Patriarch Filaret Dies at 97 After Long Illness

Patriarch Filaret of Kyiv, a pivotal figure in the establishment of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church separate from Moscow's influence, died on Friday at age 97. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine announced his passing, attributing it to the worsening of chronic illnesses.

Filaret, born Mykhailo Denysenko in 1929 in the village of Blahodatne in Ukraine's Donetsk region, pursued a religious path influenced by his father's death during World War II. He entered the monastery in 1950, adopting the name Filaret, and studied at theological institutions in Moscow and Leningrad. Ordained as a bishop in the 1960s, he rose to become the Russian Orthodox Church's chief representative in Ukraine, serving as metropolitan during the Soviet era when the state enforced atheism and suppressed religious activity.

As the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s, Filaret shifted focus to Ukrainian ecclesiastical independence. After failing to secure election as patriarch of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church in 1990, he led efforts to create the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate in 1992. Moscow rejected the move, defrocking and excommunicating him, a decision Filaret...