Vitalii Chervonenko / BBC News Ukraine
In Kyiv, the former head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, Filaret, passed away at the age of 97. This was reported to BBC News Ukraine by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Later, with deep sorrow and regret over his death, expressed by Metropolitan Epiphanius, the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The long-serving leader of the UOC KP, Filaret, held the highest positions in the Russian hierarchy during the Soviet times, and in the years of independence became a symbol of the struggle of Ukrainian Orthodoxy for independence from Moscow. For this, he was anathematized in 1997.
For decades, Filaret worked towards the recognition of the Ukrainian church and achieved his goal in 2019 – Constantinople granted autocephaly.
However, due to various circumstances and at the request of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, he refused to lead the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
This decision laid the groundwork for a future conflict between Filaret and the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which continued during the last years of the bishop’s life.
Before his death, Filaret reconsidered his attitude towards the OCU and Metropolitan Epiphanius and made a reconciliation visit.
At the time of his death, Filaret was an honorary patriarch and retired hierarch for the OCU.
Born in Donbas
Filaret – in the world Mykhailo Denysenko – was born at the beginning of collectivization – January 23, 1929, in the village of Blahodatne, Amvrosiivskyi district of Donetsk region. Since 2014, it has been under the occupation of first pro-Russian militants, and then Russia.
After the end of World War II, he finished school and in 1946 entered the Odesa Theological Seminary.
After graduating, he entered the Moscow Theological Academy, where in 1950 he took monastic vows with the name Filaret.
Soon, Patriarch Alexei I of Moscow ordained Filaret as a hierodeacon and priest.
In 1952, Filaret completed his studies at the Moscow Theological Seminary with a scientific degree of Candidate of Theology and stayed there to teach.
For the next five years, he lived in Russia, and after being ordained as an abbot in 1957, Filaret returned to Ukraine, where he soon became the rector of the Kyiv Theological Seminary.
Later, he became the managing affairs of the Ukrainian church and the rector of the St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv.
Church Career
These were times of rebuilding the structures of the Russian Orthodox Church after nearly being destroyed by the Bolsheviks, and later being restored at Stalin’s direction. Men from Ukraine then made up the lion’s share of the entire clergy of the ROC.
After spending a few years in Ukraine, Filaret began a rapid career in Russian Orthodoxy. He worked extensively abroad.
In 1961, he was appointed rector of the ROC’s metochion at the Alexandrian Patriarchate (Egypt), and later he was transferred to the Leningrad Diocese, where in 1962 he became a bishop.
After this, Filaret was the Bishop of Vienna and Austria for two years.
In 1964, he became the rector of the Moscow Theological Seminary, and two years later he was elevated to the rank of archbishop and appointed head of the Ukrainian Church and a member of the Holy Synod of the ROC.
In 1968, Filaret climbed another career step when Patriarch Alexy I elevated him to the rank of metropolitan—the highest rank in the hierarchy besides the patriarch.
In the 70s and 80s, Filaret strengthened his positions in the ROC, led numerous delegations at various international events, and received several honorary titles in Soviet and foreign spiritual institutions.
The celebration of the millennium of the baptism of Kievan Rus in 1988, which was extraordinarily grandly celebrated at the state level in the USSR, was also overseen by Filaret from the church side.
Struggle for the Ukrainian Church
The peak of Filaret’s church career in the Russian church occurred in 1990. After the death of Patriarch Pimen, it was he who was chosen by the Holy Synod of the ROC as the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne for the Council to elect a new leader.
Filaret was considered the main contender for the highest church position, but the hierarchs of the ROC elected Alexy II as patriarch. Historians later said that the selection of the leader could not happen without the KGB’s influence.
Filaret himself later asserted that the main church decisions in the ROC were under KGB control, and all bishops worked with the special services.
“All bishops of the Russian church in Soviet times had contacts in the KGB, there were no other bishops and there could not be,” the patriarch later recounted.
Instead, after losing at the council, Filaret became the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the title of Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine. Before this, the ROC had granted partial autonomy to the Ukrainian church.
On October 26, 1990, in the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Patriarch Alexy II announced the decision of the ROC Bishops’ Council and handed Metropolitan Filaret the patriarchal gramota to lead the UOC as part of the Russian Orthodox Church.
With Ukraine’s declaration of independence, Filaret demanded greater autonomy from the ROC.
In November 1991, a local UOC Council was held, deciding on canonical independence. Hierarchs appealed to Alexy II to approve this decision and grant autocephaly, but in April 1992, they were denied. Notably, the current primate of the UOC MP, Metropolitan Onufriy, also signed the appeal for autocephaly.
