"SAINT LUKE THE PHYSICIAN 1877 - 1961" "ARCHBISHOP OF SIMFEROPOL CRIMEA" "IHAVELOVEDTHE SUFFERINGWHICH SO STRANGELY CLEANSES THE SOUL" "Jesus has been walking the earth for twenty centuries." "His presence in this world is alive and within reach." "There are particularly some big hearts that bring to life His presence on this earth." "Their beat is the sound of His footsteps among us." "They dominate all other sounds on the earth, surpassing the centuries, flooding the life of the Church with pulses of strength and virtue." "One of these big hearts filled the Russian land with the pulses of its life in the 20th century." "Archbishop Luke the physician." "The marks he left in his travels engraved the Russian land." "They were permanent, because his course was one of love and self offering, testimony and suffering." "The beginnings of St Luke occurred in the tortured land of Crimea." "Born 27 April 1877 in Kerch, the ancient Greek city Panticapaeum located in eastern Crimea." "His ancestors were well-known and their surname, Yasenetsky was known from the 16th century." "Slowly this well-known family fell into poverty." "The father of St Luke was forced to move with his large family to Kiev." "It was here that the young Valentine, St Luke's secular name, spent his childhood years." "Kiev is the cradle of the Russian Christianity." "The Holy Monastery of the Caves is situated in the centre, in a luscious green display spanning 280 acres alongside the Dneiper River." "Beyond the archaeological treasures, the monastery has unique, spiritual treasures." "In two large catacombs with narrow passageways and many chapels, there are 118 undecomposed Holy Relics of Saints, which create devoutness in the pilgrim." "Each year thousands of pilgrims flock to this holy place." "Veneration at the Monastery has always been the dream of every pilgrim and they consider it a great blessing." "The whole of life and movement, the living monastic tradition of the Monastery continuing for centuries, the grace and blessing of the Saints and their Holy Relics, all had a decisive influence on the young Valentine Voino-Yasenetsky." "From early on his talent and passion for drawing was revealed." "He visited the Monastery daily and enjoyed drawing the monastics and the pilgrims." "For these works he won first prize from the Academy of Fine Arts." "Faith in the Lord is not an easy matter." "Despite from early on Valentine's religiousness was revealed, he went through his own trials." "Concerned with passion for life and truth, he did not stop searching for that which is pure and essential." "The various movements and ideologies that existed at the time, particularly the ideas of Tolstoy affected him greatly." "Parallel with his studies and pursuits in life, he studied the Holy Bible." "He would underline with red ink several points in the Bible that fascinated him." "Many passages in the Bible made an impression on me but nothing could compare with the depth of impressions this passage caused." "My heart leaped and I silently exclaimed, "O Lord, you are lacking workers."" "Afterward, when I became a worker in the vineyard of the Lord, I was certain that this text in the Bible was the first calling of the Lord to devote myself to His ministry." "In his heart, he had an intense interest to serve his neighbours, his fellow human beings." "He decides to occupy himself with something that would benefit the simple people." "He envisions himself as a nurse or teacher in a poor town." "A teacher known to him urges him to study medicine." "Satisfied with this proposal, the young Valentine enrols in the school of medicine in Kiev which was famous for its teachers and quality of courses offered." "In 1903 he graduated with distinguished marks and immediately offered his services to the poor people." "Before he could become a doctor in the provinces as he wished, the Russo-Japanese War broke out." "Then the young doctor volunteered to serve with the Red Cross." "He travelled with other volunteer doctors and nurses towards the Far East." "They settled in the town Chita and he started working as a surgeon in the military hospital where the wounded soldiers would be transferred." "He operated around the clock, from the simplest to the most complex operations with unbelievable success." "Saint Luke the physician was knowledgeable in the anatomy of the human body." "Through his studies he developed the local anaesthesia and was thus able to perform surgical procedures that were otherwise difficult or impossible." "In the town Chita a woman by the name of Anna Vasiliyievna worked with the Red Cross team." "She stood out for her kindness, morals, meekness of her character and they all called her holy nurse." "Anna was later to become the wife of Valentine." "From their marriage they had four children." "Returning from the front he worked in various district hospitals." "The results from his surgical procedures were spectacular." "Consequently he became so famous that patients would arrive from everywhere." "Each day he would accept many patients from regional clinics." "He