St. Innocent Orthodox Church Z 50th Anniversary:1967-2017 Z Moscow Patriarchal Parishes Z 23300 W. Chicago _ Redford, MI 48239 _ 313-538-1142 _ Fax: 313-538-8126 Church Website: www.stinnocentchurch.com _ E-Mail: [email protected] St. Innocent Monastic Community: 9452 Hazelton, Redford, MI 48239 _ 313-535-9080 PASTOR: Rt. Rev. Mitered Archpriest ROMAN STAR _ Cell: 313-319-0590 Dean, Central States Deanery, Patriarchal Parishes MARCH 19, 2016 ASSISTANT PRIEST: Rev. DANEIL SHIRAK _ 313-295-3073 DEACONS: Rev. Dn. Dr. Joshua Genig EPISTLE: Hebrews 4:14 - 5:6 (#311) Rev. Dn. Comerford, Attached GOSPEL: St. Mark 8:34 - 9:1 (#37) ATTACHED: Sister Ioanna TONE: 6 CHOIR DIRECTOR: Elizabeth Star Hatfield READER: George Hanoian

Z 3rd Sunday of Great Lent Z VENERATION OF THE HOLY CROSS Z

_ 9:15AM — HOURS & CANONS; CONFESSIONS _ _ 10am — DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. BASIL THE GREAT _

COMMEMORATED TODAY: Veneration of the Cross. Chrysanthus and Daria, and those with them at : Claudius, Hilaria, Jason, Diodorus the Presbyter, and Marianus the Deacon (283). St. Innocent of Komel’, of St. Nilus of Sora (Vologdá—1521). Pancharius, at Nicomedia (ca. 302).

FOR THE REPOSE OF: Estelle & Star; Anna & John Witkowski; Michael Sr. & Margaret Rusko; Mary, Andrew, , Michael & Lottie Yakuber; Ross & Margaret Falsetti; Helen, John & Carole Andrayko; Peter & Theresa Harvilla; Betty Martell; Frances, Todd & John Smoly; Peter Glover; Irene Adams; Ethel Elizabeth & Wayne Joshua deVyver, Horka; Michael Rusko; Anna Lichagina, Yelena & Zinaïda Korniyevskaya; Joseph Nossal; Michelle Tucker; Todd Comerford, John Manier, Jr. MEMORY ETERNAL!

FOR THE HEALTH OF: Archimandrite Seraphim; Priest Daneil, Matushka Debra & Corrina Shirak; Deacon Michael, Matushka Mary Ellen & Julius Comerford; Deacon Joshua, Matushka Abigail, Emma, Clare, Rose & Anna Genig; Matushka Mary Donahue; Reader Robert Latsko, Reader George & Betty Hanoian, Rose Nossal, Mary Glover, Nancy Cupp, Vasiliki Stamoulis, Gerald Martell, Azbehat, Donald Yakuber, Carl deVyver, Jo Anne Nicholas, Joan Rusko, Daria, Joseph Nossal, Ed Manier, Pat Harbut, John Sedor ALSO FOR: William Costa, who celebrates his birthday Today, Sunday, 19 March Olga Blum, who celebrates her birthday Tomorrow, Monday, 20 March Emma Genig, who celebrates her Namesday on Saturday, 25 March, Feast of the Annunciation Š MAY GOD GRANT THEM MANY YEARS! Š

SCHEDULE FOR THE COMING WEEK (GREAT LENT: No meat, fish, dairy, eggs, alcohol until Pascha.) TODAY: Sun, 3/19 6pm COCC LENTEN VESPERS #3: at St. George Romanian Cathedral, 18405 W. 9 Mile, Southfield Wednesday 3/22 6:30pm PRESANCTIFIED LITURGY & pot-luck supper #4 Friday 3/24 6:30pm GREAT VESPERS FOR THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION Saturday 3/25 10am DIVINE LITURGY FOR THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION (fish allowed) 4pm GREAT VESPERS & CONFESSIONS Sunday 3/26 4th Sunday of Great Lent —St. John of the Ladder (Climicus) Sunday 9:15am HOURS, AKATHIST &/or CANON; CONFESSIONS 10am DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. BASIL; followed by Coffee Hour 6pm COCC Lenten Vespers #4, at Holy Trinity OCA Church, 20500 Anglin, Detroit (on 8 Mile, E of I-75)

PROSPHORA FOR TODAY IS OFFERED BY: Deacon Joshua & Matushka Abigail Genig In Memory Eternal of: Karl & Emma Genig, Dale & Pauline Moore, Arthur & Hermine Just, Gertrude Genig, Harry Genig, Linda Genig, Barbara Hoppe, and all departed family & friends; and For the Health of: Dennis & Martha Genig, Hannah Genig, Arthur & Linda Just, Nicholas & Haley Avery Just & unborn child, Just, Paul & Carol Hoppe, Rev. William & Emily Willenbrock, Catherine & Elizabeth Willenbrock, Fr. Roman & Mat. Rose Marie, Fr. Daneil & Mat. Debra, Fr. Esteban & Mat. Amanda Vazquez & unborn child, Fr. Lawrence Bacik, Fr. Walter Ptak, Matthew & Rachel Strutzel, Drake, Charlie, Maddox, August, Beckham, and Esme Strtuzel, William Hand, Amelia Grobien, Audrey Nelson, Liam Herman, and all St. Innocent parishioners, family & friends. Z CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! Z HE IS NOW & ALWAYS SHALL BE! Z CANDLES FOR LAST SUNDAY, 12 MARCH YEARLY