Eugenios Voulgaris

Eugenios Voulgaris ( born August 10 1716 as Eleftherios Voulgaris Corfu, † June 12, 1806 in St. Petersburg, ) was a Greek monk ( 1739 adopting the name Eugenios ), theologian, philosopher and writer of the early Enlightenment.

It was after studying in Arta, Ioannina and Padua since 1742 teacher in Ioannina and Kozani, since 1753 head of the Academy of Mount Athos at the Vatopedi monastery until its closure in 1759 and then temporarily head of the Patriarchate School in Constantine Opel. In 1763 he went to Leipzig, where he lived in the Greek house, and about Berlin at the invitation of Empress Catherine II in 1771 to St. Petersburg. From 1775 to 1787 he was bishop, then to 1801 Archbishop of Kherson.

Voulgaris was one of the most important Greek reconnaissance, scholar and theologian of his time. Even strictly orthodox, he sat down one mediating the ideas of the European Enlightenment, above all in the Greek oriented environment. He translated works of John Locke, Voltaire, and Christian Wolff. One of his students was Christodoulos Pamplekis.

In the Greek language question Voulgaris called for a high level language, which was based on the ancient Greek, and was an opponent of both Adamantios Korai ' as well as the representative of the Dimotiki. But he himself has transferred Voltaire's Memnon in the modern Greek vernacular.