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Peter Mogila was born on [[December 21]], 1596 in Moldavia into a Moldavian boyer family, the Movilesti. The Movilesti family had given Moldavia and Wallachia several rulers, including his father, Ieremia Movila. His mother, Margareta, was a Hungarian princess. Due to political turmoil in Moldavia, the family was forced to flee to Poland while Peter was young. Peter’s early education was in Poland at the Orthodox school in Lvov and continued in Western Europe, including at universities in Paris and Holland. He served as an officer in Poland, but he was more interested in a [[monasticism|monastic]] life. He maintained his loyalty to the Orthodox Church while living in the [[Roman Catholic|Latin]] and Protestant West.
In 1625 he entered the [[Monastery of the Kiev Caves|Pechersk Lavra]] in Kiev. After receiving minor orders, he was [[tonsure]]d a [[monk]] in 1627. He later was [[ordination|ordained]] a [[priest]] and then raised to the dignity of [[archimandrite]]. Finally, he was consecrated a [[bishop]] shortly thereafter and then was enthroned as [[Metropolitan]] of Kiev in 1632. He was also the founder of [[Kiev Theological Academy|Kiev-Mogila Academy ]] in Kiev, which based academic instruction on the western system of seminary and university education, with instruction mainly in Latin and secondarily in Greek and Russian.
Peter headed the Orthodox Church in what is now Ukraine during a period when it was under Polish rule. He was chiefly responsible for reviving Orthodoxy during the times after the 1596 [[Union of Brest-Litovsk]], when a large amount of Orthodox in southwestern Russia submitted to Rome. With strong interests in the fortunes of the Orthodox Church, Peter devoted his energies to strengthening the position of those Orthodox who remained independent of Rome. Against strong, even violent, political and social pressures he was able to recover possession and restore many [[church]]es, including the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev. He died on [[December 22]], 1646 in Kiev.