CHURCH VIGIL LAMPS: Royal Doors Lamp: In Memory of Husband, Joseph; Son, Kenneth; parents, Michael & Margaret Rusko, & John & Martha Nossal, by Rose Nossal Altar Candelabra: In Memory of Parents, Nicholas and Susan Yakuber, by son, Donald Yakuber Altar Candles (2): In Memory of Irene Adams, by Goddaughter, Rose Ann Everhardt Iconostasis Lamps: In Memory of departed family & friends; & Health of family & friends, by Fr. Protodeacon Daniel & Mat. Irene Sudol Candles on the Solea: In Memory of Peter & Theresa Harvilla, Norman & Monica Holst, & Ricky Ellis, by Jason & Debra Truskowski Table of Oblation Lamp: In Memory of Parents, Helen & John Andrayko, Sr. & sister, Carole Andrayko, by John Andrayko, Jr. Reliquary-Icon Lamps: Sts. Innocent, Tikhon & Herman: Health of Joseph/Sue; Robert/Diane; Pat/John; Joseph B., Jared, Jay; Rachelle/Aaron, ; Tricia, Lindsey; & In Memory of sisters, Anna, Margaret, Theresa & Irene; & brothers, John, Edwin & Michael by Rose Nossal Reliquary-Icon Lamps: Sts. Elizabeth & : Health of the Genig and the Just Families, by Fr. Deacon Joshua & Abigail Genig Reliquary-Icon Lamps: St. Seraphim & St. Alexis: In Memory of Ross & Margaret Falsetti, by daughters, Rose Ann Everhardt & Margie Martell Reliquary-Icon Lamps: St. Nestor & St. Gerontius: In Memory of Rusko Family: Grandparents, Anna, Alexandra, Mike, Margaret, John, Mary, George, Pauline, Pete, Irene, Andrew, Anna, Grandparents Nickolas & Anna Schulik, by Rose Nossal Reliquary-Icon Lamps: St. & Sts. Alexandra & Martha: In Memory of Parents, Ethel Elizabeth & Wayne Joshua; Robert David H; // IN MEMORY OF (MEMORY ETERNAL!) //& Health of brother, Carl, by Sister Ioanna Joseph & Estelle Star, by son Father Roman and family Paul & Alexandra Yupco, Basil & Ellen Starinshak, by grandson, Father Roman and family John & Anna Witkowski, by daughter, Matushka Rose Marie and family & Mary Kupec, by granddaughter, Matushka Rose Marie and family Parents, Helen & John Andrayko, and sister, Carole Andrayko, by John Andrayko + + + My husband, Michael Rusko, by Joan Rusko My husband, Joe; my sisters, Margaret & Ross Falsetti, Anna & Mike Elaschat, Theresa & Pete Harvilla, Irene, & brothers, Michael, John & Edwin Rusko; niece, Rose Mary & Dean Hough; Joe’s brothers, Raymond & Walter Nossal, & sisters, Theresa, Florence & Helen Nossal, by Rose Nossal ++ + Pete & Theresa Harvilla, by Mary Ann Harvilla & Kay Truskowski + + + Jaimie Truskowski, by daughter Kay T. Parents, Ethel Elizabeth & Wayne Joshua; David H; Nina I; Marion P; Fr. Photius; Mo. Benedicta; Archm. Roman; Sally/Edward, by Sr Ioanna Thelma Ratcliff, Louis Pitts, Gloria Robinson, Reginald Bell, Lessie Favor, Lois Hamby, John Manier III, by Manier family Child Lana, Shirley, Betty, Marsha, Paul, by Becky Jurczyszyn + + + Dawn Steekroth (newly departed), by Elizabeth Star Hatfield FOR THE HEALTH OF: (MANY YEARS!) Elizabeth & Lawrence, Caitlin & Zachary, by parents & grandparents, Father Roman & Matushka Rose Marie Gregory & Tamiko Star, by parents, Father Roman & Matushka Rose Marie Children, Grandchildren & Great-grandchildren; Fr. Sdn. Tikhon (Dade); by Rose Nossal Father Roman & Matushka & family; Sister Ioanna; John Andrayko; Nancy; Mary G; Jo Anne N; Grandson Joey (in the Navy Reserves) & all people in the Armed Forces; & all St. Innocent Church parishioners, by Rose Nossal + + + Family & Friends, by Mary Ann Harvilla & Kay Brother, Greg & Donna; nephew, Gregory & Liz; & nephew, Alex, by Mary Ann Harvilla & Kay + + + Ed Manier, by Mary Ann Harvilla&Kay Archimandrites Nafanail, Gregory & Seraphim; Fr. Roman & Mat. Rose Marie; Fr. Lawrence & fam; Fr. Laurence & fam; Fr. Daneil & fam; Fr. Dcn. Michael & fam; Fr. Dcn. Joshua & fam; Mat. Mary D; Carl; Monk Fr. Tikhon; Sdn Andrew; Rdr Robert; Robert M; David Samuel /Sky & Avi; JoAnne/Nick; Athanasius; John A; Ed/Tiffany & fam; Kim/Mark & fam; Vasiliki; Rose; Emil; Billy/Fonda; John S, by Sr Ioanna Rose Nossal, by John Andrayko + + + John Andrayko (May God watch over him), by Rose Nossal + + + Leia, Mike, Reece & Wyatt Wilson; Bob/Joan Jurczyszyn; Toni /Richard Bussen; Pete, Krista, Jacob, Clair, Matt & Paul Stelmaszek; Damon Trestain, Levi