Patriarch Filaret dies at age of 97

Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate has died at the age of 97. He had previously been hospitalised due to a deterioration in his health.

Source: Metropolitan Epiphanius, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, on Facebook

Quote: "I call on the all-Ukrainian flock to offer heartfelt prayers for the repose of the soul of the recently departed Patriarch Filaret, who has gone to the Lord today. Let us ask the Almighty to receive him into His Heavenly Kingdom. My sincere condolences to the relatives of the departed hierarch.

Patriarch Filaret's heart stopped in his 98th year. But prayer and the memory of him will remain in the local autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church forever."

For reference: Patriarch Filaret was born on 23 January 1929 in the village of Blahodatne in Donetsk Oblast. He first studied at the Odesa Theological Seminary and later at the Moscow Theological Academy, where he obtained a doctorate in theology.

At the age of 21 he made monastic vows, taking the name Filaret. In 1962 he was ordained bishop. On 14 May 1966, Filaret was appointed Exarch of Ukraine and Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych. From then on, he focused his efforts on developing and strengthening Ukrainian Orthodoxy.

After Ukraine gained independence, Metropolitan Filaret initiated the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Moscow's jurisdiction. He became one of the founders of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and later its primate. For this, he was defrocked and anathemised by the Russian Orthodox Church.

On 15 December 2018, the UOC-KP was dissolved ahead of the Unification Council which created the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) by merging three existing churches. The OCU received the Tomos of autocephaly (official recognition of its self-governance) from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I on 6 January 2019.

Patriarch Filaret initially supported the creation of the OCU and the election of Metropolitan Epiphanius as its primate, but disagreements later arose between Filaret and Epiphanius.

Filaret criticised the granting of the Tomos and declared that the UOC-KP had been restored.

This news has been updated since publication.

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