Luc de Simferopol
1877-1961 20th century Feast day: June 11
Care of bodies and souls held in a single hand, and trial passed through until it becomes purification.
Who was Luc de Simferopol?
A renowned Russian surgeon, Valentin Voino-Yasenetsky was ordained priest and then bishop in the midst of Soviet terror, taking the name Luke. Eleven years of prisons and Siberian exile stopped him neither from operating nor from preaching; during the war he ran military hospitals while wearing his cassock. His treatise on purulent surgery received the Stalin Prize while his sermons fed his Crimean diocese.
In their own words
I came to love suffering, which so amazingly purifies the soul.
The main thing in life is to do good. If you cannot do great good, strive to do small good.