Troyer, Briana Saylor, by Becky Jurczyszyn + + + Steekroth Family, by Elizabeth Star Hatfield + + + H & S of: Edward Manier Jr; Rebecca Manier; Brittany Truitt, Kaitlyn, RJ, Xavier & Story; Breonna Manier; Bronte Manier; Cynthia Pitts; Candice, Kevin, DeMarion & Desmond Grant, by Manier Family ANNOUNCEMENTS (1) COCC INTER-ORTHODOX SUNDAY LENTEN VESPERS. On each of the 5 Sundays in Great Lent the COCC sponsors its annual Inter- Orthodox Lenten Vespers at different churches in the Metro-Detroit area. The services start at 6:00pm. There is a guest homilist each week, and refreshments are served in the church hall afterwards. Tonight’s Vespers is at St. George Romanian Cathedral, 18405 W. 9 Mile, Southfield. (2) 4th PRESANCTIFIED LITURGY THIS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22nd, AT 6:30PM. The Presanctified Liturgy is one of the most beautiful of the special Services during Great Lent. We have a casual pot-luck supper and fellowship afterwards. (See Matushka about what to bring.) (3) PROSFORA DONOR NEEDED FOR APRIL 2017 NEEDED. Please contact Sr. Ioanna. $25 for a month. (4) PASCHA FLOWERS & BOWS: Please donate for our Pascha flowers to decorate Christ’s tomb and the church for Pascha: 36 lilies at $10 & 36 geraniums at $5 each. (You get to take them home after Pascha.) Also, Pascha Bows, like Christmas Bows, are our two annual fund-raisers, vital for paying our bills. Please donate at least 1 ‘Bow’ for the living and 1 for the departed, with a $5 donation for each. Use the cards Mary Ann has already decorated, or write the names of your loved ones and friends for whom you are praying on index-cards and your cards will be decorated and attached to our large cross until Ascension. See Mary Ann Harvilla for both the flowers and Pascha Bows. Please help us to meet our goal of having 100 Pascha ‘Bows.” (5) URGENT: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO CLEAN CHURCH & HALL DURING WEEK OF 3/27 – 4/1. See Matushka about scheduling. (6) NEW “GOOD WORKS” RELEASED, JANUARY-FEBRUARY ISSUE. Full-color, on-line at: http://coccdetroit.com/goodworks.html (7) PASCHA BREAD: VOLUNTEERS &ORDERS NEEDED. On Saturday, April 8th, Pascha Bread (kulich) will be baked. Volunteers will meet in 2 or 3, 4-hour shifts: at 7:30 am - noon; noon - 4:00; and 4:00 - 8pm, if needed. Please place your orders for our St. Innocent Pascha Bread ASAP. There are 2 types—with raisins ($12) and without raisins ($10). Last day to place orders is Saturday, April 1st. This is another fund-raising project to raise money for the expenses of our 50th Anniversary celebration. Contact Elizabeth (734-306-1486) or Mary Ann. THE CROSS: “TO REFRESH OUR SOULS AND ENCOURAGE US” By Fr. Stephen Kostoff “Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy Holy Resurrection, we glorify.” This hymn – together with the accompanying rite of venerating the Cross – replaces the usual Trisagion hymn during the Divine Liturgy on the Third Sunday of Great Lent. According to The Synaxarion of the Lenten Triodion and Pentecostarion, the full title of this mid-lenten commemoration is “The Sunday of the Veneration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross.” In a wonderful commentary, The Synaxarion sets before our spiritual sight the meaning of this particular commemoration and its timing: “The precious and Life-Giving Cross is now placed before us to refresh our souls and encourage us who may be filled with a sense of bitterness, resentment, and depression. The Cross reminds us of the Passion of our Lord, and by presenting to us His example, it encourages us to follow Him in struggle and sacrifice, being refreshed, assured and comforted” [page 78]. Hopefully, the first three weeks of the Fast – even if we have truly “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” [Galatians 5:24] – have not led us to experience “bitterness, resentment and depression!” However, we could be suffering from precisely those spiritual wounds for other reasons and diverse circumstances in our lives, both external and internal. My own pastoral experience tells me that this is probably – if not assuredly – the case. And there is no better