would operate from morning to night without a break." "He would travel great distances to check patients in the wider community." "And at night instead of relaxing he would continue with his studies and his scientific research." "At the same time he would work on his thesis on local anaesthesia with his teachers Diakonof  Rein." "When he submitted his thesis, his teachers were astounded and he received top marks." "The University of Warsaw awarded him with the Hoinatski characterising his thesis as the best scientific writing." "In 1910 he was designated as head physician in the hospital of Pereslav Zaleski." "It is here that he would stay for seven years." "He worked in difficult conditions and granted health to thousands of patients." "He was one of the pioneering doctors in Russia who undertook difficult operations on the kidneys, stomach, spleen, gall, heart and brain with great success." "He especially excelled in the operations on the eyes, helping a lot of blind people regain their sight." "From the beginning of his surgical activities in Chita and other areas he worked, he realised the importance of the field of surgery of pyogenic (pus) infections and how little he learned about this field at university." "He began to study deeply the diagnosis and therapy of pyogenic infections." "He was a great researcher, he was a doctor with soul, he was a successful surgeon in his time." "I consider him someone with great worth which he revealed from very early in his career." "At the time, trachoma was widespread and he performed operations on this disease with success." "He used local anaesthesia, making his own modifications to it, the changes of which were subsequently adopted and published in literature." "Most importantly he was occupied with pyogenic infections." "We must realise that at the time when antibiotics were not around, the surgeon was faced with suppuration (formation of pus) in various parts of the body." "Towards the end of his stay at Pereslav Zaleski, he decided to publish his experiences in a book he decided to name "Essays on the surgery of pyogenic infections."" "This book on pyogenic infections became known in America and greater Europe and was discussed favourably and of course, how he was able to make such observations." "From 1917 the family's Golgotha started, especially for the doctor." "Successive tough trials would soon come to test him." "That same year his wife Anna became infected with tuberculosis." "Wanting a better and healthier place he departed for Tashkent." "There he was appointed director of the surgical department of the hospital, and in 1920 he was elected professor of the newly established medical school and took the seat of topographical anatomy and surgery." "It was the era when the October Revolution broke out and then the Civil War." "Valentine risked his life by going to the hospital where he operated around the clock trying to save lives." "One day, completely unjustified, he gets arrested and is led to the firing squad." "However, God did not allow the plans of his enemies to be carried out." "After a 16 hour painful wait he was released." "This incident had a bad impact on the ill health of his wife." "Her condition deteriorated rapidly." "After a few days she passed away at age 38, leaving Valentine alone with four young children, who would later be cared for by Sofia Sergegevna." "This way he could continue to offer to patients and medical research in general." "His scientific research and his successful surgeries made him very well-known." "Everyone would speak about him with enthusiasm and awe." "Medical teacher and academic, Kasirski, writes the following:" "His skilfulness as a surgeon had become legendary." "I have seen him at the operating table." "He would operate without nervousness." "You could feel the relaxed rhythm of his work." "His fingers would direct the scalpel with simplicity but at the same time with certainty over the body." "The skilfulness of Archbishop Luke had the sensation of" "Chopin music and could be characterised as "trail dust."" "In 1912 when I happened to observe his first and one of the first surgeries in the country with blood transfusion, I was left astonished at the exceptional technique he possessed as a surgeon." "Later when I spoke with Valentine's son about the technically flawless procedure I remembered the following incident:" "A delicate sense of touch was apparently inherent to father." "Once when he spoke to us, his children, he wanted to demonstrate this." "He took ten sheets of thin paper, folded them in half and asked us to select a number of sheets for him to cut with a scalpel." "We told him a random number, seven, and with one swipe of the scalpel he cut seven sheets." "The experiment was a success." "We were left amazed." "His amazing scientific training was accompanied with his strong faith in God and his great love for suffering people." "Before beginning his operation, he would make the sign of the cross on the patient at the point of incision with a cotton bud dipped in iodine." "In this way, with the invocation of