Filaret Denysenko


Patriarch Filaret is a Ukrainian religious leader, currently serving as the primate and Patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – [Kyiv Patriarchate|Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Kyiv Patriarchate]. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, that he left in 2019, views him as the Honorary Patriarch emeritus, while the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople recognises him as former Metropolitan of Kyiv.
He was formerly the Metropolitan of Kiev and the Exarch of Ukraine in the Patriarchate of Moscow. After joining the Kyiv Patriarchate, he was defrocked and in 1997 excommunicated by the ROC. On 11 October 018, the Patriarchate of Constantinople reinstated him in church communion. However, while restored to the episcopate, the Ecumenical Patriarchate never recognised him as Patriarch and views him as the former Metropolitan of Kyiv. On 15 December 2018, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate united with the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and some members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Moscow Patriarchate into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine; the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Kyiv Patriarchate thus ceased to exist. On 20 June 2019, however, a conflict between Filaret and the new metropolitan of the OCU, Epiphanius I, over details of the unification lead to Filaret declaring continuation of the UOC–KP with himself as the metropolitan. The continued UOC–KP is not currently recognized by any of the major Eastern Orthodox churches, nor the Government of Ukraine.

Early years

Mykhailo Denysenko was born on 23 January 1929, into a worker's family in the village of Blahodatne in the Amvrosiivsky Raion, now in the Donetsk Oblast in Eastern Ukraine. His parents were Anton and Melania Denysenko. He obtained his theological education at the Odesa Seminary and the Moscow Theological Academy where he became a close associate of Patriarch Alexius I of Moscow. He took monastic vows in 1950 assuming the monastic name Filaret and was ordained hierodeacon in January 1950 and priest in June 1951. After his graduation he stayed at the Moscow Theological Academy as a professor and Senior Assistant to the Academy inspector. In 1956 he was appointed Inspector of the Theological Seminary in Saratov and elevated to the rank of hegumen. In 1957 he was appointed Inspector of the Kyiv Theological Seminary. In July 1958 he was further elevated to the rank of Archimandrite and appointed seminary rector.

Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church

In 1961, Filaret served in the mission of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria. In January 1962 Filaret was elected vicar Bishop of the Leningrad Eparchy and, in February, was ordained bishop in Leningrad by Metropolitan Pimen and other bishops. Filaret was appointed to several diplomatic missions of the Russian Orthodox Church and from 1962 to 1964 served as ROC Bishop of Vienna and Austria. In 1964 he returned to Moscow as the Bishop of Dmitrov and rector of the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary.
In 1966, he became archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, thus becoming one of the most influential hierarchs in the Russian Orthodox Church, where the office of the Kyiv Metropolitan is highly regarded. At that time he also became a permanent member of the Holy Synod, the highest collegiate body of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has the responsibility of electing the Moscow Patriarch. In 1968 Filaret became Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia.
As late as October 1989, Filaret was still saying, "The Uniates will never be legalized in our country."
On May 3, 1990, Patriarch Pimen of Moscow died and, the same day, Filaret became the locum tenens of the Russian Orthodox Church. Filaret was not elected Patriarch of Moscow. Retrospectively, in 2019, Filaret declared "it was not by chance that I was not elected. The Lord prepared me for Ukraine"
On 27 October 1990, in a ceremony at St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, the newly elected Patriarch Alexei II handed to Metropolitan Filaret a tomos granting "independence in self government" to Metropolitan Filaret, and enthroned Filaret, heretofore "Metropolitan of Kyiv", as "Metropolitan of Kyiv and All-Ukraine".
In 1992, the Russian Orthodox priest and Soviet dissident Fr. Gleb Yakunin accused Exarch Filaret of having been an informer for the KGB. Father Gleb stated that he had seen KGB files which listed Exarch Filaret's codename as Antonov. The fact of cooperation with KGB was mentioned by people's deputies of Ukraine on 20 January 1992 when they came out with an official statement. According to internal KGB documents, tasks the KGB assigned Filaret as an agent included promoting Soviet positions and candidates in the World Council of Churches, the Christian Peace Conference and other international bodies, and, by the 1980s, backing the Soviet authorities' attempts to prevent the long-suppressed Ukrainian Catholic Church from regaining an open existence, and backing state attempts to prevent religious believers demanding their rights as glasnost and perestroika opened up the sphere of public debate. In 2018, Filaret declared in an interview with Radio Liberty that he, like all bishops under communism, had to have contacts with the KGB. In 2019, he declared every bishop of the Moscow Patriarchate had to have contact with the KGB, even when it came to appoint a bishop. He added that he had been trained by the Politburo and Patriarch Alexy by the KGB.