time than Great Lent to acknowledge this. Such acknowledgment could lead to genuine healing if pursued in a patient and humble manner. How, then, can we be healed? Perhaps the Sunday of the Cross reveals our basic starting point. The Cross of our Lord, placed before our vision, can release us from our bondage to these passions when we realize that Christ transformed this instrument of pain, suffering and death into an “emblem of victory.” Christ has absorbed and taken our sins upon Himself, nailing them to the Cross. In the process, “He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in Him”—or, in some variations, “in it,” meaning the Cross [Colossians 2:15]. These “principalities and powers” continue to harass us to this day, but if we are “in Christ,” then we can actualize His victory over them and reveal their actual powerlessness. Our lenten journey is leading us to the foot of the Cross and to the empty and life-giving tomb, and the Third Sunday of Great Lent anticipates our final goal so as to encourage us. Again, from The Synaxarion: “As they who walk on a long and hard way are bowed down by fatigue find great relief and strengthening under the cool shade of a leafy tree, so do we find comfort, refreshment, and rejuvenation under the Life-Giving Cross, which our Holy Fathers “planted” on this Sunday. Thus, we are fortified and enabled to continue our Lenten journey with a light way, rested and encouraged” [pg. 79]. Certainly none of the above is meant to deflect our attention away from the “scandal of the Cross” by poeticizing this scandal away in pious rhetoric. We must never lose sight of the sufferings of our Lord on the Cross, and the “price” He paid to release us from bondage to sin and death. The world in its indifference will never come to understand the enormity of Christ’s sacrifice. So as not to lose sight of the utter horror of crucifixion as a form of capital punishment, I would like to include a passage from Martin Hengel’s book Crucifixion: “Crucifixion satisfied the primitive lust for revenge and the sadistic cruelty of individual rulers and of the masses. It was usually associated with other forms of torture, including at least flogging. At relatively small expense and to great public effect the criminal could be tortured to death for days in an unspeakable way. Crucifixion is thus a specific expression of the inhumanity dormant within men which these days is expressed, for example, in the call for the death penalty, for popular justice and for harsher treatment of criminals, as an expression of retribution. It is a manifestation of trans-subjective evil, a form of execution which manifests the demonic character of human cruelty and bestiality” [page 87]. So much for the “noble simplicity and greatness” of the ancient world! But there is “nothing new under the sun,” and fallen human nature is just as cruel and evil today. Again, Christ absorbed all of that human cruelty and bestiality on the Cross. This was a scandal, for the Son of God died the death of a slave on the Cross [Philippians 2:8]. Now, as a “new creation” in Christ, we must of course manifest our freedom from precisely that dark and demonic abyss into which human beings can plunge, and manifest the transfiguration of our human “energy” into the virtues that are so wonderfully revealed in the lives of the . This was the prayer of the Apostle Paul when the light of the crucified and risen Lord began to shine in a world of darkness: “May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us [or you] to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins [Colossians 1:14]. The Church understands and will put before our gaze the sufferings of the Lord during Holy Week. But it is also from within the Church that we come to know the victory of Christ achieved through His death on the Cross and fully revealed in His Resurrection. Thus the marvelous paradox of venerating a “Life-Giving Cross!” The rhetoric of the Church’s language is thereby not empty but revelatory of a mystery that has been accomplished in our midst. The Synaxarion concludes its section on “The Sunday of the Veneration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross” with