St. Luke of Crimea (1877-1961)

Valentin Voyno-Yasenetsky, a surgeon, who after his wife died in 1919 was ordained a priest in Tashkent and then consecrated a bishop in secret, taking the name Luke. He was arrested for the first time in 1923 and spent eleven years in prison and exile in Siberia, operating wherever they sent him and writing a textbook on septic surgery that the state awarded the Stalin Prize in 1946, while he was still a bishop, and whose prize money he gave to children orphaned by the war. As Archbishop of Crimea he operated, taught and served until he went blind. He died in 1961. A doctor who prayed before every operation and marked the incision site with iodine in the sign of the cross. Glorified in 2000. Feast: May 29 (on the Old Calendar, 11 June); the Greek and Romanian Churches keep him on 11 June.