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[[Image:Agios Loukas.jpg|right|thumb|230px| Saint Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky) of Simferopol]]
Saint '''Luke, Bishop of Simferopol and Crimea, the Blessed Surgeon''', was born '''Valentin Felixovich Voino-Yasenetsky''' (''Валентин Феликсович Войно-Ясенецкий'', Βαλεντίν Βόϊνοpolish spelling ''Wojno-ΓιασενέτσκιJasieniecki''), ; [[April 14]], 1877 and died [[June 11]], 1961.
Doctor of Medicine, Professor, and State Prize winner, since 1944 he was the Archbishop of Tambov and Michurinsk, and later of Simferopol and the Crimea. While he was serving the church as an [[Archbishop]], he was also practicing as a surgeon and taught and published many books and articles on regional anesthesia and surgery. He is now known to be a world-famous pioneering surgeon.
===Doctor, Scientist, Bishop, Imprisonments===
Noting Fr. Valentine’s spiritual gifts, prior to his departure from Tashkent (arrest and exile to Siberia), in 1923 Bishop Andrey Ufimsky of Ufa Andrew (Ukhtomsky) administered [[monasticism|monastic]] [[tonsure]] and facilitated his consecration as [[Bishop]].<ref group="note">When consecrated [[Bishop]], he was given the name [[Apostle Luke|Luke]] after the Apostle who similarly, in addition to being a physician and [[evangelist]], was a talented [[iconographer]].</ref> Almost immediately Saint Luke was sent to the first of his three imprisonments.
Due to his talent as a surgeon there would always be placement at a remote medical facility where the attending colleagues would be astounded that a professor with such impeccable academic credentials would be subservient to the whims of the local civil authorities. Despite the criticisms of lesser surgeons Saint Luke would practice his medical skills. With the grace of God he amazed his colleagues with excellent medical outcomes in ophthalmologic and surgical cases that others deemed incurable.
As a Bishop he preached incessantly not only about the need to live Orthodoxy but against the perils of the “[[Living Church]]”. The latter was a defiled heretical sect propagated by the communist regime. He is credited with 1250 sermons over 38 years of priesthood and episcopal service, of which 750 are preserved in twelve volumes. When he practiced surgery from this point on, he wore his bishop's cassock in the operating room, and refused to perform surgery without an [[icon]].
As the regimes of Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev came and went, Saint Luke’s persecutions and frequent transfers only increased his popularity. Despite public slander, he was known as an unselfish, loving, physician and spiritual father. This posed a great propaganda threat to each regime and towards the end of his life Saint Luke was restricted in his travels and his medical responsibilities to remedial services. This also was in God’s plan, as towards the end of his life Saint Luke lost his vision to glaucoma. He could now devote his time exclusively to matters of faith. He performed many healing [[Miracle|miracles]] and had many spiritual children.
===Death and Funeral===
