[2][1] Attempts to bring Calvinism into the Orthodox Church were rejected, and Cyril I's actions, motivations, and specific viewpoints remain a matter of debate among scholars.

Cyril I is locally venerated as a hieromartyr in the Alexandrian Orthodox Church; the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria glorified Loukaris on 6 October 2009, and his memory is commemorated on 27 June.

[citation needed] In his youth, he travelled through Europe, studying at Venice and the University of Padua, and at Geneva where he came under the influence of Calvinism and the Reformed faith.

Lucaris pursued theological studies in Venice and Padua, Wittenberg and Geneva where he developed greater antipathy for Roman Catholicism.

Having obtained, through the kindness of friends, some writings of Evangelical theologians, books which have not only been unseen in the East, but due to the influence of the censures of Rome, have not even been heard of, I then invoked earnestly the assistance of the Holy Ghost, and for three years compared the doctrines of the Greek and Latin Churches with that of the Reformed... Leaving the Fathers I took for my only guide the Scriptures and the Analogy of Faith.

[10] Cyril I's aim was to reform the Eastern Orthodox Church along Calvinistic lines, and to this end he sent many young Greek theologians to the universities of Switzerland, the northern Netherlands and England.

[citation needed] His body was thrown into the sea, but it was recovered and buried at a distance from the capital by his friends, and only brought back to Constantinople after many years.

[citation needed] Cyril I was honoured as a saint and martyr shortly after his death, and Eugenios of Aitolia compiled an Acolouthia (service) to celebrate his memory.

[citation needed] According to a 1659 letter to Thomas Greaves from Edward Pococke (who, on his book-hunting travels for archbishop William Laud, had met Lucaris), many of the choicest manuscripts from Cyril I's library were saved by the Dutch ambassador who sent them by ship to Holland.