On June 11, the Russian Orthodox Church honors the memory of our contemporary, a skilled physician, the author of Essays on Purulent Surgery, and a talented preacher—St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky), Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea (†1961).
St. Luke in his youth Valentin Felixovich Voino-Yasenetsky was born in 1877 in the Crimean city of Kerch. His father was a Roman Catholic and his mother was Orthodox. His mother devoted a lot of time to charity, helping the sick and the poor. In adolescence, Valentin moved to Kiev with his parents. After graduating from high school, he decided to enroll in the Kiev University (the Department of Medicine), although he was keen on painting. But after visiting the Kiev-Caves Lavra, where he painted portraits of cripples and beggars and felt compassion for them, the young man decided that he had no right to do what he liked, and must do what was for the benefit of suffering people.
Among Kiev University students Valentin Voino-Yasenetsky stood out for his abilities and firmness of purpose. After graduation, he astonished everybody with his assertion: he wanted to become a zemstvo (“peasant”) physician and treat the common people.
Valentin Felixovich started working as a surgeon at the Red Cross Hospital in the city of Chita.1 He gained enormous experience in performing complex operations. There, at the hospital, he met the modest and pious nurse Anna Vasilievna Lanskaya. They got married and had four children: Mikhail, Elena, Alexei, and Valentin.
Afterwards Valentin Voino-Yasenetsky worked as a doctor in the Simbirsk, Kursk, Orel, Saratov and Vladimir provinces. He had to become a multi-profiled medical specialist: a general practitioner, an ophthalmologist, an obstetrician, an otolaryngologist, a neurologist... He was a divinely gifted surgeon—after his surgical operations patients recovered swiftly.
There were not enough beds in small provincial hospitals, and so Valentin Felixovich took some patients to stay in his house. Once a pauper regained his sight after surgery and brought several more blind beggars to the surgeon Voino-Yasenetsky. And the saint operated on them all successfully.
Employees of Krasnoyarsk Hospital No. 15. In the center: Professor V. F. Voino-Yasenetsky, 1942
V. F. Voino-Yasenetsky perfected his medical skills in Moscow hospitals, made reports in the surgical community, and had his essays published in medical journals.
Valentin Felixovich was aware that some patients can’t tolerate anesthesia, so he developed a new method—local anesthesia, in which the drug is injected into the patient’s nerve and blocks the connection of the operated area with the brain. He defended his doctoral thesis on this subject.
When the First World War broke out, Valentin Felixovich organized another hospital in Pereslavl-Zalessky (now a town in the Yaroslavl region), in addition to the three hospitals, which he headed. Over those troubled years for Russia he performed up to 1000 operations a year. At that time, his wife was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Valentin Voino-Yasenetsky decided to move to warmer climes for the sake of his wife’s recovery, and in 1917 took his family to Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan) where he began working as a chief surgeon. Not only did he treat people, but he also became the head of the Department of Surgery at the newly founded Turkestan University.
In 1919, his wife passed away. Valentin Felixovich asked a medical nurse at the Tashkent Hospital, his colleague, to take care of his children, and he then completely immersed himself in his work.
Valentin Voino-Yasenetsky and his sons
During those years, he prayed long at home and in church, and became friends with many priests. He studied the Holy Scriptures as thoroughly as he studied medical textbooks, and began to speak publicly on Orthodox topics. In 1920, Valentin Felixovich delivered a speech at a diocesan meeting, after which Bishop Innocent (Pustynsky) of Tashkent said, “Doctor, you should be a priest.” And although Valentin Voino-Yasenetsky had never thought about the priestly ministry before, he agreed without hesitation.
He often came to hospital and to lectures at the university in a priest’s vestments, and placed an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in his operating room. He would always make the sign of the cross over his patients before surgery, as well as over his assistants and nurses.
In 1921, Jekabs Peterss, Deputy Chairman of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission, launched the “Doctors’ Case” in Tashkent, accusing some physicians of the deaths of wounded Red Army soldiers. At the trial, Peterss himself acted as a prosecutor, but Valentin Felixovich Voino-Yasenetsky acted as an expert against him and defended the doctors. Then Peterss jumped on Valentin Felixovich. “How is it that you pray at night and cut people open during the day?” The priest-surgeon replied calmly, “I cut people open to save them, and in whose name do you do it, Mr. public prosecutor?” Peterss did not want to surrender and asked ironically, “How can you believe in the Lord? Did you see Him?” Valentin Felixovich responded that indeed he had not seen the Lord, but “I have often operated on the brain, and when I opened the skull, I have never seen a mind or conscience there either.” The people sitting in the hall laughed and applauded after these words. Valentin Felixovich brilliantly defended his colleagues. Everyone believed that now he would fall victim to the new Government’s repressions. But the Lord saved the surgeon-priest: Peterss was soon transferred to another place of work.
Bishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) In 1922, a new disaster struck the Russian Orthodox Church—the Renovationist schismatics appeared, and backed by the Soviet Government, were taking Orthodox churches under their control. The holy Patriarch Tikhon realized that the godless authorities planned to do away with all Orthodox priests and blessed the secret consecration of bishops so that they could ordain new priests.
Central Asia became a place of exile for many archpastors. In 1923, one of them, Bishop Andrei (Ukhtomsky) of Ufa and Menzelinsk, tonsured Valentin Felixovich Voino-Yasenetsky, choosing the name of St. Luke the Evangelist, who was a physician, for him. Two other exiled bishops performed his consecration, and Vladyka Luke celebrated his first hierarchical Liturgy.
On June 10, 1923, Archbishop Luke was arrested. A difficult eleven-year period of prisons and exile began in his life. He was exiled to Yeniseysk, Turukhansk, Kotlas, Arkhangelsk... He served as a doctor and a priest at the same time in all these places. He operated on seriously ill patients in local hospitals. Even at a temporary stop in a Siberian village he performed an operation with metal pliers on a peasant, since there were no other tools at hand.
He celebrated the Liturgy and Vigil in his apartment, tonsuring novices as riassaphore monks, and ordaining priests there. He baptized children within the Arctic Circle, making an epitrachelion from a towel.
Several times Vladyka was exiled to remote, God-forsaken places, but fortunately he didn’t stay there for very long, because everyone needed him, a first-rate surgeon; both local authorities and residents complained of a lack of physicians.
In 1927, during an intermediate period between exiles, Archbishop Luke had a temptation when, after seeing Orthodox churches destroyed or seized by Renovationists, he decided only to practice medicine. He was appointed as consulting physician at the Andijon Hospital (Uzbekistan), but now his operations often ended unsuccessfully. Vladyka Luke felt that he’d lost grace. He realized that working solely as a physician without any spiritual foundation would not bring success. And he began to combine the service of a clergyman and a surgeon again.
In 1934, his work, Essays on Purulent Surgery, written mostly in exile and prisons, was published. It brought him fame not only in the USSR, but also abroad. After that, Archbishop Luke received invitations from Moscow and Leningrad to head departments and whole research institutes. But the price demanded for this was enormous: the abandonment of the clerical rank. In response to all the flattering offers, Vladyka Luke firmly said no.
Photo: Diabetis.ru
In Central Asia, he contracted a fever and lost sight in one eye. But in the hardest times he witnessed that he “almost sensed the Lord Jesus Christ by his side, supporting and strengthening him”. Vladyka felt this help especially clearly in 1937, when the NKVD chekists managed to extort an admission of guilt from several bishops and priests exiled to Tashkent and orchestrated a case “On a Counterrevolutionary Church and Monastic Organization”. They proceeded to arrest doctors, fishing out “information on espionage and murders on the operating table.” Vladyka Luke was also arrested and thrown into prison. He patiently endured both severe beatings and unbearable torture by sleep deprivation for thirteen days. Vladyka Luke went on hunger strike three times, suffered from severe dizziness due to chronic lack of sleep, and sometimes it seemed to him that he was losing his memory, but he did not sign the papers given to him, pleaded not guilty, and did not incriminate anyone. As a result, all those who had slandered others and signed the required documents for the investigation were shot, while Vladyka Luke’s case dragged on until 1940, and subsequently the investigators themselves were arrested. Instead of the death sentence, the saint was exiled to Krasnoyarsk for five years, where he eventually heard about the outbreak of World War II.
In June 1941, in the first days of the war, Vladyka Luke sent a telegram to the Head of State Mikhail Kalinin in Moscow. “I ask you to interrupt my exile and send me to work in a hospital. When the war is over, I will return to exile. Archbishop Luke.”
Kalinin was never given this telegram, but the Communist Party Committee of the Krasnoyarsk territory appointed Archbishop Luke the chief surgeon of evacuation hospital No. 1515 and the consulting physician of all the hospitals in the Krasnoyarsk territory.
Vladyka Luke performed several operations per day. He would go to the forest to pray, since there was not a single active church left in Krasnoyarsk. But there were already some concessions made for the faithful.
In 1942, Vladyka Luke was appointed Archbishop of Krasnoyarsk and succeeded in opening a small church near Krasnoyarsk. In 1943, Vladyka Luke was summoned to Moscow for the Local Council, which elected the Patriarch. Vladyka Luke was elected permanent member of the Holy Synod, but he could not attend its meetings because of his workload and long journeys.
Archbishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky)
In 1944, Patriarch Sergius and the Synod transferred Archbishop Luke to the Diocese of Tambov. In Tambov, he headed the hospital surgical unit and began to help with the work of the surrounding hospitals. He revived the diocese, in which there had been only three active Orthodox churches by that time. Vladyka Luke took on clergy who had returned from prison, and chose and personally trained worthy laypeople for the priesthood. Soon the Renovationists began to return to the Orthodox Church, and Archbishop Luke compiled the service of repentance for them. In a short span of time, there were twenty-four parishes opened in the Diocese of Tambov.