Creation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate

Following Ukraine's declaration of independence from the Soviet Union on 24 August 1991, a national sobor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was held from November 1–3. At the sobor, the voting delegates, unanimously passed a resolution stating that henceforth the UOC would operate as an autocephalous church. A separate resolution, also unanimous, affirmed the church's desire for Metropolitan Filaret to become its Primate.
Filaret convened an assembly at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in January 1992 that adopted a request of autocephaly for Ukrainians to the Moscow Patriarch.
In March–April 1992, the Hierarchical Council of the Russian Orthodox Church met with a single agenda item: to consider the resolution passed by the UOC Sobor four months earlier. Although the issue itself was not discussed, Filaret was asked to resign. On the second day of the meeting, Metropolitan Filaret agreed to submit his resignation to the UOC Synod, and the ROC Synod passed a resolution which stated:
"The Council of Bishops took into account the statement of the Most Reverend Filaret, Metropolitan of Kyiv and of All-Ukraine, that for the sake of church peace, at the next Council of Bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, he will submit a request to be relieved from the position of the Primate of the UOC. Understanding of the position of Metropolitan Filaret, the Council of Bishops expressed to him its gratitude for the long period of labour as Archbishop of the See of Kyiv and blessed him to carry out his episcopal service in another diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."
However, after returning to Kyiv, Filaret recanted his resignation. On 14 April, Metropolitan Filaret held a press conference in which he alleged that undue pressure was exerted at the ROC Synod in Moscow, both directly and through threats made by FSK personnel who, he said, were present at the gathering. Filaret stated that he was retracting his resignation on the grounds that his resignation "would not bring peace to the Church, would contradict the will of the believers, and would be uncanonical."

Suspension and anathemization

Shortly thereafter, the Russian Orthodox Church, unable to prevent the creation of what it, and all other orthodox churches within the global communion at the time, viewed as a "schismatic church" in independent Ukraine, helped to organize a rival synod which was held in Kharkiv in May 1992. These bishops elected a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, Bishop Volodymyr (Sabodan), Metropolitan of Kyiv, and received recognition from Moscow as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).
Filaret was suspended on 27 May 1992 by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). The bishops loyal to Metropolitan Filaret and a similar group from the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church organized a unifying sobor which was held on 25 June 1992. The delegates agreed to form a combined church named the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate under the patriarch they elected, Patriarch Mstyslav.
Filaret was defrocked by the Russian Orthodox Church on 11 July 1992. The UOC-KP was not recognized by other Orthodox churches and was considered schismatic.
Filaret was then anathemized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1997. ROC officials stated that the anathematization of Filaret was "recognized by all the Local Orthodox Churches including the Church of Constantinople" The synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate did indeed recognize, in a July 1992 letter to Patriarch Alexy II, the defrocking of Filaret by the ROC, and the Ecumenical Patriarch recognized the anathemization of Filaret in a letter of April 1997 to Patriarch Alexy II. Filaret was also accused by the ROC of having a wife and three children, but it was "never proved".

Leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate

After the death of Patriarch Mstyslav in 1993, the church was headed by Patriarch Volodymyr, and in July 1995, upon the death of Volodymyr, Filaret was elected head of the UOC-KP by a vote of 160–5.
Metropolitan Filaret consecrated at least 85 bishops.
On 11 October 2018, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople announced that Filaret Denisenko, along with the Primate of UAOC, had been "restored to communion with the Church." The decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate also abolished the Moscow Patriarchate's jurisdiction over the diocese of Kyiv and hence all the bishops concerned were viewed by the Ecumenical Patriarchate as being under its jurisdiction.
On 20 October 2018, the UOC-KP changed the title of its head, to "His Holiness and Beatitude, Archbishop and Metropolitan of Kyiv – Mother of the Rus Cities and of Galicia, Patriarch of All Rus-Ukraine, Holy Archimandrite of the Holy Assumption Kyiv-Pechersk and Pochaev Lavras". The abridged form is "His Holiness, Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus'-Ukraine" and the form for interchurch relations "Archbishop, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus'-Ukraine". The fact the full title and the version for interchurch relations mention the titles of "archbishop" and "metropolitan" and not the title of "patriarch", but that the abridged form mentioned only the title of "patriarch" has been confusing for some. The Russian Orthodox Church reacted by commenting that this new title was a "farce" and that for them Filaret "was and remains a schismatic".

