Original subtitles

"A saint is not known by profound words and great achievements, but by daily deeds." Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kiril.

Extract from the memories of St. Luke, Valentin Felixovich Voino-Yassenetski

From my childhood I had the passion of drawing,

everywhere, on the streets and in the tram,

through the city's markets, I was watching the nuances and contours of the faces,

figures, movements

and when I returned home, I painted them all.

My attraction to painting was so great,

that after the gymnasium I decided to go to the St. Petersburg's Academy of Arts,

but during the admission examinations, I had heavy doubts.

Is this way that I want to choose in my life a good one?

The hesitations ended with the conclusion that I do not have the right to deal with what I like,

but with what is useful for people who suffer.

Ice cream! Ice cream!

Ice cream! Ice cream!

Simferopol, 1961

Ice cream! Buy icecream!

Plombir, Eschimo!

- How much does this ice cream cost?

- Hey, they stole your milk.

- Hey, give it back to me!

- I told you, give it back to me!

- Hold on, please.

- How does he feel?

- He had a seizure last night, fever and chills.

- The closure of this church will take his last powers. Call everywhere, sends letters, everyone knows the church is not damaged.

- They have already transferred this church to the religious business department.

- They not afraid of God?

- They already broke the dome? - Yeah, they broke it. Now people are afraid of them, not of God.

- Give me the shopping bag, I'll it to the kitchen. Leave the rugs here, I'll handle them later.

- You can come in, he's already awakened.

- Serioja. - Your Grace, bless...

- I brought you the medication... - Serioja, here I wrote a list of addresses and families, do you understand my writing? We need to send some money.

- Many needy people ... - Addresses are in Tashkent?

- Your Grace, have you been in Tashkent?

- In 1917... Because of a newspaper announcement...

Following a very strong competition, I was invited to work in Tashkent,

as a surgeon and chief physician of the big city hospital.

- Here's our new chief doctor.

- Welcome, Valentin Felixovich, how did you arrive? - Good, thank you!

- Let me introduce myself, Rotenberg Grigorii Alexandrovici. - Nice to meet you, Voino-Iasenecki.

- Your surgeon... I mean, I'm a surgeon in your hospital.

"Let me introduce myself, Dr. Osanin, Lev Vasilyevich. - Nice to meet you.

- Michaelovskii, Professor Michaelovskii. - Voino-Yassenetski Valentin Felixovich, I'm glad to meet you.

- Ivan Petrovici is our local hero, physiologist.

- He conducts a study on blood transfusion in order to find a method of transforming dead matter into living.

- Is that possible? - Of course it is possible!

"This is my wife, Anna Vasilyevna and our little Valentine. - Nice yo meet you.

- It's my ball!

"They're so playful, it's hard to figure out how many they are.

- In a family, children have to be many. - I have three kids.

- Really? - Yes.

- Ivan Petrovici, do you really think that the transfusion method could treat any illness?

- Anna Vasilyevna, I firmly affirm that there is no disease that would not be cured according to my method.

The future belongs to the transfusion! Yes Yes! By the way, even the Resurrection!

- It's incredible! Valentin, have you heard? You are amazing!

- Thank you.

- Anna Vasilievna, and you are a doctor, yes?

- Yeah, I was assistant. - And now ? - And now, look, as you can see.

- And how old is the bigger one? - 11, Mişenika, come to us.

- 11, yes!

- Probably Misha and Igoras will be in the same class. - How old is Igor?

- 11.

- 11, and I'm 11. - And you are 11?

Children liked Tashkent.

- 6 candles, please.

- Thank you.

Anushka liked it at the beginning...

- On the left side put the candles for the departed and on the right for the living.

We hoped the warm climate would be beneficial...

Anna won me not so much by her beauty, but by her exceptional kindness and gentleness.

Until we get married, she worked in the military hospital in Kiev, where they called her "holy sister."

At the beginning of 1917 my wife's sister came to visit,

who had just buried in Crimea her dead daughter because of fast progressive tuberculosis.

Bad luck, she brought with her a blanket,

which was used by her sick daughter.

I told my wife that the blanket brought to us the death.

Shortly after, I noticed in Anna clear signs of pulmonary tuberculosis.

- Anna, why don't you sleep? Does the cough again hurt you?

- I feel better. - Let me see.

- Many toughts have gathered, and I have no sleep.

- What do you think about these people? - You know, there are good people, but they are few...

- According to rumors, big disorders are expected in the city,

and there are only two nurses in the hospital. Surgeons are just me and Grigorii Alexandrovici.

- And professor Michaelovskii? - He's not a doctor.

- But what do you think of his method?

- You're a doctor, you should know that there is no universal cure for any disease.

- Knowing that pathogens circulate through the blood, maybe it could be cleansed?

- Maybe... - I do not know...

- The study is just beginning, for now there are more questions than answers.

- Why the blood transfused to a patient is beneficial, and in the case of another one it causes serious complications?

