Patriarch Filaret

Filaret(Patriarch of Kiev) is the third Primate of the UOC (KP).

Brief biography

Filaret (in the world: Mikhail Denisenko) was born in Donbass, in the village of Blagodatnoye, on January 23, 1929.

He received his higher religious education at the Moscow Theological Academy, where he took the tonsure and the ecclesiastical name of Filaret in his 2nd year.

Quickly moving up the church ladder, in 1968 Filaret was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan.

In 1990 he was the initiator of a general appeal to the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church with a request to grant independence and autonomy to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The appeal was satisfied by the ROC and Filaret received the title of Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine, and the right of the Primate of the UOC.

In 1991, shortly after Ukraine became an independent state, Metropolitan Filaret decided on autocephaly for the UOC. This decision faced fierce opposition in the ROC, and as a result, in 1992 Filaret established the Kyiv Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Thus, for many years there were actually two churches in Ukraine: UOC-KP and UOC-MP.

In 1995, after the death of Patriarch Vladimir, Filaret was elected Patriarch of Kiev and All Russia-Ukraine.

Patriarch Filaret was active on the side of the protesters throughout the events of the Revolution of Dignity.

After the annexation of Crimea and the Russian invasion of Donbass, Filaret published a statement in which he called Vladimir Putin "the Kremlin's Cain" and claimed that the latter had fallen under the influence of Satan.

In 2018, he actively participated in the process of granting the Tomos to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. He was one of the participants of the Unification Council of Ukrainian churches, where he signed the proclamation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the appointment of Epiphany as its Primate.

Anathema of Filaret

In 1992, the Russian Orthodox Church deprived Filaret of all degrees of priesthood, accusing the priest of "violating his oaths before Christ and the Lord".

In 1997, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church issued a decree excommunicating Filaret from the church, allegedly for "continuing schismatic activities," thus anathematizing Filaret.

Neither Filaret himself nor the patriarchate of the UOC (KP) agree with these decisions and do not take them into account.

In 2018, by decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the anathema from Filaret was removed.

The "return" of the Kyiv Patriarchate

After granting the Orthodox Church of Ukraine autocephaly, Filaret suddenly made a statement that the UOC-KP still exists and no one has liquidated the Kyiv Patriarchate. Moreover, in May 2019 Filaret sent invitations to the bishops of the former UOC-KP printed on the official letterheads of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate).