18 June 1681, Kyiv – 19 September 1736, St. Petersburg) was Ukrainian theologian, writer, poet, mathematician, philosopher, rector of the Kyiv-Mohyla Kiev Academy, Archbishop of Novgorod. He elaborated and implemented Peter the Great's reform of the Russian Orthodox Church. One of the founding fathers of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Prokopovich wrote much religious verse and some of the most enduring sermons.

Eleazar Prokopovich was born in Kyiv in the family of a shopkeeper Tsereysky. After the death of his father and mother the guardian of Eliezer was his uncle Feofan Prokopovich mother, the governor of the Kyiv Brotherhood Epiphany Monastery, professor and rector of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Uncle gave Eleazar primary school at that monastery. After graduation, Eleazar became a student of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. After his uncle's death, Feofan Prokopovich, it supported the Kiev Metropolitan, rector of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Barlaam Jasinski.

In 1698, after graduating from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Eleazar decides to continue their education. In the same year entered the Volodymyr-Volynskyi Uniate Collegium, he lives in the Basilian monastery, where the union takes and tonsured as a monk under the name of Elisha. Uniate Bishop of Volodymyr-Volynskyi Zalensky noticed the unusual abilities of the young monk, and contributed to his translation to the Catholic Academy of St. Athanasius in Rome, which was prepared by theologians to spread Catholicism among the Eastern Orthodox adherents.

In Rome he enjoyed the Vatican Library, in addition to theology studied the works of ancient Latin and Greek philosophers, historians, attractions old and new Rome, the principles of the Catholic faith and of the Pope church acquainted with the works of Tommaso Campanella, Galileo Galilei, Giordano Bruno, Nicolaus Copernicus.

October 28, 1701 left Rome without completing the full course of the academy. Walk passed through France, Switzerland, Germany, while studying in Halle, where he became acquainted with the ideas of Protestant Reformation.

1704 returned to Ukraine, first in Pochayiv Lavra, then in Kyiv, renounced the Catholic faith, is penance and tonsure in the Orthodox monks, taking Feofan name in memory of his uncle.

From 1705 he taught rhetoric, poetics and philosophy at the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium, wrote tragicomedy "Volodymyr", dedicating it to Hetman Ivan Mazepa. At the same time he writes and pronounces the theological and philosophical sermon through which was seen by the Kyiv governor-general Dmitry Golitsyn and Alexander Menshikov.

In 1707 he became Prefect of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

In 1711 Tsar of Muscovy Peter I in the Treaty of the Pruth, in Iași was struck by the eloquence of Prokopovich in a sermon on the occasion of the anniversary of the Battle of Poltava. Upon returning to Kyiv Feofan Prokopovich he was appointed rector of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy and professor of theology. At the same time he became abbot of the Kiev Brotherhood Epiphany Monastery. He entirely reformed the teaching of theology there, substituting the historical method of the German theologians for the former Orthodox scholastic system.

In 1716 summoned him to St Petersburg. From henceforth it was Prokopovich's duty and pleasure to explain the new ideas and justify the most alarming innovations from the pulpit. He became so invaluable to the civil power that despite the determined opposition of the Russian clergy, who regarded the "Light of Kiev" as an interloper and semi-heretic, he was rapidly promoted, becoming, in 1718, bishop of Pskov, and finally, in 1725, archbishop of Novgorod.¹

As the author of the spiritual regulation for the reform of the Russian Orthodox Church, Feofan is regarded as the creator of the spiritual department superseding the patriarchate, and better known by its later name of the Holy Governing Synod, of which he was made vice-president. Penetrated by the conviction that ignorance was the worst of the inveterate evils of old Russia, a pitiless enemy of superstition of every sort; a reformer by nature, resourceful, Prokopovich continued to be a reformer after the death of Peter the Great.

Footnotes

¹ He had served as vicar to the previous Archbishop of Novgorod since the early 18th century. See Pavel Tikhomirov, Kafedra Novgorodskikh Sviatitelei (Novgorod, 1895–1899).

References

• I. Chistovitch, Theofan Prokopovich and his Times (Rus.; Petersburg, 1868)
• P. Morozov, Theophan Prokopovich as a Writer (Rus.; Petersburg, 1880).
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• Funerary sermon on Peter I (in English)
• Nikolay Kostomarov's article on Prokopovich (in Russian)
• Encyclopædia Britannica online article
• Oleksiy Barbaruk-Trypilsky, "Feofan Prokopovych created the Russian Empire", Hazeta Po-Ukrainsky, June 30, 2006, in Russian, in Ukrainian.