Feofan (Feofan Prokopovich (1681-1736), statesman and church figure, writer

Categories / Religion. Church/Personalia
FEOFAN/THEOPHAN (lay name Eleazar Prokopovich) (1681-1736, St. Petersburg), church figure. He studied at Kiev Theological Academy (until 1698), then at colleges of Vladimir-Volynsky, Lvov and Krakov; in Poland he was converted to the Uniate faith and took monastic vows under the name of Elisey. He continued his education in Rome in the College of St. Afanasy. In 1702, he returned to the Ukraine, renounced the Uniate faith, took monastic vows under the name of Samuel (in 1706, he took the name of Feofan). From 1705, he taught at Kievo-Mogilyanskaya Academy; from 1707 he was its prefect; from 1711, was its Rector. In 1716, Peter the Great invited Feofan to St. Petersburg. In 1718, he was raised to the Bishopric of Pskov, but did not go to his Eparchy, remaining in St. Petersburg as the closest assistant of the tsar in church affairs. By the tsar’s order he wrote the legislation for the liquidation of the Patriarchate and establishment of the highest Church Collegium Administration - the Holy Synod (from 1721, he was its vice-president, from 1726, the leader of the Synod). From 1725, he was Archbishop of Novgorod. He lived in St. Petersburg in a wooden house in his metochion on Aptekarsky Island. In 1721, he established a school there. He also owned a stone house on Admiralteiskaya Side and a dacha between Peterhof and Oranienbaum. Feofan composed Spiritual Regulations (1720), wrote an introduction to the Naval Regulations (1719), a treatise about the Patriarchate, essays on marriages of Orthodox people to the faithful of other confessions, on baptism, schism, a detailed commentary for Regulations of Ascending to the Throne and many other works.

References: Чистович И. А. Феофан Прокопович и его время. СПб., 1868; Ничик В. М. Феофан Прокопович. М., 1977; Смирнов В. Г. Феофан Прокопович. М., 1994.

A. I. Razdorsky. Feofan Prokopovich (lay name Eleazar Prokopovich)
Peter I, Emperor
Чистович И. А. Феофан Прокопович и его время. СПб., 1868
Ничик В. М. Феофан Прокопович. М., 1977
Смирнов В. Г. Феофан Прокопович. М., 1994 Synod