After the graduation in 1836, he enrolled into the University of Königsberg to study theology. Since 1718, students who were to become pastors in parishes inhabited by Prussian Lithuanians had to take a seminar on the Lithuanian language. At the time, the seminar was taught by Ludwig Rhesa. As Kurschat was fluent in Lithuanian and a diligent student, he became assistant to Rhesa who was elderly and of increasingly poor health. When Russian philologist arrived to Königsberg to learn Lithuanian, Rhesa recommended Kurschat as his teacher. Kurschat's studies were interrupted by an illness and he worked for a year as a teacher in Tragheim. Kurschat graduated from the university and was ordained as a priest in 1844. He was assigned as a chaplain of Lithuanian-speaking soldiers.
