Escape from Rome: Teofan Prokopovych and Ukrainian Orthodox Ties to the Eternal City, 1650-1721

For most people, a sojourn in Rome does not result in the life-changing event of becoming a religious reformer. The story of Teofan Prokopovych, a Kyivan student in the Eternal City in the late 1690s, stands out as a lesser-known exception to that overall trend, the most famous case being the visit by a young monk Martin Luther in 1511. Although hundreds of Ukrainian Orthodox believers sought Catholic education abroad at the time, Prokopovych's 'scandal' in Rome, was a paradigm-shifting experience that served as a catalyst for subsequent church reform in Ukraine and Russia. This reform ended the dissimulative practice of seeking education in Catholic schools and turned more Ukrainians towards the universities and theological curriculum of Protestant Europe. Having run away from Rome, Ukrainian Orthodoxy turned to Pietist Halle, under the watchful guidance of Prokopovych and other reforming hierarchs of the Holy Synod.