Filaret | |
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Church | Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate |
See | Kiev |
Installed | July 1995 |
Term ended | Incumbent |
Predecessor | Volodymyr |
Orders | |
Ordination | 18 June 1951 |
Consecration | 4 February 1962 by Pimen I of Moscow |
Personal details | |
Birth name | Mykhailo Antonovych Denysenko |
Born |
Blahodatne, Amvrosiivsky Raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine |
23 January 1930
Signature |
Patriarch Filaret (secular name in Ukrainian Mykhailo Antonovych Denysenko, in Russian Mikhail Antonovich Denisenko, officially His Holiness, the Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus’ - Ukraine Filaret; born 23 January 1930) is the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate (since 1995), and a former Metropolitan bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church (until 1992; excommunicated in 1997).
Mykhailo Denysenko was born into a worker's family of Anton and Melania Denysenko in the village of Blahodatne in the Amvrosiivsky Raion (district) in the Donetsk Oblast (province) in Eastern Ukraine. He obtained theological education at the Odessa Seminary (Moscow Patriarchate) 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 (from 1952) 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.