After a stay in Venice he went to Rome, where he studied at the Collegio Pontifico Greco of Agios Athanasios (1605–1613) associated with the church Sant'Atanasio dei Greci, which operated under a Venetian administration.

During his time at the college he converted to Roman Catholicism from Greek Orthodoxy and became a member of the religious community of Virgin Mary.

His second book De conficiendo epigrammate was dedicated to Louis XIV and was taken to him in person by a Cretan priest named Antonios Boumboulis.

The nearly contemporary Venetian diplomat in Paris F. Marchesini wrote that the French helped financially in the foundation of the Cottunian College.

It was a theological college whose students were obliged to attend the Christmas and Easter Mass at the San Giorgio dei Greci in Venice.