Filaret (Denysenko)

Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko) — born Mykhailo Denysenko (1929–2026) — was a Ukrainian Orthodox church leader and one of the key figures in the history of the Ukrainian church schism and the movement for autocephaly.

In brief:

• He was born in Donbas, built his career in the Russian Orthodox Church, and served as Metropolitan of Kyiv.
• In the early 1990s, he advocated for the independence of the Ukrainian Church from Moscow and effectively created the Ukrainian Orthodox Church within the Moscow Patriarchate.
• After a conflict with the Moscow Patriarchate, he led the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, becoming its Patriarch.
• For many years, he remained a symbol of the struggle for the autocephaly of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.
• After the granting of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 2019, he entered into conflict with its leadership and announced the continuation of the UOC-KP.

On March 20, 2026, Filaret died at the age of 97.