Patriarch Filaret of Kyiv, who worked for decades to establish an independent Ukrainian Orthodox church that was free from Moscow's religious authority—a schism that foreshadowed the Russia-Ukraine war—died Friday. He was 97. His death was announced by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the AP reports. Filaret had 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 includes a long and partially successful effort to gain recognition of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdiction. "The person and numerous good deeds of the late Patriarch Filaret rightfully occupy a special place in the modern history of both the local Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Ukraine as a whole," said Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv, who leads the church.
"He was a strong personality and one of the most steadfast defenders of the Ukrainian church, independence and statehood," said President Volodymyr Zelensky in a post. "Without the energy, character and courage of Patriarch Filaret, many of Ukraine's accomplishments simply would not have been possible." Filaret was born Mykhailo Denysenko in the village of Blahodatne in Ukraine's Donetsk region. His father's death during World War II influenced his pursuit of the ministry even during the officially atheistic communist regime of the Soviet Union, according to his obituary on the OCU website. He became a monk, taking the name Filaret. He studied and served in Russia and Ukraine (both then Soviet republics) and also served abroad. He became a bishop and, in the 1960s, became the Russian Orthodox Church's leading official in Ukraine.
As the Soviet Union was dismantled and Ukraine became independent in 1991, Filaret led a similar independence movement in the church realm. He headed a group that declared a separate Ukrainian Orthodox Church: Kyiv Patriarchate. The Russian Orthodox Church, which considers Ukraine to be under its authority, rejected the move, defrocking and excommunicating Filaret, which he refused to recognize. His and another breakaway church merged in 2018, and Filaret received the title of honorary patriarch. The newly merged OCU received official recognition in 2019 by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who accepted Filaret's appeal to rule his excommunication by Moscow invalid.
The ecumenical patriarch is considered the "first among equals" in Eastern Orthodoxy, and he lacks pope-like authority over other patriarchs' territories. The Moscow Patriarchate rejected the authority of Bartholomew to hear Filaret's appeal or to recognize the newly merged church. As a result, there are two main rival churches in Ukraine—the OCU and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian government has accused the latter of retaining ties to Moscow, which the church denies. Filaret received his country's highest award, the title of Hero of Ukraine, in January 2019.
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