During the reign of the Russian Empress Catherine II, a significant number of Greek professionals were invited to come to her empire to help in the administration of the recently conquered lands of Novorossiya ("New Russia") on the north shore of the Black Sea (today's southern Ukraine).
Nikephoros is credited by some scholars[REF] with coining the term "Doukhobor" to refer to Spiritual Christians around 1786, although others ascribe it to his successor at the Poltava chair, Archbishop Ambrosius.