Patriarch Filaret, trailblazer for Ukrainian church independence, dies at 97

Editor's note: This story is being updated.

Patriarch Emeritus Filaret, one of the leaders of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, has passed away, Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the church, said on March 20.

"Today there is deep sorrow and grief in my heart, as in the hearts of many Ukrainians, for today the earthly journey of His Holiness Patriarch Filaret has come to an end," Epiphanius wrote on Facebook. "We will always remember Patriarch Filaret’s guidance on the importance of preserving the unity of the Ukrainian Church around the Kyiv See."

Filaret's health had deteriorated in recent years but he had occasionally conducted services at Kyiv's St Volodymyr Cathedral until 2025. He was hospitalized on March 9.

Filaret, also known as Mykhailo Denysenko, was born into a coalminer's family in 1929 in Donetsk Oblast.

He was the metropolitan of Kyiv and leader of the Ukrainian church as part of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1966 to 1992. He was also the locum tenens, or provisional leader, of the Russian Orthodox Church and a candidate for patriarch of Moscow in 1990.

Filaret broke with the Russian Orthodox Church and co-founded the unrecognized Kyiv Patriarchate in 1992 and was the patriarch of Ukraine from 1995 to 2018. He was involved in a bitter standoff with the Russian church, which anathematized and demonized him.

In 2018 the Kyiv Patriarchate was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople as the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, led by Metropolitan Epiphanius. Filaret became the patriarch emeritus of the new church — an honorary title — although the title is not recognized by Constantinople.

Filaret became involved in a power struggle with Epiphanius over the church in 2019, seeking to resurrect the Kyiv Patriarchate as an entity separate from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. He also accused Constantinople of trying to limit the Ukrainian church's independence.

However, Filaret's attempts to re-establish his own church were eventually unsuccessful.

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