the following prayer, a fitting way, I hope, to conclude this meditation: “O Christ our God, through the power of the Holy Cross, deliver us from the influence of our crafty enemy and count us worthy to pass with courage through the course of the forty days and to venerate Thy divine Passion and Thy Life-Giving Resurrection. Be merciful to us, for Thou alone art good and full of love for mankind. Amen. MIRACULOUS HELP FROM HOLY HIERARCH LUKE OF THE CRIMEA IN OUR TIMES On March 18th the Church celebrates the uncovering of the relics of a great and miracle-worker of our times, Holy Hierarch Luke (Voino-Yasnestsky), Archbishop of Simferopol and the Crimea. On St. Luke’s commemoration day, the readers of the Russian site Pravoslavie.ru shared their experiences of his miraculous help. We have translated a few of them for our English language readers. From Olga Valerievna—“She felt as though someone was giving her an operation” Dear editors, great thanks and a deep bow to you, that amidst the bottomless internet space you appear as an island of salvation and Orthodox faith. We greatly revere St. Luke and would like to share our story. Our aunt from Georgia suffered all her life—and she is already 55 years old—from terrible attacks of migraine. Everyday she would take a handful of pills just ease the unbearable pain a least a little. We told her about St. Luke and showed her the film, “Saints of the 20th Century.” She wept and kissed the icon of the saint and asked him for help. She prayed to him many nights, and read his sermons and spiritual instructions. And in around a month a friend of ours from Simferopol brought some oil and a little icon from the relics of St. Luke. Our aunt anointed the painful area with this oil and prayed every day, touching her head to the icon. One day, when she woke up in the morning, with great trembling and unwavering faith in St. Luke’s help, she told us the following. Just as she had done for several day earlier, she prayed in the evening before going to bed, anointed the painful spot with the oil, touched the icon to it, lay down to sleep, and… After that, she said, she felt as if someone was giving her an operation on her head: They rubbed something on, opened it up, and it was as if something was pulled out. At first it was very painful, but to the measure of its release, the painful spot began to go away “from something”. Then that spot burned for a long time like fire, and by morning the pain was completely gone. Now almost a half a year has passed and, glory be to God, she no longer takes any pills and has forgotten what it’s like to have a migraine. We have a little boy whom we named Luke—our fourth child. During pregnancy and birth I prayed to St. Luke for help and a successful birth, and this help came. We thank thee, holy Father Luke, and we honor thy holy memory, for thou dost pray for us to Christ our God! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + From Ekaterina Filatova—“As a doctor, I understand that this is almost impossible” I would like to tell you about St. Luke’s help to my son. Little Vanyusha had a hernia, and I remembered that there was a vial with oil from St. Luke in our house. I prayed to the holy surgeon, and anointed the hernia with oil. The next day I discovered that it had disappeared! As a doctor I understand that this is almost impossible. But as a believing Christian I know that what is impossible to man is possible to God. Glory to God for all things! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + From Elena Kapulin—“The operation was cancelled, and the tumor was pronounced benign” Three years ago I was given a diagnosis of: “hygroma of the Achilles tendon.” My right leg was already ailing without that—cerebral palsy. They scheduled an operation, told me to have a tomogram, and then onto the operating table. I was very scared (this had been the third tumor diagnosis in my life). Every time I came to church I venerated the icon of St. Luke with a particle of his relics. A week passed, I received Communion and went to have the tomography. And the doctor announced, very amazed, “As you like, but you don’t have a hygroma. This is a fibroma! (a fibroma is a post-operative change in tissue). I said, “Of course I had an operation on the Achilles tendon, but that was 25 years ago! But the doctor insisted: “I do not see a hygroma on the tomogram! This is a fibroma! Well, the operation was cancelled and the tumor was called benign. I thank God and St. Luke! