Photo: EPA
Patriarch Filaret was for decades a symbol of the struggle for an independent Ukrainian church, yet the final outcome did not satisfy him.
On Friday, March 20, Filaret, the honorary patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, died at the age of 97. The news was announced by Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv.
“Today there is deep sorrow and grief in my heart, as in the hearts of many Ukrainians, because the earthly path of His Holiness Patriarch Filaret has come to an end. I call on all the faithful across Ukraine to offer heartfelt prayers for the repose of the soul of the newly departed Patriarch Filaret, who has today gone to the Lord. Let us ask the Almighty to receive him into His Heavenly Kingdom. My sincere condolences to the family of the departed hierarch,” he wrote on Facebook.
Epiphanius added that the OCU will always remember Filaret’s guidance on the importance of maintaining unity in the Ukrainian church around the Kyiv See.
“The heart of Patriarch Filaret has stopped, but prayer and memory of him will remain in the local autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church forever. Eternal memory and rest to the departed Patriarch Filaret,” he said.
On March 9, it was reported that Filaret had been hospitalized due to complications from chronic illnesses. Both the OCU and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate called on believers to pray for his health.
Filaret, born Mykhailo Denysenko on January 23, 1929, in the village of Blahodatne in Donetsk region, held senior positions in the Russian Orthodox Church during the Soviet era, including serving as Metropolitan of Kyiv.
After Ukraine gained independence, he became one of the key figures in the creation of a church independent from Moscow. In 1997, he was anathematized by the Russian Orthodox Church.
From 1995 to 2018, Filaret served as Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus’-Ukraine of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate.
Following Ukraine’s receipt of the Tomos of autocephaly and the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2018, he was given the title of honorary patriarch. However, after a conflict with the new leadership of the OCU, he later declared the restoration of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
A notable point of tension came in 2023, when the OCU and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church adopted a revised church calendar, while St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral and other churches of the Kyiv Patriarchate chose to remain on the old calendar.
In the autumn of 2025, in his spiritual testament, Filaret specified that after his death, the funeral service should not be conducted by hierarchs of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, but only by clergy of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