Such actions by Filaret angered the ROC leadership, prompting them to initiate a new Council to remove the metropolitan from the throne.
They refused to hold it in Kyiv. Filaret’s positions in Kyiv were strong—he was supported by then-President Leonid Kravchuk and the parliament.
According to the statute, only the primate could convene the council, but a Kharkiv bishop did so. The assembly took place on May 27-28, 1992, in Kharkiv.
At this assembly, Filaret was removed from the throne due to accusations of schism, and instead, Volodymyr (Sabodan), more loyal to Moscow, was elected, who then led the UOC MP for the next 22 years.
The decision of that Council was never recognized by official Kyiv, leading to a special statement by the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada on June 15, 1992.
Moscow won the first major battle for Ukrainian Orthodoxy and stalled the issue of autocephaly for many years, with the church becoming one of the levers of political influence of Russia on independent Ukraine.
Filaret was unable to retain control over the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, where he was the first abbot after its restoration, but he kept the main UOC MP church at that time—St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral, and the residence on Pushkinska Street (now Yevhena Chykalenka).
At the Head of the UOC KP
Those events marked the beginning of an open schism in Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Already on June 25, 1992, an All-Ukrainian Church Council was held, where part of the UOC and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church united into the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
This Council declared the ROC’s decision regarding Filaret unlawful and elected Metropolitan Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) as the Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine, who returned from the diaspora. Filaret was then elected as his deputy.
After Mstyslav’s death in 1993, the church elected Volodymyr (Romaniuk) as its leader, who also returned to Ukraine from the diaspora. Following Volodymyr’s death and his burial near the entrance to St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kyiv in 1995, the UOC-KP Council elected Filaret as the head of the church.
For the next two decades, there was an uncompromising struggle between the UOC MP and the UOC KP for the congregation, churches, and the favor of the authorities in Kyiv.
In 1997, the ROC Council even issued a special “Act on the Excommunication of Monk Filaret,” anathematizing him. This was revoked by the Ecumenical Patriarch in 2018.
Until 2019, Filaret’s UOC KP was a church recognized by no one.
Supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate since then referred to Filaret only as an uncanonical schismatic and citizen Denysenko, while the faithful of the Kyiv Patriarchate called him a fighter for church independence.
The change of president from Leonid Kravchuk to Leonid Kuchma somewhat worsened the position of the UOC KP, while the UOC MP effectively became the state church with a favorable regime. However, Filaret’s church also developed, and the state helped rebuild St. Michael’s Cathedral in the center of the capital and transferred it to the UOC KP.
Patriarch Filaret during the Orange Revolution in 2004 repeatedly visited Independence Square and held prayer services for peace in Ukraine. In the future, the UOC KP would also take an active position during protests in the country.
The First Attempt at Tomos
During the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, the UOC KP and Patriarch Filaret enjoyed the favor of the authorities and, with their help, conducted negotiations regarding canonical recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarch.
2008 was significant, as during the visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch to Kyiv, recognition of the UOC KP was close. However, no decisions were made then.
As participants of those events later acknowledged, Constantinople was not ready to grant autocephaly but only to restore the Kyiv Metropolis under the Ecumenical Patriarchate with a promise of autocephaly. Allegedly, Filaret himself did not agree to this.
From the late 2000s, Filaret had contacts with the head of the UOC MP, Volodymyr, regarding the possible unification of the churches, but it did not happen during Volodymyr’s lifetime.
In the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, Filaret supported Yulia Tymoshenko, and the following four years of Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency saw Filaret and the UOC KP in a sort of disgrace.
“In Ukraine, there is an attempt to implement a large-scale plan to dismantle and destroy the Kyiv Patriarchate. This plan was created in Moscow and proposed by the Moscow Patriarch Kirill and his subordinates for implementation in Ukraine,” Filaret stated in December 2010.
During the Euromaidan events (2013 – 2014), Filaret supported the protests, and the St. Michael’s Monastery of the UOC KP played a key role in the most dramatic moments of the confrontations on the Maidan.
“You cannot disperse the Maidan with force. Disperse it once, and next Sunday, they will gather again in even greater numbers,” said Filaret during a round table to resolve the situation in Ukraine on December 13, 2013.
On the Path to a Local Church
After Petro Poroshenko was elected president, contacts with Constantinople regarding the granting of autocephaly were reactivated.
The Verkhovna Rada approved a special appeal to Constantinople, and Poroshenko made several appeals on the matter.
However, progress could not be made until 2018.
Instead, at the end of 2017, a scandal erupted over Filaret’s last attempt to establish relations between the UOC KP and the Russian Orthodox Church.
