The Blessed Surgeon

In the life of the Christian church, there have been numerous saints known for healing people. Common examples include St. Panteleimon and Sts. Cosmas and Damian, who are known as “unmercenary healers”, due to their healing of people without profit. The life of St Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea is marked by his consistent dedication to the service of all humans in the healing of soul and body. Similar to the early church, when the blood of martyrs watered the roots of the church for her spread and strengthening, the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century underwent a similar situation, but at an amplitude greater than ever before seen. In 1914, the Russian Orthodox Church included 50,000 priests, 24,000 monks, and 73,000 nuns, in a population of roughly 155 million. In 1940, there were around 5,665 priests. The soviets systematically hunted believers, destroyed church property, and persecuted clergy through various forms, from ordinary discrimination all the way to (and quite often at times) simple execution after sham trials. St. Luke was born in 1877 in Kerch, Crimea as Valentine Felixovitch Voino-Yassenetsky. He was to grow up as a Christian and develop his skills as a surgeon long before the Revolution arrived and largely deleted Christianity from the sphere of any public life. He initially was interested in art school, but decided to go to medical school after some intense soul-searching that compelled him towards a metier in which he could help people. Following the death of his wife in 1921, he was ordained to the priesthood. Throughout his time as clergy, he would continue to operate on patients, always requiring an icon of the Mother of God to be in the operating room. Not very long after, he would be elected bishop He was often slandered by GPU political officers for the purpose of locking him up, thus he would endure 11 years of exile, torture, and hardship by Soviet authorities, which sent him from Tashkent to various camps and cities in Russia, including the far Northern port city of Archangelsk to places in Siberia. Especially in the winter, this would take a toll on his health. Nevertheless, he prayed for his enemies, continued to see patients wherever he was sent (as much as they would allow him to), and continued to tend to the flock of Christ (despite the lack of believers, churches, and prominence of a schismatic sect which occupied many of the churches that did still exist). Despite being a political enemy simply by being a Christian, soviet authorities had to contend with the fact that he was a formidable surgeon and doctor. His works on anesthesia and surgical practices were widely regarded as expert matter on the frontier of science, and this would eventually earn him the Stalin award for his work during WWII in treating red army soldiers. The WWII period was marked by a loosening in restrictions against the church. In 1946, he was appointed Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea. Although the church now had relatively more freedoms, the authorities were still consistently hostile to his ministry, finding any way in which they could do prevent people from attending church, and closing churches for arbitrary reasons. The Blessed Surgeon continued to treat people despite his old age. It is during this time that he performed miracles. He eventually became blind, but often knew exactly where to walk, what to read, and could locate things perfectly. There are many stories of people that were miraculously healed by him. For this reason, when he reposed in 1960, it was described as the entire city which attended his 3-hour long funeral procession, much to the chagrin of the authorities. Even in the grave he continued to perform miracles for pilgrims that visited him. If we can remember his life for anything, it was consistency to God in times of great persecution. Many times it seemed quite likely that he would die, but he never gave up his office or betrayed Christ. For that reason, he survived, so that God could continue to work salvation for people in a time of great need. We get the impression that St. Luke was a strict man, with others, yes, but more so with himself. In this era, it was as much of a virtue as it was a means of surviving the persecution of authorities against overwhelming odds. He was strict in his beliefs and conduct. When the authorities would disallow his icon of the Mother of God from the operating room, he refused to operate. When GPU officers put him on trial in Tashkent and sought to discredit him, he verbally fought back and humiliated the officer in court. He refused to lecture in universities without wearing his cassock. It exemplifies the verse in Matthew: "the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force". The book is concise and well-written from the standpoint of a timeline of his life. It also seeks to bring out the human side of the saint, for certainly he was a human who dealt with difficult circumstances and this will necessarily create a certain reaction in someone. When he offended someone, even as Archbishop, he would tirelessly seek to make amends, even visiting the house of a parishioner 3 times in order to obtain forgiveness. It shows that even great saints make mistakes; we are all human. In the modern era of comfort (in fact I write this from my air conditioned living room and it’s 22º outside), this is a stark reminder as to the demands of the Christian spiritual life. Although the state repression of Christians is less common than under the Soviet Union, we must remember that it still does exist in some places, especially in the Islamic world and Israel. And even if we live in a country with freedom to practice our faith, the spiritual battle is for everyone, everywhere. We must choose to fight with courage, never compromising our faith and beliefs in order to glorify God.