Metropolitan Tikhon told why St. Luke remains a mentor for believers

Metropolitan Tikhon of Simferopol and Crimea spoke about the importance of St. Luke of Crimea for believers. According to him, despite the difficult life path, the saint gave faith to many people and strengthened their spirit and courage, reports “Crimea 24”.

“A bishop befits us, just like St. Luke.” He is also a bishop, a teacher, an assistant and a great mentor, Metropolitan Tikhon noted.

Saint Luke of Crimea, in the world Valentin Felixovich Voyno-Yasenetsky, combined two vocations: he was an outstanding doctor and a spiritual figure. In medicine, he is considered the founder of the school of purulent surgery. In 1923 he took monastic tonsure and became a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, and in 1995 he was listed as a saint. His life is a story of overcoming.

Saint Luke (Valentin Felixovich Voyno-Yasenetsky, 1877-1961) was born in Kerch. He was an outstanding surgeon, doctor of medicine, professor and archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea. His work “Essays on Purulent Surgery” is still being reprinted. During the Great Patriotic War, the saint worked as a consultant to hospitals of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the chief surgeon of the evacuation hospital, conducting operations for eight to nine hours a day.

In 1946, he received the Stalin Prize of the first degree, and of the 200 thousand rubles awarded to him, he gave 130 thousand rubles to the state to help orphans. From 1946 to 1961, he headed the Crimean diocese and continued to preach, although he was completely blind for the last six years of his life. The saint survived eleven years of imprisonment and exile.

In 2026, in Simferopol, preparations are underway for the 150th anniversary of the birth of St. Luke, which will be celebrated in 2027. As part of the preparation, it is planned to create a museum exhibition dedicated to his life and ministry, as well as to open a new museum of St. Luke. Earlier, in 2025, there was an interview with the great-niece of the saint Maya Prozorovskaya, who told about the last 15 years of his life.