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Cyril Lucaris

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'''Cyrillos Lukaris''' or '''Cyril Lucaris''' or '''Cyril Lucar''' ([[1572]] - [[June 27]], [[1637]]) was a Greek prelate and theologian and a native of [[Crete]]. He later became the Patriarch of Alexandria as '''Cyril III''' and [[Patriarch of Constantinople]] as '''Cyril I'''. He was the first great name in the Orthodox Church since the [[fall of Constantinople]] in [[1453]], and dominated its history in the 17th century.
Patriarch Cyril was born Konstantinos Loukaris in [[Heraklion]], [[Crete]] in [[1572]]. In his youth Lukaris , he travelled through throughout Europe, studying at Venice, Padua and Geneva where he came under the influence of the reformed faith of John Calvin. In He was ordained a priest and, in [[16021601]] he , was elected Patriarch of Alexandria and in at age 29, succeeding his uncle. On [[November 4]], [[1621]] he was elected [[Patriarch of Constantinople]].
Due to Turkish oppression combined with the proselytisation of the Orthodox faithful by Jesuit missionaries, there was a shortage of schools which taught the Orthodox faith and [[Greek language]]. Catholic schools were set up and Catholic churches built next to Orthodox ones; since Orthodox priests were in short demand, something had to be done. Due to good relations with Lucaris fought the Anglicans, in [[1677]] Bishop Henry Compton influence of London built Roman Catholicism among his flock. He had a church for the Greek Orthodox printing press established in London which closed in [[1682]]. In [[1694]], renewed sympathy for Constantinople to enlighten the Greeks led to plans for Worcester College, Oxford (then Gloucester Hall), to become a college for believers and also had the Greeks. These plans never came to fruitionBible translated into modern Greek.
In [[1753]] Patriarch Cyril Lukaris opened a school of thought called [[Athoniada]] at [[Mount Athos]]. Catholics and Orthodox opposed to Loukaris insisted to the Turkish authorities that this school should be closed. In [[1759]] the Athos School was indeed closed. Loukaris' next option was to send students abroad to study, as long as it was not to schools of Catholic thought. The Calvinists were appealing because their beliefs were very similar to Orthodox ones. It is alleged that the great aim of Loukaris' life was to reform the Orthodox Church on Calvinistic lines, and to this end he sent many young Greek theologians to the universities of Switzerland, the northern Netherlands and England. In [[1629]], he published his famous ''ConfessioConfession'' which was basically Calvinistic in doctrine but, as far as possible, accommodated to the language and creeds of the Orthodox Church. It appeared the same year in two Latin editions, four French, one German and one English. This started a controversy in the Orthodox Church which culminated, in [[1691]], in a convocation of a synod, by Dositheos, Patriarch of Jerusalem, which condemned the Confession and Calvinist doctrines.
Cyril was also particularly well disposed towards the Anglican Church, and his correspondence with the Archbishops of Canterbury is extremely interesting. It was in his time that Mitrophanis Kritopoulos — later to become Patriarch of Alexandria (1636-1639) — was sent to England to study. Both Lucaris and Kritopoulos were lovers of books and manuscripts, and acquired manuscripts that today adorn the Patriarchal Library.

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