Patriarch Filaret, the Ukrainian Orthodox leader who spent decades pressing for an independent Ukrainian church separate from Moscow’s religious authority, died Friday at age 97, according to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
In a statement announcing his death, the OCU cited the “exacerbation of chronic diseases.” The church said Filaret had played a more limited role in recent years as the cultural and religious divide between Ukraine and Russia widened into full-scale warfare, but his legacy still included a long effort to secure recognition of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdiction.
Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv, the OCU’s leader, said Filaret’s death marked “a great loss for Ukrainians,” a phrase he used while praising Filaret’s role in what the church framed as the modern history of both the local Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Ukraine. Epiphanius said Filaret “did much to preserve church life during the years of Soviet oppression of the Church,” during what he described as Ukraine’s “spiritual revival,” and “especially during the years of the struggle for the establishment of church autocephaly,” or independence.
Epiphanius also acknowledged that Filaret’s past clashes involved “difficult events,” while adding that he “always consistently respected the contribution of Patriarch Filaret.” Ukrainian political leaders also issued condolences after the OCU announcement, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said in a Telegram-posted statement that Filaret’s death was “a great loss for Ukrainians.”
Zelenskyy called Filaret “one of the most steadfast defenders of the Ukrainian church, independence and statehood,” adding that, “Without the energy, character and courage of Patriarch Filaret, many of Ukraine’s accomplishments simply would not have been possible.” The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, also released a statement saying Filaret made a significant contribution to preserving church life during Soviet-era repression and afterward.
Filaret, born in 1929 and originally named Mykhailo Denysenko, was raised in Blahodatne in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. His father’s death during World War II influenced his move toward ministry, his obituary on the OCU website said, even though the Soviet Union was officially atheistic. He became a monk and took the name Filaret, later studying and serving in both Russia and Ukraine, and also working abroad, before rising to become a bishop.
Starting in the 1960s, Filaret became a leading official of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. In 1990, he was considered a candidate for Moscow’s patriarch, but was not elected. After Ukraine became independent in 1991, Filaret led a church independence movement, heading a group that declared a separate Ukrainian Orthodox Church, known as the Kyiv Patriarchate.
The Russian Orthodox Church rejected the declaration and treated it as outside its authority, defrocking and excommunicating Filaret, a decision he refused to recognize. The Kyiv Patriarchate and another breakaway church merged in 2018, after which Filaret received the title of honorary patriarch. The newly merged OCU was recognized in 2019 by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who also accepted Filaret’s appeal to rule Moscow’s excommunication invalid.
The dispute also highlighted the structure of authority in Eastern Orthodoxy. Bartholomew is considered the “first among equals,” the AP said, but he does not have “a popelike authority” over other patriarchates’ territories. With Moscow rejecting Bartholomew’s authority to hear the appeal and recognize the merged church, Ukraine’s Orthodox landscape split into two main rival church bodies, including the OCU and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which the Ukrainian government has accused of retaining ties to Moscow, a claim the church denies.
As part of the OCU’s creation, Filaret and Metropolitan Epiphanius clashed over its structure and leadership almost immediately, and Filaret later sought to revive the Kyiv Patriarchate. The OCU synod suspended Filaret’s involvement in 2020, the report said. However, according to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine’s news service, the two leaders met in late 2025 and prayed together for Ukraine’s victory in its war with Russia, a development the OCU obituary also reflected.
Filaret’s career included other controversies. In 2020, he attributed the COVID-19 pandemic to God’s punishment for human sin, including comments in a TV interview where he said, “First of all, I mean same-sex marriage.” Throughout his lifetime, he received multiple church and state honors, including Ukraine’s highest award and the title of Hero of Ukraine in January 2019.