God's help, the help of Panagia and the Saints he would begin the operation." "For this icon he gave battle and collided with the godless power that wanted to remove her." "It is now the era when the current regime would be against the church." "Several clergy and laymen were led to martyrdom." "Many were afraid and compromised their faith." "Valentine was the opposite, he didn't hide his faith and actively participated in the church life." "At a certain lay court, he vigorously defended the Archbishop Tashkent Innokentio." "When the hearing concluded the Archbishop was waiting for the doctor at the door." "The scene that transpired in the next few minutes was perhaps the most significant in the doctor's life." "He took me by the hand and led me to the footpath that surrounded the church." "He told me that my speech made a huge impression on him." "He suddenly stopped, looked me in the eyes and said," "Doctor, you have to become a priest." "Without even giving it a thought and without any hesitation, I replied:" "Your Eminence, if it is the will of God for me to become a priest then I will." "News of his ordination was like a bolt of lightning that shocked Tashkent." "He was confronted with many challenges and faced irony from his colleagues and students." "He was pressured by the godless power to appear without his vestments and cross and to renounce his priesthood." "He faced all his challenges with patience and Christian love." "Two years passed." "The persecutions against the church intensified." "Archbishop Innokentios was pressured and forced to resign." "The flock of Tashkent was left without a leader." "At a certain clergy-laity congress they voted and unanimously elected Fr Valentine to become Bishop." "Very soon Fr Valentine becomes a monk and takes the name of Saint Evangelist Luke the Physician." "He secretly departs for the city Panjakent, where two exiled bishops secretly ordain him Bishop on the night of 31 May 1923." "His ordination brought great joy to the faithful people of Tashkent, however not to the enemies of the Church, who immediately began their defamation." "A few days later he was arrested on the night of Saturday 9 June, at his home as he prayed." "They put him in the black crow, the security vehicle, and drove him to prison." "For quite a while, he underwent exhaustive interrogation and in late summer they transferred him to Moscow." "For a few days he was allowed free and in this time he met with martyr Patriarch Tichona, who urged him not to stop his surgical activities, in this way allowing him to continue his Christian struggle." "Thereafter he was taken to the security offices, in well-known Lubyanka where thousands of people were tortured and martyred." "Following a typical investigation without explanation or any formalities, he was taken to Butyrka prison which was known as the toughest prison in Moscow." "The buildings were squalid, the environment, horrible and depressing, the chambers, pitch-black." "Bishop Luke lived among those convicted of common law." "Soon, the first signs of his heart problem would be revealed which would accompany him for the rest of his life." "Mid-Autumn he was transferred to Taganka prison on the other end of Moscow." "Here too, he would live in abominable conditions for two months." "At the end of December 1923, despite being seriously ill, he was exiled to Siberia." "The trip on the prisoner trains, the , would last for about one month." "The suffering endured was great." "The behaviour of the guards and the other convicts was awful." "From the city Krasnoyarsk he was transferred by riverboat to Yeniseysk." "The godless power does not allow him to rest." "Unfortunately it sends him to other regions and tests him with new trials." "No matter where he goes, he does not forget his dual role as Bishop and doctor." "He supports the persecuted flock of the Church, preaches, performs liturgies and ordains priests." "Alongside, he accepts patients and whenever allowed he would operate at district hospitals." "In the hospital at Yeniseysk he undertook a groundbreaking and difficult operation." "He is the first worldwide to ever perform a kidney transplant from calf to human." "This of course was groundbreaking." "Naturally, the concept of foreign transplanting is still not yet well-established to this day." "However, he pioneered in that era, proving that he had an inquisitive and daring spirit." "When the war was over and they did not need him any longer, he was exiled once again." "He is now displaced to Turukhansk." "He travels by barge on the Yenisei river for over two thousand kilometres." "A monotonous journey, heavy, exhausting, but especially torturous." "The climatic conditions in Turukhansk were intolerable, especially for those who came from southern climates." "In the dark and endless Winter, the temperature would drop to 40 below zero, or even lower." "However, none of all of this hardship or pain from his unjust conviction were able to stop the Bishop doctor from offering his love to this remote and forgotten place." "As soon as he was granted permission