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + From Natalia Popova—“I said that I would take care of it! My godson was born sickly, and this was a great blow to his whole family. The boy required many operations, and most of them were performed when he was not yet a year and a half. Of course, we sought help from the Lord, the Mother of God, and the holy God-pleasers. I had heard about St. Luke of the Crimea but somehow I, a sinner, was not accustomed to turning to him for help. And suddenly I began to understand that in the churches I was more and more often running into icons of St. Luke, and felt his gaze on me, which asked, “Why don’t you ask me?” There was such alarm and fear, but I had an infinite surety that everything would be all right with the child. After watching a documentary on St. Luke, perhaps my calls for help became especially fervent. He himself came to me in a dream and said that he would help our boy. I hoped that this was a good dream. The first three operations on the intestines went very well, and the hindrances that came up simply disappeared suddenly. But there was still to be an operation on the head, and when some doubts arose regarding the choice of clinic (the doctors did not promise a very successful result), it was as if I heard St. Luke’s words: “I said that I would take care of it!” The alarm passed, and Glory to God and the Mother of God, glory to St. Luke of the Crimea and to all the holy God-pleasers, the operation was very successful! My godson recovered rapidly. There are more operations ahead, but I know that all will be well with him! I have prayed to St. Luke of the Crimea for help ever since! Source: pravoslavie.ru, 3/18/2015 ARCHBISHOP LUKE OF SIMFEROPOL, CRIMEA (1877 - 1961 ) Feast Days: March 20th & June 11th

Saint Luke, the Blessed Surgeon, miracle-worker and Archbishop of Simferopol, is one of the most amazing of our recently glorified twentieth-century saints. He was a world-famous pioneering surgeon, who was appointed chief surgeon overseeing the treatment of injured soldiers during World War II, and even the Soviet government could not deny his surgical skill, giving him the Stalin award for his pioneering surgical work. Communist Party leaders would appeal to him to do the most critical surgeries for themselves or family members. Yet at the same time, as a priest and a , he was a much-suffering confessor (i.e. someone who suffers for his Christian faith, but is not killed), imprisoned, tortured and exiled three times by the Soviets. He refused to hide or compromise his Orthodox Faith, and was an outspoken witness to it, which was an embarrassment to the Communists. The future confessor, surgeon and Archbishop, Valentin Felixovich Voino- Yassnetsky, was born on April 27, 1877 in the Crimea, in southern Russia. When he was about ten years old, the family moved to Kiev. He had a natural gift for drawing, and graduated from the Kiev Academy of Fine Arts concurrently with secondary school. He was going to continue his art studies, when he decided that he should use

On Vestry wall, St. Innocent Church, Redford his life to help suffering people, and gave up his dream of a career in art. The future saint studied the Bible carefully, and felt the Lord was calling him as a laborer in His vineyard. So in 1898 the young Valentin entered the Medical School of Kiev University, specializing in anatomy and surgery. He graduated in 1903, and wrote that he “studied medicine with the sole purpose of becoming a village, peasant doctor and of helping poor people.” He worked in an eye clinic where he quickly perfected complex eye surgeries, and then was sent to a military hospital in the Far East and placed in charge of surgery during the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-05. Here he met a