Petr Mogila

Born Dec. 31, 1596 (Jan. 10, 1597), in Moldavia; died Jan. 1(11), 1647, in Kiev. Political, church, and cultural figure of the Ukraine; metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia (1632–47). Son of the hospodar of Moldavia and Walachia.

Mogila was a representative of the Ukrainian feudal aristocracy and the Orthodox clerical elite. He received his education at the L’vov Brethren School. Having taken monastic vows in 1625, by 1627 he was already archimandrite of the Kiev-Pecherskaia Laura. In 1632 he obtained from the Polish king Ladislas IV recognition of the Orthodox Church as independent of the Uniates and the return of a number of churches and monasteries to the Orthodox Church. In 1632, Mogila helped found the Kiev Mogila Academy (named in his honor), the most important center of learning in the Ukraine in the 17th century.

Mogila initiated the publication of many books, primarily concerning public worship. He was the author of sermons and hagiographic tales. He took part in writing the anti-Catholic tract The Stone (Lithos, 1644; published in Polish). By opposing Uniate and Catholic oppression and contributing to the spread of learning, Mogila assisted the Ukrainian people’s struggle against foreign enslavement.