he immediately began to practice medicine in hospitals and alongside would perform liturgies at a Church." "The people loved and respected him;" "However the representatives of power hated him." "It was the Winter of 1924 - 1925, which was especially heavy that year." "One day the Bishop was called to the offices of the GPU, located next to the hospital." "He presented to the representative of the GPU who advised him, that within half an hour, he would have to abandon Turukhansk." "Reason?" "Disobedience to the Soviet Power." "With police escort he heads north towards the Arctic Circle." "It was especially painful for me (he writes) to travel in the Winter in frozen Yenisei." "But this precise, difficult moment, I very clearly felt the Lord's presence beside me." "I could feel His support and encouragement." "With occasional overnight stays at various lodgings, we finally reached the Arctic Circle." "I suffered from the extreme cold." "It was the season where the wind would relentlessly blow for days." "The local residents called it Siver." "It was a quiet wind, but it would not stop, day or night." "In this wind, almost nothing living can withstand." "In November 1925 his sentence had ended." "The river roads had closed due to ice." "The only form of transport was the sleigh, which he used to travel some 3,000 kilometres." "Late January 1926, he finally returned to Tashkent, to his family and to his flock." "The local rulers harboured deep hatred and lurked in waiting for any excuse to eradicate him." "A certain professor of physiology committed suicide." "His death was declared murder." "His wife was accused of being responsible for his murder and with her, Bishop Luke." "Thus, an evil plot was methodically prepared for the unsuspecting Bishop." "In early 1930, the Bishop doctor was arrested again and taken to prison." "He is submitted to exhausting interrogations and torture." "In vain, he attempted to explain to his interrogators the actual facts." "After an entire year, they decided to exile him to North Russia." "In a few days the Bishop was transferred from prison to the railway station." "Anna Alexandrovna was present at the time of his transfer." "Quite a few of us were gathered and as we went forward we could see him from afar." "They were dragging him from his beard as if he were a thug and spat on his face." "At that moment I suddenly remembered the same mockery that Jesus Christ endured." "The carriage of prisoners arrived in the town Kotlas, where he was to endure another trial." "The transit prison of Kotlas was one of the toughest, unprotected from the cold." "Every day they would dig a huge pit and bury 70 to 100 corpses." "Bishop Luke experienced first-hand the tragedy all of those people and tried as much as possible to help them." "He endured a lot in his life, however he never complained to us about his sufferings." "I have to admit that he was a very polite person, with such spiritual strength, that even the prison guards were often mesmerised by him." "They would put him in a cell with murderers and criminals to hurt and insult him, but nobody ever touched or offended him." "Many people who weren't very religious wondered how he could leave his four children to suffer, believing this was not a good thing." "However, they did not understand, that to us, his children and grandchildren, with this life he offered much more." "The difficulties we faced made us stronger." "The fact that he became a Saint strengthened our spirit." "It protects us from doing or thinking evil deeds." "The main thing I remember from my grandfather, aside from being a very righteous and pious" "Orthodox Christian, was that he loved and respected people of all religions and nationalities." "And so when he died he was memorialised not only in Orthodox Churches, but also in their own way, in synagogues and even mosques everywhere, because to everyone he was a Holy man." "He was later transferred to Arkhangelsk where he faced serious problems with residency and work." "Without having seen any outcome, the authorities, seeking to punish him, exiled him for a second time to the city Arkhangelsk, which is situated on the banks of the White Sea." "It is a place of exceptionally harsh winter nine out of twelve months a year." "He was met with hostile behaviour everywhere and was only allowed to work in remote clinics." "In Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), he was personally called by Kyrof, the Soviet president and member of the political party in office." "He pressured him to resign from his priesthood and offered him the biggest surgical centre." "He refused and also refused the release of his book on his studies on pyogenic infections without his identity as Bishop." "After numerous adventures and movements his time in exile was over and he returned to Tashkent." "In Autumn of 1934, after ten years of preparation, his famous study" ""Essays for Surgery Pyogenic Infections" is finally released." "All his colleagues in the entire country accepted this with great joy." "Soon after, he was honoured with the Stalin