In 1946, Archbishop Luke received the Stalin Prize of the First Degree for his research works, Essays on Purulent Surgery and Late Resections of Infected Gunshot Wounds of the Joints. This award anulled his previous sentences, and Vladyka returned to his native region. He began to rule the Diocese of Simferopol and Crimea, practically building it anew. In addition, he gave lectures to doctors and worked as a consulting physician at the Simferopol Hospital.
Despite the love of his patients and parishioners, Archbishop Luke remained a humble and modest man. He gave away the money from the Stalin Prize—200,000 rubles—to orphanages, and organized the feeding of the hungry at his own expense. He wore an old cassock. Vladyka Luke used to say, “The most important thing in life is to do good. If you cannot do great good works, try to do at least small ones.”
As a surgeon, he was awarded the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945”.
In 1958, Archbishop Luke became totally blind. He quit his medical practice, but continued to help people with counseling and prayers, amazing other doctors with the accuracy of his diagnoses. Though blind, he went to church unescorted, venerated icons on his own, and recited the texts of services from memory. He ruled the diocese on the basis of reports from trusted priests. He preached often. Archbishop Luke was elected honorary member of the Moscow Theological Academy, and in 1959 he became a Ph.D in Theology.
He followed the Lord all his life, devoting all his energies to healing the sick and preaching the Gospel. Vladyka patiently endured all the hardships that befell him. He bore his cross to the end.
Archbishop Luke reposed in the Lord on June 11, 1961, on the feast of All the Saints Who Shone forth in the Russian Lands. In 2000, he was canonized together with the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.
Relics of St. Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky)
Vladyka Luke authored over sixty medical works. His Essays on Purulent Surgery is still an invaluable reference manual for doctors.
St. Luke also wrote spiritual works too: I Came to Love Suffering; Spirit, Soul, Body; My Strength Is Made Perfect in Weakness; Selected Sermons and Teachings; and Selected Sermons for the Feasts and for Lent. They have educated more several generation of believers. He wrote more than 750 sermons in total.
On July 19, 2020, by decree of the President of Russia, a State award for medical workers was established: the medal of St. Luke of Crimea. The Krasnoyarsk State Medical University, the Society of Orthodox Doctors of Russia, along with many medical centers, hospitals, and schools bear his name. Orthodox churches are being built in honor of St. Luke of Crimea in various Russian cities.
St. Luke still responds to petitions of the faithful today, and numerous healings occur through his intercessions. Let’s share several of such stories.
The servant of God Marina had been suffering from conjunctivitis for eight months. The doctors prescribed various medications, but the illness persisted. The young lady most of all feared going blind. She read the Akathist hymn to St. Luke for three days in a row. The illness subsided, the antibiotics began to help, and the pain eased off. Marina read the Akathist for several more days, praying fervently. And a miracle occurred: the conjunctivitis was gone.
The servant of God Yulia witnessed the miraculous help of St. Luke to her mother, who had been admitted to a Moscow clinic with severe pain in her spine. The day before the consultation with the attending physician, some relics of St. Luke were brought to the hospital church. Yulia went to the service, prayed hard in front of the relics, and brought to her mother’s ward a small icon of St. Luke, to whom Yulia and her mother prayed all night long. In the morning, the surgeon and other doctors came to the ward, examined the patient and came to the conclusion that there was no need for an operation and the disease could be cured with medication. Gladdened by the news, Yulia and her mother read the thanksgiving prayers to the Lord and turned to the saint for help again; they read the akathist to St. Luke of Crimea daily for forty days. And after some time, Yulia’s mother was healed of severe pain in her spine.
Prayers to St. Luke helped the servant of God Sergei, who had an advanced malignant tumor. It was already too late to cure it. Sergei’s entire family started praying earnestly to St. Luke. He also read the akathist to the saint every day. And the doctors risked performing surgery on Sergei at such a late stage. He was recovering slowly after the operation, but the new examinations showed that the tumor had vanished. Glory to God for everything! Sergei and his family give thanks to St. Luke for the healing all the time.
When the servant of God Olga was in St. Petersburg on business, 1240 miles away from home, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen and had to go to the hospital for surgery. On the night before the operation, she prayed fervently to St. Luke of Crimea. And something extraordinary happened: a tall, elderly monk in a dark cassock appeared by her side while she was in bed. The monk-doctor looked at Olga attentively, as if assessing the complexity of her illness. Not breathing, Olga stared at him intently and could not utter a word. Of course, she recognized the saint to whom she had been praying so much! But she didn’t feel astonished—everything was happening as if it should be this way. Then St. Luke left. He did not utter a single word, but Olga had felt his kind and warm presence next to her. And in the morning the operation went very well. Soon Olga recovered and thanked St. Luke of Crimea for his direct help in curing her serious illness.
Thus, through the prayers of St. Luke of Crimea, suffering people receive healing of their infirmities. The holy physician continues to help us.
Holy Father Luke, pray to God for us!
