The Ukrainian Orthodox community has suffered a heavy loss – at the age of 98, Patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate Filaret (Denysenko) died.
The cause of death of the 97-year-old spiritual leader was an exacerbation of chronic diseases, due to which he was previously hospitalized in a medical facility. The completion of the earthly path of the outstanding hierarch was announced by the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphany.
Mykhailo Denysenko’s life path began on January 23, 1929 in the Donetsk region, in the village of Blagodatne. Having received a spiritual education in Odessa and Moscow, he chose the path of monasticism at an early age, taking monastic tonsure with the name Filaret. His rapid ascent through the church ranks led to his appointment in 1966 as Exarch of Ukraine and Archbishop of Kyiv and Galicia. It is with this period that the beginning of his large-scale activity in the development of the Ukrainian Orthodox tradition is associated.
With the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence, Filaret became a key figure in the movement for the separation of the national church from Moscow’s influence. His efforts to create the UOC Kyiv Patriarchate led to a conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church, which in response imposed an anathema on him and deprived him of his rank.
Despite the pressure, he continued to lead the church until 2018, when, in order to obtain a Tomos on autocephaly and unify Ukrainian Orthodoxy, he agreed to the liquidation of the structures of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
Although later certain disagreements arose between Filaret and the newly formed OCU regarding the status of the church and the terms of the Tomos, his contribution to the country’s spiritual sovereignty remains undeniable. Metropolitan Epiphanius called on the faithful to pray together:
“I call on the all-Ukrainian flock to offer heartfelt prayers for the repose of the soul of the newly departed Patriarch Filaret, who departed to be with the Lord today. Let us ask the Almighty to receive him into His Heavenly Kingdom. Heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased bishop” – Epiphanius noted.
The memory of the hierarch, whose heart stopped after almost a century of life’s marathon, will forever be engraved in the annals of the modern Orthodox Church.
“Patriarch Filaret’s heart stopped at the age of 98. But prayer and memory of him will remain in the local autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church forever” – the abbot of the OCU emphasized.