Prize." "The manual became the handbook for all doctors." "It opened new avenues for surgery and provided immeasurable assistance for doctors." "Every doctor agreed that this study constituted a truly classic essay which touched on nearly all the problems faced with the surgery of pyogenic infections." "Professor Polianof wrote:" "In this country there is no other book like this, written with such eloquence, knowledge and love towards people." "In 1996 Professor Alexander Vavylof of the Petersburg Military Medical Academy characteristically said:" "If it weren't for Archbishop Luke, our surgery would be 50 years behind." "From the beginning of the decade of 1930 the Soviet community enters a dramatic period where little is known." "Stalin dominates, and as with all dictators, his insecurities grow as he increases in rank." "Millions of people are imprisoned, exiled and executed." "Bishop Luke continues to work with passion." "One night 3 policemen went into his home and arrested him." "They took him to securities where he was subjected to tortures and interrogations." "This is how he describes the terrible 24 hours that followed:" "They had devised the so-called chain interrogation (he writes), in which I too were subjected to." "This interrogation continued uninterruptedly day and night." "The interrogators would interchange, however the interrogated would not be allowed to sleep even for a second throughout this 24 hour period." "He remained in Tashkent prison for 2 years." "After all this hardship he was sentenced and exiled to Siberia for 3 years." "The worldwide scene at that time was dominated by war." "Despite the unholy Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939, in the Summer of 1941 the agreement ended." "On 21 June 1941, Sunday of All Saints of the Russian land," "Hitler's army invades Russia and slowly reaches the suburbs surrounding Moscow." "The entire country endured many trials and soaked in the blood of thousands of people." "At such a difficult period, Bishop Luke could not stand to be apathetic." "The verse of Apostle Paul, Who is weak, and I am not weak?" "lived in him not only as a shepherd but also as a doctor." "Without anybody asking him he presented to the city authorities and asked them to allow him to offer his medical knowledge, experience and care to those injured at war." "However, it did not end there." "He sent the following telegraph to president Kalinin of the Board of Governors." "I, Bishop Luke am exiled to a small village in the city Krasnoyarsk." "As a specialist in the surgery of pyogenic infections, I can offer help to the soldiers on the front or rear line, whichever section you allow." "I request that you postpone my sentence in exile and grant me leave to work in the hospital." "After the end of the war, I will be ready to return to the place where I am exiled." "Bishop Luke." "The response from Moscow came immediately." "He was to be transferred to Krasnoyarsk." "They quickly transferred him to Krasnoyarsk and appointed him head physician in the military hospital and consultant for all the other military hospitals in the region." "From the very next day he began performing surgeries." "This was towards the end of Summer of 1941." "In one of his letters to his son, he wrote:" "I have loved the suffering, which so strangely cleanses the soul." "The Bishop would take the most difficult cases and those most badly injured." "The other doctors would also give him the most difficult cases." "Even though many years have passed, they still remember his grateful being and his multifaceted ecclesiastical and social work." "To this day, the state hospital of the city has his name." "The hospital also functions as a museum for Archbishop Luke." "A memorial plaque dedicated to Archbishop Luke Voino-Yasenetsky was erected in the school building." "During the war he was head physician in the military hospital number 1515, which housed our school building number 10." "With his presence he blessed this building, in particular the operating room where surgeries would be performed, all of them being successful, even the most difficult." "Not a single patient soldier died and were grateful to him." "Archbishop Luke slept in the basement of the building, in a room which served as a storeroom for the tools." "He was placed there unfortunately because of his Orthodox denomination." "And so he would spend 24 hours in the hospital and was always available for his patients." "In 1994 a monument in his honour was placed in front of the hospital building." "One cannot judge him poorly because he was a great man who suffered much." "He is a man who sacrificed his whole life for one and only purpose, to serve people." "He lost a lot of time before he could choose a profession he wished to practice." "At first he wanted to be an artist but would wonder in the depths of his soul, in what area he could offer a greater benefit to people." "In the end he decided to become a doctor." "He wanted to heal simple peasants." "He was distinguished by absolute unselfishness and his work was a daily feat." "On