Luke Voyno-Yasenetsky

Luke of Simferopol, also known as Saint Luke the Blessed Surgeon, born Valentin Felixovich Voyno-Yasenetsky (Архиепи́скоп Лука́, Валенти́н Фе́ликсович Во́йно-Ясене́цкий; 9 May 1877 – June 11, 1961) was a Russian surgeon, the founder of purulent surgery, a spiritual writer, a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, and archbishop of Simferopol and the Crimea from May 1946. He was a laureate of the Stalin Prize in medicine in 1946.

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 surgery treatment of tuberculosis, purulent processes of knee joint, 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 Orthodox and his father was 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."

Canonization
He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church on May 25, 1996. His feast day is May 29/June 11 (Julian [Old] Calendar/Revised Julian [New] 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.