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March 20, 2026, 4:01 p.m.
OCU Patriarch Emeritus Filaret, a graduate of Odesa Seminary, dies
This article also available in English1
PHOTO: UNIAN
Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, which became part of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine after Ukraine received the Tomos, died at the age of 97.
This was announced by the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Metropolitan Epifaniy.
"Today, deep sadness and regret are in my heart, as well as in the hearts of many Ukrainians, because the earthly journey of His Holiness Patriarch Filaret has now ended. The heart of Patriarch Filaret stopped at the age of 98," he said.
Filaret in the world Mykhailo Denysenko is a Ukrainian Orthodox bishop, Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) in 1995-2018, since December 15, 2018 he has held the title of "Honorary Patriarch" of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Hero of Ukraine (2019).
He was born on January 23, 1929, in the village of Blahodatne, Amvrosiivka district, Stalin district, in the family of miner Anton Denysenko (1903-1943) and his wife Melania Kyrylivna. Mykhailo's grandfather died of the Holodomor, and his father Anton Denysenko, a member of the 103rd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 34th Guards Rifle Division, was killed during the Battle of the Dnipro in the battle for the village of Konovalova on September 24, 1943, where he was buried. The death of his father greatly influenced Mykhailo's worldview and his choice to become a priest.
In 1946, after graduating from high school, he entered the third year of the Odesa Theological Seminary (until he reached the full 18 years of age required by Soviet law - in the first postwar years this norm was not always observed in the Ukrainian SSR). He graduated from the seminary with honors in 1948, the same year. After the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Act on the Proclamation of Ukraine as an Independent State on August 24, 1991, Metropolitan Filaret convened the Local Council of the UOC on November 1-3, 1991, which unanimously decided on the full canonical independence, i.e., autocephaly, of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. At the Kharkiv Council in late May 1992, the clergy of the UOC-MP condemned Filaret's actions. Filaret pleaded not guilty and did not obey the Council's decision, considering it non-canonical and illegal.