the other hand he grieves that he is unable to execute his pastoral duties." "There are no open churches." "God has been exiled from this vast country." "The political party bragged, saying how they did not leave one single church open in the whole of Siberia." "In September of 1943, at the first congregation of Bishops, they elected Metropolitan Sergio as patriarch." "Among the Bishops was Bishop Luke who was promoted to Archbishop Krasnoyarsk and because there were no open churches he went to extraordinary efforts to obtain a much desired license." "In early March his requests were finally heeded." "They allowed him to open a small church but not in the city, rather in the village cemetery of Nikolayevsk, 7 kilometres away." "The Germans retreated to the western region of the country." "The military hospitals transferred west and the state authorities sent the Archbishop doctor to the city Tambov to work in the hospital." "Prior to the revolution there were 110 churches in the region." "In 1944 only 2 remained, one in Tambov and the other in Michurinsk." "The other churches were either destroyed, converted to warehouses, offices or theatres." "The church of the Holy Protection, the only church able to operate, had suffered many attacks." "The atheists had destroyed the icons and the iconostasis and had thrown them outside." "In this church he would perform liturgies and give sermons." "His greatest honorary distinction occurred in 1946." "He was awarded with the Stalin Prize, the greatest state award for his scientific research which received the greatest reviews in Russia and abroad." "In May of 1946 Archbishop Luke transferred to" "Crimea as Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea." "On his way there he saw many ruins." "The war resulted in many catastrophes." "In Archbishop Luke, the Russian church found that which it needed." "The right person." "His health however, declined." "His vision deteriorated." "He had already lost his sight from one eye." "He suffered from heart failure and arrhythmia, making life difficult." "At a conference, although called to speak, at the last moment he was forbidden from taking the floor in his vestments, and told that if he wished to speak from then on at any conference, he should come wearing a suit." "Naturally he refused." "Saint Luke was a deeply religious person." "In his image the church accepted the challenge of the Soviet authority and showed, with dignity and honesty that a priest who believes in God will never abandon his duty or betray his faith, no matter what they offer him." "In his letter written in 1947, he speaks of some priests, many of whom are embarrassed to wear their vestments and who dress according to fashion, not wanting to differ in any way from secular people." "Remember what he replied to the security official who demanded in anger that he must not walk about in his vestments." "Saint Luke said:" "The only way you will remove my vestments is if you remove my skin with it." "Saint Luke wore his vestments as confession of faith, despite knowing very well that because of these vestments he would suffer all that he suffered." "In Simferopol, Archbishop Luke lived the final moments of his life, rundown and pale." "On Christmas of 1960 he performed his final liturgy." "The Bishop always behaved seriously and responsibly towards his holy duties." "I was blessed to liturgise with him and was moved to tears from his hierarchical activities." "In all the aspects of his life he devoted exclusively to the service of God." "From the depths of his soul he loved prayer." "Every time I saw him praying, my eyes were tearful." "It was from him that I received the grace of priesthood." "He moved me greatly in the way he conducted services in the church, and generally every move he made impressed me to tears." "I cannot describe the feeling of my burning love towards him and I don't know how to thank God for this grace." "Every time I liturgise I ask for his intercession with a strong sense of love." "As I said, he especially loved to pray." "Even in his last days, where he had major problems with his eyes, he did not stop praying with deep emotion and many tears." "I helped him a few times during sermons, as he could not see well and was so weak that the people could not hear him well and could not understand him." "For this reason he assigned me to read out loud segments from the Holy Bible." "When I stopped, he would explain the deeper meaning of the sacred words." "His sermons were extremely remarkable with deep meaning and interest." "After every liturgy with Saint Luke I could not contain my tears." "I cried every time." "I experienced this often and these memories flood my heart with love." "I am very glad that God granted me, an unworthy priest to co-liturgise with him and participate in his sermons, something for which I thank Him with tears from the depth of my soul." "He continued to give sermons regularly until Cheesefare Sunday where he performed his final sermon." "Voice of Saint Luke:" "My children, I urge you to dress in the armour given by God