Page "Peter Mogila" Paragraph 11

Petro Mohyla died in 1647, on the eve of the national liberation war of 1648-1654.

In his testament, he instructed that all his property be given to the Mohyla collegium which for nearly two centuries remained the only higher education establishment in the Orthodox world.

Just as Petro Mohyla ’ s envisioned, the school became an important scientific, educational, cultural, and spiritual center of Ukraine.

Its graduates propagated ideas of humanism and national self-determination.

Many of them pursued their careers in Western Europe but many traveled the countryside and taught in villages and towns.

According to the Christian Arab scholar Paul of Aleppo, who in 1655 traveled through Ukraine to Moscow, “ Even villagers in Ukraine can read and write … and village priests consider it their duty to instruct orphans and not let them run in the streets as vagabonds .”