Kiev Ecclesiastical Academy

The Kiev Theological Academy was the oldest higher educational institution of the Russian Orthodox Church, situated in Kiev, the Russian Empire. The Academy′s predecessor was the Kiev Mohyla Academy founded in the 17th century, in Kiev, then the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The Kiev Academy traces its history back to 1615, when founded a school at the Brotherhood Monastery in Kiev. Several decades later, Peter Mohyla, from 1632 an Orthodox Metroplitan of Kiev under the Patriarchate of Constantinople, merged it with a newly established Lavra school into the Mohyla Collegium (Latin: Collegium Kijovense Mohileanum). The Collegium alumni include Innokentiy Gizel, Lazar Baranovych, Dmitry Tuptalo, Stephen Yavorsky, Feofan Prokopovich and many other state activists and Orthodox clerics who helped reform the Russian Orthodox Church under the auspices of Patriarch Nikon and Peter the Great. In 1658 under the terms of the Treaty of Hadiach the Collegium obtained the status of an Academy, similar to Cracow Academy. This was recognized in 1694 by the Russian tsar Ivan V, then reaffirmed by Peter I in 1701, when it became the Mohyla Academy.