Furthermore, philosophy and science from Western Europe began to penetrate the culture of Greece at the same time of the establishment of the Philiki Etairia, which was composed of intellectuals and merchants.
Many of the orphans from the Greek War of Independence, especially from the massacre from the island of Psara would form the body of the Orphanotropheio, in which Kairis taught many of the ideas learned from Philhellenes from all over Europe.
King Otto offered him the position of Director of the University of Athens and awarded him the Gold Cross (equivalent to the Medal of Honor) for his contribution to the war, but Kairis turned both of these down.
Kairis suffered a tragic end reserved by fate for those who, being pioneers, tried to introduce to Greece the liberal ideas of Western Europe and the Enlightenment.
The philosopher priest, Theophilos Kairis, following his conviction by the Holy Synod in 1839, was confined to the monastery in political exile on the island of Skiathos.
Kairis, along with a few disciples, founded a pietistic revivalist movement known as Theosebism, inspired by the French revolutionary cults, radical Protestantism and deism.
Members of the Orphanotripheio represented children from all sides of the Balkan conflict, with individuals from Bulgaria, Muslim Turks displaced by the Revolution, and Catholics who had inhabited the Greek island since the Middle Ages.
In fact, Kairis had a very different vision for an independent Greece, one that was based upon the concept of separation of church and state as proposed by Thomas Jefferson.
In the library are also exposed a large number of rare publications, manuscripts, historical records, works of art and a small archaeological collection.
Kairis spoke many languages and was interested in teaching philosophy from the ancient Greeks, translating the great poetry and theatre from antiquity, as well as the philosophic treatises of Aristotle and Plato.
Furthermore, lessons on the progressive subject of comparative religion was to be invaluable for the would-be ship captains and merchants embarked on international trade.
Other students hid in the surrounding mountains, taking with them the banned books from the school, and continued to live with the inhabitants of the island working and building some of the most interesting windmills in Greece.