Patriarch Filaret of Kiev – who worked for decades to establish Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church This was a liberation from the clerical authority in Moscow, a schism that foreshadowed The war between Russia and Ukraine – He died on Friday. He was 97 years old.
The Orthodox Church in Ukraine announced his death, citing “exacerbation of chronic diseases.”
Filaret has had a more limited role in recent years as the cultural and religious gap between Ukraine and Russia widened and turned into a full-scale war. But his legacy includes a long and partly successful effort to gain recognition of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox judiciary.
“The personality of the late Patriarch Filaret and his many good deeds rightly occupy a special place in the modern history of both the local Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Ukraine as a whole,” said Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kiev, who leads the OCU.
Epiphanius said that Filaret “did a lot to preserve the life of the Church during the years of Soviet suppression of the Church, during the spiritual renaissance of Ukraine, and especially during the years of the struggle to establish church autonomy” or independence. He referred to the “difficult events” surrounding his previous clashes with Filaret, but said he “always respected the contribution of Patriarch Filaret.”
Tributes also poured in from political leaders.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his condolences by phone to Epiphanius, calling Filaret’s death “a great loss for Ukrainians.”
“He was a strong personality and one of the staunchest defenders of the Ukrainian church, independence and statehood,” Zelensky said in a statement posted on Telegram. “Without the energy, personality and courage of Patriarch Filaret, many of Ukraine’s achievements would not have been possible.”
The Verkhovna Rada, the Verkhovna Rada, issued a statement saying that Filaret made a significant contribution to preserving the life of the Church during and after Soviet-era repressions.
Filaret was born in 1929, named Mykhailo Denisenko, in the village of Blahodatny in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. His father’s death during World War II influenced his pursuit of ministry even amid the officially atheist communist regime in the Soviet Union, according to his obituary on the OCU website.
He became a monk, taking the name Philaret. He studied and served in Russia and Ukraine (both then Soviet republics) and also served abroad. He became a bishop and, beginning in the 1960s, the chief administrator of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. He was considered a candidate for Patriarch of Moscow in 1990, but was not elected.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine in 1991, Filaret led a similar independence movement in the church world. He headed the group that declared a separate Ukrainian Orthodox Church – the Kyiv Patriarchate.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which considers Ukraine under its authority, rejected the move. He defrocked and excommunicated Philaret, which he refused to acknowledge.
His church and another splinter church merged in 2018, and Filaret was given the title of Patriarch Emeritus. The newly merged OCU received official recognition in 2019 by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Constantinople, who also accepted Filaret’s appeal that his excommunication by Moscow had been declared invalid.
The Ecumenical Patriarch is considered “first among equals” in Eastern Orthodoxy, but lacks pope-like authority over the territories of other patriarchs. The Moscow Patriarchate refused Bartholomew’s authority to hear Filaret’s appeal or recognize the newly merged church.
As a result, there are two main competing churches in Ukraine – the OCU and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian government has The latter was accused By maintaining relations with Moscow, which the Church denies.
Gave recognition to the separatist church a The religious dimension To the ever-widening gap between Ukraine and Russia, and even with Russian political and religious leaders Blame the United States Because there is a role in it.
Almost immediately after the creation of the OCU, Filaret and Epiphanius clashed over its structure and leadership, and Filaret sought to revive the Kiev Patriarchate. The OCU Synod suspended Filaret’s participation in 2020.
However, the two leaders moved towards reconciliation. They met in late 2025 and prayed together for Ukraine’s victory in its war with Russia, according to The Guardian. News service For the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The OCU obituary recognizes Filaret with the title His Holiness Patriarch of Kyiv, All Russia and Ukraine.
Filaret has generated controversy in other areas as well. In 2020, he attributed the COVID-19 pandemic to God’s punishment for human sin. “First of all, I mean gay marriage,” he said in a television interview.
He received numerous ecclesiastical and international honors during his life, including Ukraine’s highest award, the title of Hero of Ukraine, in January 2019.
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AP reporter Hana Arhirova contributed.
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