He took monastic vows under the name Stefan and settled at the Kiev Academy as a preacher and professor, being appointed prefect of the institution[3] and in 1697 hegumen of the Nikolaevsky monastery (Russian: Пустынно-Николаевский монастырь).

At the beginning of 1700 he visited Moscow on church business, and when the boyar Aleksei Shein died in February Patriarch Adrian commissioned him to give the eulogy, which attracted the attention of Peter I, who was so pleased he had Yavorsky remain in Moscow and ordered a position to be found for him, as a result of which he was made archbishop of Ryazan[3] and Murom in April.

Iavorsky had never desired such an appointment and even attempted to avoid it, but Peter was unyielding [because] the prelate was not a progressive or a reformer, but he was an authoritative figure with a European education, of which there were still few in Russia".

At first he did so, but eventually the reforms restricted the rights of the church that he began to oppose them, and in 1712 a sermon of his, calling the Tsarevich Alexei "Russia's only hope" and hinting at criticism of the tsar's personal life, so angered Peter that he forbade Yavorsky to preach in public.

[2] In 1690 he published two more panegyrics to Yasinsky, Arctos coeli (Constellation of the heavens) and Pełnia nieubywającej chwały (Abundance of unlessening glory), confirming his reputation as a poet.