The Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church written by St. Peter Mohyla (Mogila, Movila; 1596-1647), Metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia, and all Rus’ is one of the symbolical books of the Orthodox Christian Church. It is an explanation of the Orthodox Christian faith, intended for educational purposes, printed in the form of a baroque Latin style question and answer catechism, divided into three portions based on the three christian theological virtues: Faith, Hope, and Love, which are said to lead to Wisdom. It was printed as a response to Latin and Uniate claims that the Orthodox Christians did not have a clear exposition of their faith. St. Peter Mohyla is considered the father of the modern Orthodox system of education, having founded the first modern Orthodox school – The Kiev Mohyla Collegium, which had a very high western level of education, on the basis of which all Orthodox seminaries in the Russian Empire would subsequently be built. In addition to being the father of practically first Orthodox seminary, St. Peter used the latest technologies in the form of the printing press to mass print Orthodox literature both theological, liturgical, and apologetical, and the Orthodox Confession was among his most famous works, and thus he pioneered Orthodox Christian book publication and printing.

St. Peter was the son of the prince of Moldova, and came to Rus’ from across the Carpathians, serving as a Polish knight in the Battle of Khotyn, and later became Metropolitan of Kiev and head of the Ruthenian Church at a time when Orthodoxy was in a dire position in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and was being persecuted and forced into the Union of Brest. Thanks to St. Peter’s apostolic labors, the situation completely reversed, ancient Kievan churches were restored from ruins, and he obtained a legal status for the Orthodox Church in Poland-Lithuania. He would also become the great-uncle of the future King Michael of Poland. St. Peter Mohyla’s system of education and theology influenced all Ruthenia, the Russian Empire, and even reached the new world, and for this reason, his name was called “the greatest adornment” of the Rus’ Church by historian Met. Makarius Bulgakov. His catechism was very influential especially among Ruthenians, and represents a monument of the “Ukrainian Baroque” era of theology and history, and is presented here in the famous English translation attributed to the Virginian Col. Philip Ludwell III, an associate of the American founding fathers and often called the first Orthodox Christian in America.