nurse, Anna Vassilyevna, whom he soon married; they had four children. He was then assigned to various hospitals and clinics, and everywhere he stretched himself beyond his limits, as he did for the rest of his life, in order to help the poor, suffering people, treating everyone with equal compassion, regardless of rank or status. After a number of years of intensive pioneering research on local anaesthesia, he received his doctorate in medicine, and international recognition for his innovative work. He returned to his village practice of medicine, becoming a master of the most complex surgeries. As always, he worked constantly with very little rest. He was always kind, gentle and patient with everyone; always calm and self-controlled, he never spoke a harsh word. In March of 1917 the family of six moved to Tashkent, where Professor Valentin became chief of surgery at a large city hospital. Soon the Communist Revolution reached Tashkent, and life was forever changed. Treating the wounded was non-stop, exhausting work, and there was little food, but the future saint never complained. However, the health of his wife deteriorated rapidly, and she departed this life of suffering, her husband by her side. His nurse surgical assistant, who was widowed and childless, took over the care of the doctor’s four children. Professor Doctor Valentin Felixovich’s deep faith was reflected in his desire to help the suffering and sick. He attended Divine Services on Sundays and Feast Days. Before surgery he would cross himself, pray, and make a cross with iodine on the patient’s body. He refused to perform surgery without an icon in the room. When the Communists removed his icon in 1920, he walked out. He resumed surgery when his icon was replaced. At the end of 1920 the good doctor gave a speech at the diocesan council, after which the ruling bishop said to him “Doctor, you must become a priest!” The future bishop believed this to be God’s call to him, and he immediately accepted. Two months later, in the midst of the Communist persecutions, on February 15th 1921, he was ordained priest. He was made fourth priest at the cathedral and assigned to preach. He combined his priesthood with his lecturing at the medical school and his surgical practice. This was an incredible act of courage, as the Bolshevik persecution of the Church and clergy was widespread. But Father Valentin lectured on medicine, was chief surgeon of Tashkent City Hospital, and served at the Cathedral on Sundays. By early 1923 the Archbishop of Tashkent had disappeared, and the diocese was left without a chief shepherd. At a local council, the people elected Father Valentin as bishop. He was secretly tonsured a monk, and given the name Luke, in honor of the Apostle who was both an artist and physician. He had to secretly go to Samarkand, where there were two , in order to be consecrated bishop, which occurred on May 31st, 1923, and immediately return to Tashkent. A few weeks later he was arrested, and his first of three imprisonments and exiles began, totaling eleven years altogether. He was forty-six. He got very sick, and the first signs of heart disease appeared, which would get progressively worse for the rest of his life. For almost three years he was sent from one frozen frigid place in Siberia to another, suffering terribly, but he relied totally on God’s help. In each place he sought to help people as a physician of both bodies and souls. The village people everywhere treated him with great respect. Finally, on the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, 1926, he was released and allowed to return to Tashkent. In May of 1930 he was arrested a second time. During the first year he was constantly sick. A year later he was sent in exile to Archangelsk, where he was able to do some limited medical work. The Communists kept trying to get him to renounce his episcopal office, and pursue only his medical work, which they highly respected. He was finally released from exile at the end of 1933. He was 56 now, and his health was deteriorating badly from his tortures, imprisonments and exiles. In late 1934 his Essays on Surgery of Pyogenic