Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the legacy of Vladimir Sabodan, primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from 1992 to 2014, and his relation with the issue of autocephaly. It specifically aims to discuss Moscow Patriarchate’s relations with Ukrainian political and religious realities and with the idea of a national independent church. Several events that took place in the years here analysed turned both Ukrainian religious life and inter-orthodox relations upside down. Sabodan’s death, the election of a new primate, Maidan revolution and the council of Crete indeed speed up processes whose beginning can be traced back to Ukraine’s political independence.