Patriarch Filaret, 96, has been hospitalized in serious condition
26 August 14:48
The patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, Filaret, has been hospitalized.
According to "Komersant Ukrainian" Filaret was admitted to one of the capital’s hospitals in a serious condition. Now doctors have managed to stabilize his condition.
The UOC-KP said that the patriarch’s health condition was satisfactory and that he went to the hospital for a routine checkup:
“In connection with various reports in the media, we inform you that the state of health of His Holiness Patriarch Filaret is satisfactory, he is on routine examination and treatment. We ask, as always, to offer prayers for the health of our Primate – His Holiness Patriarch Filaret of Kyiv and All Russia-Ukraine”.
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Partiarchate
The UOC-KP’s rival, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, has been urged to pray for the patriarch as his health has “obviously” deteriorated.
“In connection with the obvious deterioration of the state of health of the honorable patriarch Filaret (Denisenko), we call on the all-Ukrainian flock to offer prayers for his health.”
Orthodox Church of Ukraine
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Patriarch Filaret
Filaret(Mikhail Antonovich Denisenko) was born on January 23, 1929 in the village of Blagodatnoye in Donetsk region. After graduating from the Moscow Theological Academy, he quickly made a career in the Russian Orthodox Church: in 1962 he became a bishop, and in 1966 – Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia. During the Soviet period Filaret held a prominent position in the Moscow Patriarchate, and for a long time he was the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne in Moscow and one of the closest associates of the then Patriarch Pimen. He was considered a possible candidate for the patriarchal throne in the USSR.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Filaret became the main lobbyist for the independence of the Ukrainian Church from Moscow. In 1992, after the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church refused to grant autocephaly to the UOC, he announced his withdrawal and the creation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP). In response, the Moscow Patriarchate accused him of “schismatics” and imposed an anathema, which the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized as invalid only in 2018. Despite this, Filaret retained his influence and remained the unconditional leader of the UOC-KP, actively working to consolidate Ukrainian Orthodoxy.
Conflict with the PCU
In 2018, after years of effort, the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU) occurred by uniting the UOC-KP, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and part of the UOC-MP. Filaret took part in this process and received the status of honorary patriarch, while his former associate Metropolitan Epiphany was elected as the head of the PCU.
However, already in 2019 there was a conflict between them: Filaret said that the UOC-KP was not liquidated, and his role in the new church was formal. He sharply criticized Epifanius for “usurpation of power” and tried to revive the Kyiv Patriarchate as an independent structure. However, these actions did not find support among the majority of hierarchs and were not recognized by any of the local churches. This led to the isolation of Filaret, who actually lost influence on the further development of the PCU.
Until recently, Filaret performed divine services in the capital’s St. Vladimir Cathedral.
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