In November, a Bishops’ Council of the ROC was held in Moscow. At the request of the Russian side, Filaret sent a special letter proposing to establish relations.
Filaret suggested beginning negotiations for the restoration of “prayerful unity” and reconciliation. However, Russian media interpreted this letter as repentance and a request for forgiveness.
A political scandal ensued, after which the Ukrainian church declared that the Russian side had rejected the possibility of reconciliation.
When Filaret came to power in the UOC KP, the church had slightly more than a thousand parishes, and over 20 years—by 2018—there were almost five thousand.
Tomos, but without Filaret
The year 2018 was pivotal in the life of Filaret and all Ukrainian Orthodoxy.
In April 2018, President Poroshenko unexpectedly announced that Ukraine was close to creating a local church.
At that time, the president, the Verkhovna Rada, and representatives of the then non-canonical UOC KP, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, as well as part of the UOC MP hierarchy, appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for autocephaly.
Already in September, Constantinople responded positively. At that time, two envoys from Bartholomew were appointed to Kyiv to prepare for autocephaly.
On October 11, the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate made several historic decisions in this regard.
In particular, it restored the canonical status of Filaret as a bishop, lifting the anathema from him. The canonical status of all the hierarchs and clerics of the UAOC and the UOC-KP, who were to form the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine, was also recognized.
Constantinople regained jurisdiction over the Kyiv Metropolis, which it had temporarily transferred to the ROC in 1686. This decision paved the way for the unification of the Orthodox in Ukraine and the receipt of the Tomos.
It later became known that one of the important requirements of Constantinople in the process of granting autocephaly was Filaret’s refusal to head the new church. He even made such a promise in a special letter.
The logic of the Ecumenical Patriarchate could have been simple — the figure of the former head of the UOC-KP could hinder the unification process in Ukraine and the recognition of the OCU by other local churches.
However, publicly, Filaret, in numerous interviews, did not give a clear answer until the end on whether he would run, indicating that he would announce his decision at the unification council.
On November 29, 2018, the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate approved the draft statute of the new church and approved the text of the Tomos on autocephaly. At that time, the date of the council was agreed – December 15, and even the date of the Tomos presentation – January 6.
At that time, those knowledgeable about the negotiation process predicted the name of the new head — Epiphanius — Filaret’s representative and his right hand in the UOC-KP. It seemed that Epiphanius could be a compliant executor of his mentor’s will.
A day before the unification council in Kyiv, the assembly of bishops of the former UOC-KP decided that they should support Epiphanius in the elections as a condition for Filaret’s refusal to run.
During the council, Metropolitan of Lutsk and Volyn Mykhail did not agree with Filaret’s will, but after prolonged negotiations, he withdrew his candidacy, and Filaret’s appointee won.
At the unification council, the UOC KP decided to dissolve itself and join the new local church.
However, the creation of the OCU did not overcome the schism of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Most of the UOC MP bishops ignored the council, so these churches remained competitors, if not enemies. This division continues to this day.
The OCU is recognized by only part of the local Orthodox churches.
Honorary Patriarch
After the unification council, Filaret continued to call himself patriarch, although formally the UOC KP no longer existed. Constantinople recognized Filaret only as one of the bishops of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the former Metropolitan of Kyiv.
Notably, neither Filaret nor the former head of the UAOC, Makariy, were taken to the tomos granting ceremony in Istanbul on January 6.
In Constantinople, the possible excessive influence of Filaret on both the new church and the newly elected Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epiphaniy was realized.
“I ask Filaret to allow Epiphaniy to be the head of the church,” said the former exarch of Constantinople in Ukraine, Archbishop Daniel, in an interview with the BBC at the time.
The position of Constantinople was simple – Filaret can be a “spiritual grandfather” of the church and an honorary patriarch for “internal use”.
Although in Ukraine, Filaret was referred to as the patriarch and spiritual father of the church, and the celebration of his 90th birthday on January 23, 2019, became a grand event with the participation of the state leadership.
President Poroshenko, after receiving the tomos, toured many regions of the country ahead of the elections, and Filaret accompanied him.
For Filaret’s jubilee, the president awarded him the title of Hero of Ukraine.
Filaret was absent from the enthronement of Metropolitan Epiphaniy on February 3, 2019, in Kyiv. Officially, it was due to health reasons, although the press suggested various versions, including the position of the Constantinople delegation.
The statute of the autocephalous church secured permanent membership for Filaret in the Synod of the OCU, and he maintained control over the richest Kyiv diocese with all its main revenues and the St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral.
Filaret’s Split
However, such an honorary status did not satisfy Filaret. By the spring of 2019, he went on the offensive and attempted to seize power.
