On Sunday, March 22, the first stage of the nationwide farewell to Patriarch Filaret will conclude.
Photos and videos from the farewell are published by Radio Liberty.
In the morning, a requiem mass was celebrated at the St. Michaelʼs Golden-Domed Monastery under the leadership of the Primate of the OCU, Metropolitan Epiphany. Hundreds of people came to farewell.
After that, a funeral procession with Filaretʼs body set off from Mikhailovsky through Sophia Square to Volodymyrʼs Cathedral. A wide corridor was formed by priests who had gathered from all over the country. Several thousand people joined the procession.
It is in St. Volodymyrʼs Cathedral that the funeral will be completed, and Filaret will be buried there, according to his spiritual will.
Who is Filaret?
Filaret has led the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC KP) since 1995. After the creation of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2018, he received the title of honorary patriarch, and the church was led by Metropolitan Epiphany.
But later Filaret and the remnants of the UOC KP claimed that the council at which the decision to dissolve the UOC KP was made was not valid. Filaret accused Epiphanius and then-President Petro Poroshenko of failing to fulfill the agreements, liquidating the Kyiv Patriarchate, and said that although Epiphanius was to become the primate, it was Filaret who was to lead the church.
The case reached court — then the Supreme Court refused to allow Filaret to declare the Local Council, during which the OCU was formed, invalid.
- Patriarch Emeritus of Kyiv Filaret died on March 20 at the age of 97. Archbishop Nikodym of Sumy and Okhtyrka was elected the new patriarch of the UOC KP.
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