so that you will be able to confront the tricks of the devil." "You cannot believe how cunning he is." "We are not fighting with people but with principalities and powers, in other words with evil spirits." "Beware!" "It is not in the devil's interest for people to accept his existence, or for people to think or feel that he is near them." "An invisible enemy is more dangerous than a visible enemy." "Oh!" "How big is the army of demons!" "How immeasurable is their dark crowd?" "Tirelessly night and day they seek to push all of us, who believe in Christ, in the direction of unfaithfulness, wickedness and disrespect." "These immeasurable enemies of God have as their only purpose, day and night, to destroy us." "However, don't be afraid." "Take strength from the name of Christ." "His blindness did not change his character." "Completely surrendered to the will of God, he faced everything with admirable endurance without complaining or grumbling." "As the day of his departure from this life approached he turned and said to his niece:" "Will they allow you, I wonder, to chant for me Holy God?" "His niece was perplexed, unable to interpret this enigmatic phrase." "Sunday the 11th June 1961 arrived, where the feast of All Saints is celebrated, who shone and sanctified in Holy Russia." "It was quarter to 7 in the morning when the faithful were preparing for the Celebratory Divine Liturgy." "Breathing heavily, Archbishop Luke took two big breaths and another two light breaths." "His soul fluttered to Heaven." "The Archbishop departed in order to liturgise this great day with the Russian Saints in the Heavenly Altar." "The newspapers circulated with large antireligious articles, wanting to quickly rid themselves of him." "Even dead he was dangerous." "The people however wished for a majestic funeral and his body to cross" "Simferopol from the Cathedral to the cemetery which was 3 kilometres." "The authorities of Simferopol invited the Archbishop's children and announced that it was prohibited to transport the deceased by foot through the central avenue of the town." "The reason was none other than:" "The funeral procession would interfere with the normal movement of traffic." "The time came for the procession." "We all moved towards the door although they were still chanting Holy God." "An empty bus was waiting directly beside and when we exited from the yard it started toward us wishing to cut us off from the hearse procession." "Then I yelled, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, they won't run us down, they won't dare do this, hold on." "Then, everybody held onto the hearse and moved forward." "The procession began, however the authorities tried to stop it again and send us via back streets." "The people however reacted strongly, many women lying in front of the wheels of the vehicle, shouting: "only over our dead bodies will it go the way you want." The people had started lining the road with roses, the mayor" "becoming angry over this, grabbed a basket with roses and threw it far shouting: "why are you creating rubbish and polluting the road?" Outraged, a faithful man grabbed the mayor's hat and threw it far, replying: "this is how we want to bury our Archbishop, and know this, your" "funeral will not be like this." And truly, in a short time the mayor was stood down from his position, I don't know for what reason." "He was moved to the town Dnipropetrovsk where he was murdered." "Some distance from the cemetery all the clergy took the coffin by hand." "There were many people." "It looked like a sea which followed our Saint to his last earthly residence." "Nowhere else have I seen so many people, nor this much love shown to another person." "The procession lasted 3 and half hours." "The authorities wanted it to last for only 3 minutes." "Testimonies from witnesses present at the event confirmed a flock of pigeons chirping and circling around the Saint." "They followed the procession to the cemetery and remained in the sky for 3 and a half hours, the length of the service." "The procession arrived to the cemetery late in the afternoon." "The tortured body of Archbishop Luke was laid to rest beside the tomb of his friend, Archimandrite Tichona and the blessed Archbishop Gouria Karpov." "His tomb was thrifty and austere, always covered with flowers from people arriving daily." "From then his tomb became a source of remedy for the suffering and terminally ill." "At the top, a marble cross to remind the redemptive sacrifice of Christ on the cross and also his own difficult course." "It was not a standard feature that all Christians placed on tombs, rather an indication and symbol that the person buried beneath truly had a difficult cross to carry." "In the conscience of the people, Archbishop Luke was a Saint." "Special investigative committees examined his life, his works and his miracles." "In November of 1995, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church declared him a Saint, his own service was written and his icon was painted." "Permission was granted to Archbishop of Simferopol and" "Crimea, Lazarus, to