In the OCU

On 15 December 2018, the hierarchs of the UAOC decided to dissolve the UAOC, and the hierarchs of the UOC-KP decided to dissolve the UOC-KP. This was done because on the same day the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate, and some members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) were going to merge to form the Orthodox Church of Ukraine after a unification council. Filaret was given the title of the "honorary patriarch" of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Volodymyr Burega, Professor and Vice-Rector of the Kyiv Theological Academy, explains this title this way: "in December, no one wanted to aggravate relationships with Patriarch Filaret, since holding the council and receiving the Tomos were at stake. That is why the council, which took place on 15 December, did not clarify the new status of Patriarch Filaret. After the unification council of the OCU, they stated that Filaret was henceforth "honorary patriarch", but what this phrase meant was difficult to understand. Indeed, such status is not stipulated in the Charter of the OCU, adopted on 15 December."
On 18 December 2018, Filaret's 90th birthday, 23 January 2019, was voted by the Ukrainian parliament as a day of national celebration for the year 2019.
On 16 January 2019, Filaret asked to be commemorated before Epiphanius, the primate of the OCU, during Divine Liturgies. He signed the document asking for it with "Filaret, Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus'-Ukraine". On 20 January 2019, Filaret declared in an interview when asked about his role in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine: "I am a patriarch, I have been and I remain a patriarch. Today, the Head of the Local Church is Metropolitan Epifaniy, but I do not refuse to participate in the development of the Ukrainian Church. I am an unrecognized patriarch for world Orthodoxy, but for Ukraine I am a patriarch and I remain a patriarch".
On 5 February 2019, the Holy Synod of the OCU appointed Filaret the diocesan bishop of Kyiv, except for the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery.
In an interview published by BBC Ukraine on 1 March 2019, Epiphanius explained the situation around Filaret as follows:

Conflict

A conflict erupted between Filaret and Epiphanius because of disagreements concerning the model of governance, the management of the diaspora, the name and the statute of the OCU.
According to Filaret, the agreement reached at the unification council was as follows: "the primate is responsible for the external representation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the patriarch is responsible for the internal church life in Ukraine, but in cooperation with the primate. The primate shall do nothing in the church without the consent of the patriarch. The patriarch chairs the meetings of the Holy Synod and the UOC meetings for the sake of preserving unity, its growth, and affirmation." Filaret considers this agreement has not been fulfilled.
In November 2025 OCU's press service reported that a meeting between Filaret and Epiphanius had taken place in the metropolitan's residence, during which the patriarch received a letter of gratitude, and both church leaders took part in a common prayer for Ukraine's victory over Russia.

Political views

In March 2014, Filaret publicly opposed the annexation of Crimea by Russia.
On 5 September 2014, amidst the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, Filaret held a service to consecrate a memorial cross to the Heavenly Hundred. Filaret declared during his service that in the Orthodox church had appeared "among the rulers of this world a real new Cain" who "calls himself a brother to the Ukrainian people, but in fact according to his deeds really became the new Cain, shedding the brotherly blood and entangling the whole world with lies" and that "Satan went into him, as into Judas Iscariot". The statement was published on the official website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate in English, Russian and Ukrainian. Publications such as Church Times, Cogwriter, and Ecumenical News identified Filaret's "new Cain" with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Filaret said that the local population in Donbas "must pay for their guilt through suffering and blood".

COVID-19

In March 2020, during a TV interview, Filaret called the COVID-19 pandemic a "divine punishment" for same-sex marriage. He was later sued by Kyiv-based LGBT-rights group InSight for his remarks. Early September 2020, it was announced that Filaret himself had been tested positive for COVID-19 and admitted to hospital.
In an interview released in March 2020 to the Ukraine Channel 4, he declared that the Holy Eucharist could be administrated from one spoon, because it is impossible to get viruses from the gloriously resurrected Body of Jesus Christ God.

Other LGBTQ+ issues

In February 2024, Filaret issued awards for Ukrainian service members, one of them being Viktor Pylypenko. When Filaret was informed that Pylypenko is gay, he cancelled his recognition, sparking condemnation from other soldiers.