Initially, Filaret demanded that Metropolitan Epiphanius effectively hand over control to him, not comply with the terms of the tomos, and eventually even self-proclaim the patriarchate of the OCU.
Instead, Epiphanius did not support such plans and in an interview with the BBC stated that Filaret’s ultimatums were humiliating for him as the head.
When Epiphanius refused to follow the instructions of the honorary patriarch, Filaret tried to enlist the support of bishops, gather a local council, and depose the young leader.
In numerous statements, Filaret insisted that he was deceived since before receiving the tomos he was promised to retain influence over the church. Allegedly, Petro Poroshenko during the tomos proceedings promised him that Filaret would effectively lead the church, while Epiphanius would represent the OCU in relations with the outside world.
BBC sources then suggested that such promises might have been made, but there is no formal evidence.
On May 14, 2019, Filaret attempted to gather bishops for the traditional celebration of the feast of St. Macarius, whose relics are kept in the St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral. The situation was serious, as Filaret still controlled the main financial flows of the church at that time.
There were concerns that Metropolitan Mykhailo of Volyn and Lutsk, who was the main competitor of Epiphanius during the election of the head, might support Filaret.
However, the church perceived this as an actual coup against Epiphanius, so only two minor bishops from Russia came to Filaret.
Constantinople also made it clear that such a change of power in the OCU would halt the process of recognizing its autocephaly by other local churches.
After this failure, Filaret changed tactics – he decided to revive the UOC-KP. But at a certain point, it seemed that he might reconcile with Epiphanius.
On May 25, 2019, he attended the celebration of the name day of the head of the OCU Epiphanius, where a representative of Constantinople was present. His behavior during the service indicated that he recognized Epiphanius as the church leader, and at the festive part, he even wished him “God’s help.”
But just a few weeks later, on June 20, he gathered his few supporters at St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral and announced the revival of the UOC-KP.
Over time, he even consecrated more than ten bishops and claimed that there was an entire synod of this church, but it had no real influence.
Filaret sharply criticized the OCU and even began repeating many Russian propaganda theses about its illegitimacy and dependence on Patriarch Bartholomew. It reached the point that in July 2019, he even gave an interview to the Russian propagandistic channel “Russia 24.”
Eventually, the OCU deprived Filaret of membership in the synod, leaving him only with St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Kyiv and a residence in the city center.
During the coronavirus pandemic, at over 90 years old, he recovered from COVID, and during the full-scale war, he continued to work and conduct services at the St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral.
From time to time, he met with foreign guests with whom he discussed the war and resistance to the Russian invasion.
Before his 95th birthday in January 2024, Filaret even met with the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav.
Notably, when the OCU and Greek Catholics switched to a new church calendar in 2023, Filaret and his small revived UOC-KP principledly remained with the old one.
During Russia’s major invasion, he no longer made loud political statements and supported the people’s fight against aggression.
“We are confident that Ukraine will defeat Russia because God is with Ukraine, not with Russia. God is with truth, not falsehood. God is with David, not Goliath. Ukraine is David, and its victory will be a victory not only for Ukraine but for all of Europe and every peaceful country,” Filaret said in one of his last major interviews.
Reconciliation before repose
In the last six months of his life, Filaret did make a step towards reconciliation with Metropolitan Epiphanius and finally embraced his former ally and protégé again.
It all started on October 19, 2025, when during a service at the St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral, Filaret’s entourage handed him what was allegedly his spiritual testament and forced him to sign it. The document reiterated all previous theses about non-recognition of the OCU and several other negative theses emphasizing the split between Epiphanius and Filaret.
However, on the published videos, it was clearly visible that Filaret saw the document for the first time, and a close aide and relative urged him not to sign the text without reading it.
But, being in a difficult physical state and somewhat disoriented, the bishop struggled to sign it. It was evident that within Filaret’s entourage, there was some discrepancy over how he should behave, and there certainly existed different groups of influence.
Already on November 5, 2025, the situation changed dramatically — Filaret paid a friendship visit to Metropolitan Epiphanius at the St. Michael’s Cathedral.
Both bishops communicated for a long time in a friendly manner, footage of handshakes and kisses appeared, and the press releases contained many warm words.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine told the BBC at the time that they viewed the visit as a sign of understanding and reconciliation.
Until the end, they regarded him as their honorary patriarch and hierarch in retirement.
The OCU also emphasized that after this reconciliation, Filaret did not make any scandalous or anti-church statements, and therefore, the conflict was considered to be resolved.
Cover photo: UOC Kyiv Patriarchate
