Filaret (Denysenko)

Patriarch Filaret is the head of the noncanonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate , and a former Metropolitan bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church .

Mykhailo Denysenko was born into a workers family of Anton and Melania Denysenko in the village of Blahodatne in the Amvrosiivsky Raion in the Donetsk Oblast in Eastern Ukraine. He obtained theological education at the Odessa 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.

Source: Wikipedia