Awards

  • Order "For intellectual courage" of the independent cultural magazine ''I''

State awards

Ukraine

USSR

List of bishop ordinations

''full list until 2010''

As a supporting archiereus

  • Vladimir on 30 December 1962 as Bishop of Zvenigorod
  • Antonius on 12 February 1965 as Bishop of Smolensk and Dorogobuzh
  • Boris on 21 February 1965 as Bishop of Ryazan and Kasimov
  • Melchizedek on 17 June 1965 as Bishop of Vologda and Velikiy Ustyug
  • Philaret on 24 October 1965 as Bishop of Tikhvin
  • Joanathan on 28 November 1965 as Bishop of Tegel
  • John on 12 December 1965 as Bishop of Syzran
  • Juvenal (Poyarkov) on 26 December 1965 as Bishop of Zaraisk
  • Irenaeus (Susemihl) on 30 January 1966 as Bishop of Munich
  • Dionysius on 20 March 1966 as Bishop of Rotterdam
  • Volodymyr (Sabodan) on 9 July 1966 as Bishop of Zvenigorod
  • Hermogenes on 25 November 1966 as Bishop of Podolsk
  • Theodosius on 4 June 1967 as Bishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi
  • Sabbas on 30 March 1969 as Bishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi
  • Macarius on 7 June 1970 as Bishop of Uman
  • Maximus on 26 March 1972 as Bishop of Argentina and South America
  • Victorinus on 3 June 1973 as Bishop of Perm and Solikamsk
  • Platon on 16 December 1973 as Bishop of Argentina and South America
  • Job on 3 January 1975 as Bishop of Zaraisk
  • Kirill (Gundyayev) on 14 March 1976 as Bishop of Vyborg
  • Gleb on 9 May 1976 as Bishop of Oryol and Bryansk
  • Valentine on 25 July 1976 as Bishop of Ufa and Sterlitamak
  • Nicanor on 30 November 1979 as Bishop of Podolsk