Infections was published, after ten years of research, and highly acclaimed by surgeons worldwide. For two years he lived peacefully in Tashkent. The year 1937 saw the most severe persecution of the Church and its leaders. Bishop Luke was arrested a third time. After two years of torture and imprisonment, and serious decline in his health, he was sentenced to five years in exile in Siberia, near Krasnoyarsk, where he was when the Soviet Union entered World War II. In 1941 a huge military hospital was being set up in Krasnoyarsk to treat wounded soldiers. Without malice towards the Soviets, but only with love for suffering humanity, the bishop-doctor offered his experience, knowledge and skills. In October 1941, while still an exile, he was appointed the consultant of all the Krasnoyarsk region’s hospitals and the chief surgeon of the evacuation hospital. Yet he was forbidden to eat at the military hospital cafeteria, and usually went hungry, but some nurses secretly left food in his room. By the spring of 1942 the authorities’ attitude towards him totally changed, witnessing the incredible results he achieved with the wounded, and his living conditions improved significantly. His exile was ended and the Patriarchal locum tenens elevated him to archbishop and appointed him Archbishop of Krasnoyarsk. So once again he could combine service to the Church with his surgical work. He continued his exhausting schedule of surgery on injured soldiers and medical research till the end of the war, and published two more works on infections and surgery in late 1943 and 1944, which won him the Stalin award. But his health kept deteriorating. In 1944 the government moved the evacuation hospitals to Tambov, and the surgeon-bishop-confessor moved also. He then was appointed Bishop of the Tambov Diocese. After the war, he was given a high award for his service during the war. In 1947, at the age of seventy, sick and going blind, he was transferred to Simferopol, in the Crimea, in order to resurrect the church life there, which was in shambles. He served there for the remaining fourteen years of his life, transforming the Crimea by his labors. As always, he fearlessly refused to compromise the Orthodox Faith and practice, nor to be cowed by Communist threats. He helped the poor and guided the people on the true Way. Until forbidden to do so, he preached daily, and wrote that during his thirty-eight years as a priest and bishop, he gave about 1,250 sermons, of which 750 were written down and preserved. The world-renown and awarded surgeon tried to participate in the medical community, but was persecuted because of his outspoken faith, and forbidden to lecture. Almost blind from glaucoma, he could no longer do surgery, but he daily treated the many patients who came to his apartment free of charge, but this decreased as his vision failed further. By 1956 he was totally blind, but he continued serving in Church from memory, preaching, and administering the diocese. Doctors sent the most difficult cases to him for diagnosis, which he would do by touch. There are countless examples of miraculous cures and precise diagnoses that had gone undetected. In 1957 he dictated his memoirs, which became available to people after the end of the Communist regime in 1991. Just before his repose the new wave of Khrushchev’s most severe persecutions of the Church flamed up, which greatly affected Archbishop Luke’s fragile health. He departed this life on June 11, 1961, the feast of All Saints of Russia. His funeral itself was a miracle, and after his repose, he continued to heal all who came to him. St. Luke’s life was dedicated to serving God and his neighbor, Throughout his 40+ years of suffering under the Communists, he had absolute faith in God’s will, and bore his cross with courage and faith, without complaining, always aware that Christ was carrying the cross with him. On November 22, 1995, St. Luke was declared numbered among the saints, and on March 20th, 1996 (his second feastday), his relics were transferred to the cathedral in Simferopol, to be venerated by all. By Sister Ioanna, St. Innocent of Alaska Monastic Community, Redford, MI