Luke Voyno-Yasenetsky

Saint Luke the Blessed Surgeon
Archbishop, Hieroconfessor, Wonderworker and Surgeon
Born	Valentin Felixovich Voyno-Yasenetsky 14 April 1877 Kerch, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	11 June 1961(1961-06-11) (aged 84) Simferopol, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Resting place	Simferopol, Crimea
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church
Canonized	25 May 1996, Sarov Monastery by Holy Synod, Russian Orthodox Church
Major shrine	Holy Trinity Cathedral, Simferopol, Crimea
Feast	May 29 (O.S) June 11 (N.S)
Attributes	Wearing bishop's vestment, pectoral cross and engolpion worn about his neck, miter and crozier.
Patronage	Crimea Doctors Nurses Pharmacies Physicians Surgeons Scientists Military Medical Academy of Serbia

Luke of Simferopol, also known as Saint Luke the Blessed Surgeon and Saint Luke of Crimea, born Valentin Felixovich Voyno-Yasenetsky (Russian: Архиепи́скоп Лука́, Валенти́н Фе́ликсович Во́йно-Ясене́цкий; 14 April [O.S. 27 April] 1877 – June 11, 1961) was a Russian surgeon, the founder of purulent surgery, spiritual writer, a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, and archbishop of Simferopol and the Crimea from May 1946 until his repose. He was a laureate of the Stalin Prize in medicine in 1946.

Personal life

Valentin Voyno-Yasenetsky was born in 1877 in Kerch. In 1889, his family moved to Kiev. In Kiev, he graduated from the gymnasium and art school, then Valentin entered the medical faculty of Kiev University.

Then he met the sister of mercy Anna Vasilyevna Lanskaya, whom he married, and they had two children. In 1917, Anna fell ill with tuberculosis, and the family moved to Tashkent. But in 1919, Anna Voyno-Yasenetskaya died.

In 1921, Voyno-Yasenetsky became a priest, then took the name Luke, later became a bishop. After the war, he was awarded the medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945".

In 1955, Luke became completely blind.

Medical career

His most important work in medicine is Sketches of Purulent Surgery (1934). This is still a reference book and a manual for surgeons. Also, he operated patients who had diseases of the gall bladder, stomach, and other organs of the abdominal cavity, and worked in neurosurgery and orthopedics. Voyno-Yasenetsky made a great contribution to anesthesiology. His first monograph, Regional anesthesiology, was published in 1915 in Petrograd. In 1916 he defended a thesis About regional anesthesiology of the second branch of the trigeminal nerve. He wrote about the practical importance of the regional anesthesia method in the attachment to the Essays of purulent surgery.

"... a great amount of death is due to unskillful or careless use of chloroform and ether. [...] That's why these methods of local anaesthesia which help doctors pay attention only to the operation have a great importance. In my opinion, one of the most important conditions in the development of the rural surgery is the wide familiarisation of doctors with these methods..."

Voyno-Yasenetsky was the first who described the anaesthesia for the trigeminal nerve by the use of ethanol into the branches of this nerve (orbital, maxillary and mandibular) and into Gasser's, or trigeminal ganglion.

He presented four reports in the first scientific meeting of the doctors in Turkestan (23-28 October 1922). There were conclusions about surgical treatment of tuberculosis, purulent processes of knee joints, hand tendons and costal cartilages.

Voyno-Yasenetsky made an experiment with the bacteriologist Guselnikov in which they were studying the mechanism of the purulent processes in the costal cartilages after typhus.

While working in the military hospital in Krasnoyarsk, he invented new operations, such as joints rejection. This operation was used to treat osteomyelitis of big joints.

Religious life

As a noticeable religious figure, he was subjected to political repressions and spent 11 years in internal exile.

Luke's mother was Russian Orthodox and his father was Roman Catholic, and according to his memoirs, he did not receive a religious upbringing from his family. When he left school the principal gave him a copy of the New Testament, and it was by a careful study of this that he came to know the teachings of Christ.

In 1958, writing after Stalin's death, and under Nikita Khrushchev's new wave of anti-religious persecution, Saint Luke stated "how arduous it has been to swim against the stormy current of antireligious propaganda, and how many sufferings it caused me, and continues to cause me to this day."

Veneration

Canonization

He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church on May 25, 1996. His feast day is commemorated on May 29 (according to the Julian calendar) or June 11 (according to the Revised Julian Calendar). On March 17, 1996, Luke's remains were disinterred, with many thousands of people attending the ceremony. It is said that an indescribable aroma arose from his relics, while his heart was discovered incorrupt , a testament to the great love he bore towards Christ and his fellow men. Three days later, on March 20, 1996, his relics were transferred to the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Simferopol, and are there to this day.

Relics

In Greece, portions of his relics are found in the Sagmata Monastery (in Boeotia, near Thebes and Ypato), Dovra Monastery and a few other churches.

Gallery

• 
  Holy Trinity cathedral in Simferopol, where the relics of St. Luke are held.
• 
  Church of Luke, Archbishop of Crimea, at the Medical Radiological Research Center (Obninsk)

See also

• Confessor of the Faith
• Pyogenic infection
• Unmercenary Physicians

Sources

• Archdeacon Vasiliy Marushchak, The Blessed Surgeon: The Life of Saint Luke of Simferopol, Divine Ascent Press, 2002
• Archmandrite Nektarios Antonopoulos, Saint Luke of Simferopol and Crimea I Embraced Martyrdom: An Autobiography, Porphyra Publications, 2013 (in Greek)

External links

• Media related to Luka (Wojno-Jasieniecki) at Wikimedia Commons