As a leading archiereus

  • Nicholas on 28 July 1971 as Bishop of Kursk and Belgorod
  • Barlaam on 22 October 1972 as Bishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi
  • Agathangelos on 16 November 1975 as Bishop of Vinnytsia and Bratslav
  • Sebastian on 16 October 1978 as Bishop of Kirovohrad and Mykolaiv
  • Ioann (Bodnarchuk) on 23 October 1978 as Bishop of Zhytomyr and Ovruch
  • Lazar on 18 April 1980 as Bishop of Argentina and South America
  • Antonius on 13 October 1986 as Bishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi
  • Palladius on 8 February 1987 as Bishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi
  • Marcus on 28 July 1988 as Bishop of Kremenets
  • Joannicius on 13 December 1988 as Bishop of Slovyansk
  • Joanathan on 22 April 1989 as Bishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi
  • Euthymius on 28 July 1989 as Bishop of Mukachevo and Uzhhorod
  • Basilius on 1 October 1989 as Bishop of Kirovohrad and Mykolaiv
  • Bartholomeus on 24 February 1990 as Bishop of Volhynia and Rivne
  • Niphont on 31 March 1990 as Bishop of Khmelnytskyi and Kamianets-Podilskyi
  • Andrew (Horak) on 18 April 1990 as Bishop of Lviv and Drohobych
  • Gleb on 2 August 1990 as Bishop of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia
  • Basilius on 2 December 1990 as Bishop of Simferopol and Crimea
  • Onuphrius (Berezovsky) on 9 December 1990 as Bishop of Chernivtsi and Bucovina
  • Jacob on 14 December 1990 as Bishop of Pochaiv
  • Sergius on 17 February 1991 as Bishop of Kremenets
  • Hilarion on 29 September 1991 as Bishop of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia
  • Alypius on 6 October 1991 as Bishop of Donetsk and Luhansk
  • Spyrydon (Babskyi) on 7 June 1992 as Bishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi
  • Barsanuphius on 8 June 1992 as Bishop of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia
  • Antonius (Masendych) on 9 September 1992 as Bishop of Pereyaslav and Sicheslav
  • Volodymyr (Romaniuk) on 10 September 1992 as Bishop of Bila Tserkva
  • Sophronius on 15 September 1992 as Bishop of Vinnytsia and Bratslav
  • Roman on 16 September 1992 as Bishop of Rivne and Ostroh
  • Seraphim on 25 September 1992 as Bishop of Zhytomyr and Ovruch
  • Nestor on 15 November 1992 as Bishop of Cherkasy and Chyhyryn
  • Polycarp on 10 April 1993 as Bishop of Donetsk and Luhansk
  • Alexius on 7 July 1993 as Bishop of Mykolaiv
  • Volodymyr on 13 March 1993 as Bishop of Vinnytsia and Bratslav
  • Alexander on 16 January 1994 as Bishop of Bila Tserkva
  • Daniel on 23 January 1994 as Bishop of Vyshhorod
  • Hadrian on 6 February 1994 as Bishop of Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk
  • Izyaslav on 11 September 1994 as Bishop of Nikopol
  • Theodosius (Petsyna) on 4 December 1994 as Bishop of Drohobych and Sambir
  • Barlaam on 14 December 1994 as Bishop of Chernihiv and Sumy
  • Joasaph on 19 February 1995 as Bishop of Belgorod and Oboyan
  • Baruch on 23 February 1994 as Bishop of Tobolsk and Yeniseysk
  • Job on 11 May 1995 as Bishop of Kremenets and Zbarazh
  • Gregorius on 10 October 1995 as Bishop of Melitopol
  • Gerontius on 24 March 1996 as Bishop of Sumy and Okhtyrka
  • Ioann on 18 July 1996 as Bishop of Donetsk and Luhansk
  • Antonius on 21 July 1996 as Bishop of Simferopol and Crimea
  • Volodymyr on 23 February 1997 as Bishop of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia
  • Joasaph on 6 April 1997 as Bishop of Donetsk and Luhansk
  • Pancratius on 27 July 1997 as Bishop of Vinnytsia and Bratslav
  • Christophorus on 2 October 1997 as Bishop of Surozh
  • Nikon on 12 October 1997 as Bishop of Kitsman and Zastavna
  • Damian on 19 October 1997 as Bishop of Kherson and Taurida
  • Peter on 30 October 1997 as Bishop of Lviv and Yavoriv
  • Yuriy Yurchyk on 14 May 1999 as George, Bishop of Donetsk and Luhansk
  • Timotheus on 26 March 2000 as Bishop of Korsun
  • Demetrius on 16 July 2000 as Bishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi
  • Clemence on 23 July 2000 as Bishop of Simferopol and Crimea
  • Michael on 22 October 2000 as Bishop of Sumy and Okhtyrka
  • Flavian on 5 November 2000 as Bishop of Kharkiv and Bohodukhiv
  • Paisius on 30 September 2001 as Bishop of Odesa and Balta
  • Stephan on 19 May 2002 as Bishop of Boryspil
  • Eusebius (Politylo) on 7 July 2002 as Bishop of Poltava and Kremenchuk
  • Sergius on 14 December 2002 as Bishop of Slovyansk
  • Vsevolod on 28 March 2003 as Bishop of Luhansk and Starobilsk
  • Ioann on 30 March 2003 as Bishop of Cherkasy and Chyhyryn
  • Cyril on 3 August 2003 as Bishop of Uzhhorod and Zakarpattia
  • Methodius (Sribnyak) on 6 June 2004 as Bishop of Sumy and Okhtyrka
  • Theodosius on 28 July 2004 as Bishop of Chernihiv and Nizhyn
  • Chrysostom on 14 May 2005 as Bishop of Chersonesus
  • Philaret on 31 July 2005 as Bishop of Făleşti and Eastern Moldova
  • Onuphrius on 30 October 2005 as Bishop of Derman
  • Michael on 1 January 2006 as Bishop of Poltava and Kremenchuk
  • Nestor on 5 March 2006 as Bishop of Ternopil and Buchach
  • Theodore on 12 November 2006 as Bishop of Poltava and Kremenchuk
  • Sebastian on 14 December 2006 as Bishop of Chernihiv and Nizhyn
  • Matheus on 17 December 2006 as Bishop of Drohobych and Sambir
  • Hilarion on 14 May 2008 as Bishop of Chernihiv and Nizhyn
  • Eustratius on 25 May 2008 as Bishop of Vasylkiv
  • Peter on 13 December 2008 as Bishop of Valuiky
  • Marcus on 1 February 2009 as Bishop of Kirovohrad and Holovanivsk
  • Paul on 30 March 2009 as Bishop of Ternopil and Terebovlia
  • Epiphanius (Dumenko) on 15 November 2009 as Bishop of Vyshhorod
  • Simeon on 21 November 2009 as Bishop of Dnipropetrovsk and Pavlohrad
  • Tycho on 22 November 2009 as Bishop of Luhansk and Starobilsk