Head Of Ukrainian Church Dies
The Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Volodymyr (Sabodan) has died at the age of 78.
The head of the press service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy, Vasiliy Anisimov, told media that Metropolitan Volodymyr died of cancer in a Kyiv hospital on July 5.
Volodymyr had suffered from internal bleeding and had been treated at a clinic in Kyiv, Interfax reported.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, currently under the Moscow Patriarch Kirill, is Ukraine’s largest religious body and does not recognise the smaller Ukrainian Orthodox Church, under the Kyiv patriarch, which established itself in a schism after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Volodymyr ascended to the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church following the schism, during which its previous head was defrocked.