Neophytos Rodinos
[1] Born in Cyprus he later converted to Roman Catholicism and undertook missionary work preaching in various regions: Italy, Poland, Greece, Turkey and Albania.
[10] On the recommendation of scholar Ioannis Morezinos, abbot of the metochion of Sinai, he went to Venice where he became a student of Maximos Margunios and also worked as his subordinate (1599-1602).
[9] In the period 1602-1607 he returned to Cyprus, where he set up a tutorial in a monastery, but he encountered opposition to this initiative and was forced to abandon it.
[8][11] At that period he had special relations with scholars Gabriel Severos, Georgios Korresios and Frangiskos Kokkos.
[11] As with many Greeks who traveled to western Europe at this period a passive drift into the Catholic faith may be more accurate a description of their progress than a conscious conversion.
[8] Rodinos then became a tireless worker for the Union of the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches by the apparatus of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide.
[15] In general, he went through area's of Epirus (today's southern Albania and northwestern Greece) such as Himarë, Ioannina, Pogoniani, trying to set up schools and undertaking educational work.
[16] Though various contradicting accounts about Rodinos' foundation of educational institutions exist modern scholarship agrees that in 1627 he founded a school in Himara as part of his mission.
Rodinos was also assisted by other Cypriot missionaries especially in Himarë such as Athanasios Konstantzos, Kalimeras and Ioannis Chrysadifas who were also active in various Greek inhabited regions.
[20] Rodinos also managed to distribute all copies of the first edition of his work Σύνοψις in Greece: Thessaly, Epirus, especially in Ioannina as well as in Albania.
[22][23][24] The following years his newly printed works Σύνοψις (second edition), Περί Εξομολογήσεως (On Confession) and Πνευματική Πανοπλία (Spiritual Armor) were circulated in Epirus and to other areas of the Ottoman Empire.
In his correspondence he expresses his joy when being informed that the metropolitan bishops of Adrianoupolis and Chalcedon had attempted to dethrone Loukaris.
[15][28][29] At that time his last work was published in Rome: Περί ηρώων, στρατηγών, φιλοσόφων, αγίων και άλλων ονομαστών ανδρών, οπού ευγήκασιν από το νησί της Κύπρου (On Heroes, Generals, Philosophers, Saints and other noble men, where they emigrated from the island of Cyprus, 1659).
[30] Rodinos generally believed that support from western Europe would be possible to overthrow Ottoman rule only if the native populations in Greece accepted the Roman Catholic Church.
[6][30] Rodino's work was central to the spread of Catholicism among the Greek-speaking Orthodox of the East and Italy in the transitional period at the beginning of the 17th century.