undertake translation of his relics." "When the time came to glorify Saint Luke the church authorities decided to exhume our great Saint." "Those present were amazed by the grandeur of his holiness." "We must say that this fact for us was something unusually great." "Prior to exhuming the relics we performed the service of the" "Presanctified Gifts for 3 consecutive days as it coincided with Great Lent." "We performed long prayers for the help of God and Saint Luke to assist us in this task." "The first to take the shovel and start digging was our Metropolitan Lazarus himself, and then the work was undertaken by priests." "The weather that day was terrible and it rained nonstop." "When, under the sound of chanting, we lifted the Saint's relics from the tomb, the bad weather ceased and there was deep silence, the area flooding with ineffable fragrance." "In this silence, chanting, we transferred the relics of Saint Luke to his church which was close to his burial site." "A little later, some demon possessed people strangely appeared who began shouting: "Saint Luke, do not torment us."" "After 3 days when we transferred the holy relics to the Cathedral there was terrible weather again." "The moment the procession was going through the city roads, before our very eyes, the skies cleared, the clouds vanished and the sun shone." "It was an unforgettable sight." "This made an indelible impression on all the people, who were more than 40,000 and we all united in an elation of love towards Saint Luke and with chants and great emotion we reached the church." "Present were Metropolitan of Kiev, Vladimir, many priests, members of government and a multitude of people." "His memory was set to be celebrated on 11 June, the anniversary of the day he departed." "Thus another Saint was added to the chain of great, healing Saints of our church." "Shocking are the testimonials of people who have benefited from the miracle working presence of Saint Luke." "The case of young Nazar from Siberia is a moving one." "Four years ago when I was 10 years old, I had an accident." "I was on holidays at my grandmother's in Theodosia of Crimea." "One day when I went to go outside, my fingers got caught in the steel door, and 2 of my fingernails were cut off on my left hand." "What followed was first aid, x-rays and then an operation." "The doctor who operated on me said that one of the two cut fingers would be very crooked, because the bone was completely crushed and almost nothing remained." "My mother took me to the Church, did supplicatory canons, gave me holy water to drink, and put oil from the Saint on my fingers." "We returned home to Siberia." "I went to school and one day during class, my hand started hurting a lot." "When I returned home, my hand had turned entirely black." "My mother put oil from the Saint on my fingers and gave me a small icon of Saint Luke." "I took the icon and put it on the bandages." "I asked him, crying and saying:" "Saint Luke," "I don't know what you will do." "I want to play piano again." "Within a few minutes, we saw with our very own eyes, my hand clearing up entirely and returning to its normal colour." "From that day on, my nails started growing back, first one finger, then on the other." "This is the icon of Saint Luke we put on my hand." "Now every year we return to venerate the holy relics of the Saint." "At first I did not want to speak about this event to anyone, but the priest of the monastery Toplofski," "Father Michael, told me to be obedient and tell it, because the people need it." "My nails have grown back to how they were previous to the accident." "Glory to God for everything." "The life of Saint Luke cannot help but move every soul." "He was truly great, as a priest and a scientist." "He lived through a very difficult time for our church and proved with his life that a scientist can also be deeply faithful." "He started out as a simple rural doctor and evolved into a famous surgeon, who healed the sick with his great scientific training." "We faithful recognise very well that it was not only by his own skill, but also through his great faith in God." "He would even say to his patients who he'd operate on, that it was not his hand operating, but God" "Himself, who operates and heals." "Here in Simferopol he offered his services for many years and helped thousands of people, who remember him with gratitude." "He was a man of love, a kind soul, with a big heart." "It is a characteristic fact that during the exhumation of his holy relics, strangely, his body had decomposed but his heart was found uncorrupted." "He defied the natural laws of decay." "A heart that has melted from great love towards God and people is impossible to decompose naturally." "Nature respected the heart of true love." "Saint Luke loved, struggled, hurt, tired, was in danger, suffered and was persecuted, leaving behind to the married and unmarried Christians, a crystal clear example of Christ." "He considered, as did Great Paul, the refusal of oneself in order to win Christ." "And he achieved this, because he truly wanted it."