- Maybe Ivan Petrovici already knows the answer?

- I'm gonna ask him...

- Of course, if my mind will help me. - Of course it will.

Professor Michaelovskii continued diligently with his experiments.

Anna, likewise, believed that the results of his experiments would be more beneficial than all our surgeries.

- Igora, help me with the centrifuge.

- Rotate!

- More firm.

"We cleaned Sharik's blood with the help of the centrifuge, and now we're going to re-infuse it.

- People, most of the time, die not because of the loss of blood, but because of its infection.

- I have to mention that most of the diseases are, in essence, the infection of the blood.

- That's enough, old man. Take a seat.

- This is where the first purpose of the experiment starts.

- Be careful, here we have the white and red blood component.

"The white one, we separated it, that is, the infected one, and the clean part, we re-infuse it to Sharik, and he is going to rise.

- Curious...

- So...

- Perfect.

- So check it out.

- Sharik died? - Here is your Sharik. Sharik!

- He fell asleep. Let me help you. - Thank you.

- By the way, Katia, who is this Michaelovskii? His Grace mentioned him. - Did he mention him? - Yes.

- His memories still hurt him. - Why? Did something happen?

- My grandfather says that Michaelovskii suffered a lot, the poor man, they used his name.

- He says the pain has cut him down.

- But the life of my grandfather was not easy at all.

- But he never gave up.

- Don't go away, look here! - I have children at home, wife!

- I have children also, so we let him die?

The turmoils have been expected,

the city divided into two camps, and people no longer knew who fought and why.

- Grigorii Alexandrovici, pull the foot, but do not hasten or rotate. Are you ready?

The struggle took place between the garrison of the fortress and the regime of Turkish soldiers,

led by a military commissioner who betrayed the revolution.

- Knife, clip!

Throughout the city, even over the hospital,

numerous bombshells fly from both sides.

- Ideal!

- Maybe it is ideal, but if we don't manage to fix it, we will lose it!

- Are we trying to suturate it? - Go to Dr. Stekolnicov, take a screw and a nut

and disinfect them! OK?

- What are you doing? - What? - At least let the passage free.

- Where should we move him? - There.

- Doctor,

he died. - Well, get him out!

- Me? And who is going to stay here?

- Please take him out!

- You need it, you should take out their officers!

- Here we have no officers, no soldiers, only injured!

- He takes the place of others! It's for the good of your wounded comrades!

- Grab his feet.

- Where should we put him? - Out in the cart. Thank you.

- Leo Vasilyevich, we can not continue this way, we hurt them more than help.

- My dear, distribute them in the rooms.

- Follow me, boys.

- I will go.

- Where? - Beyond, beyond.

Anna was afraid of death.

Pathological jealousy and childbearing care

consumed even her few powers she still had.

Dr. Rotenberg took care of Anna,

He was offering her the soup from the hospital, and she of course shared it with the children.

At the beginning of the winter, the famine began.

- Sometime ago I did not love the summer,

probably because of my profession.

- Wounds become infected more quickly during the summer.

- It's hard to perform surgery when it's hot.

- But after the winter and the snow in Tashkent,

I started to love the summer.

- Does it snow in Tashkent?

- Soldiers, change guard from railway workshops!

- Roger that, Commander. Follow me.

- Valentin Felixovich, I'll take them,

but who is going to unload them? It's not my duty.

- Who? You're going to unload them.

- I'm not going to touch them!

- Look, they all have a bullet in the head, I'm scared.

- Listen my brother, you get a salary, but you're useless.

One day Andrew is drunk, another day he can't be found, and now, "you don't want?"

- With the money you pay me, I can not even buy a cup!

- Here we go, to risk my life...

- Then starting with today you are fired.

- Valentin Felixovichh, which one you said to take in the dissection room?

- This and that one.

- Ok, move!

- Ok, professor, I can not do it anymore.

- Soon you will go on the same road.

- I will take care to "unload" you!

- The Revolution wanted to build a society where all people are equal,

but actually it sowed

only hate, envy and jealousy.

- Jealousy? - Against those who are smarter, richer, stronger.

- What would be the reason?

- Jealousy is self-sustainable, it does not need a reason.

- Anna, what do you think? Wash with cold water, why? - How many nights you left the house?

- What's the point of this hysteria, on whom can you be jealous of here? The dead?

- These negative emotions only hurt you more, they will not help you to heal.

- You're right, I'm not going to heal myself.

- God cursed me, you know that.

- Why did you bring me here in these sands, to die?

- You can heal yourself! - You lied to me, I thought you were a saint!

- I trusted you, and now I do not...

- Yes, I'm not a saint,

but we must believe.

- What are you talking about now?

- About faith?

Anna accused me of having to die in solitude.

She blamed her for violating the promise of virginity.

On the night before our religious marriage, she prayed before the Savior's icon,

and suddenly it seemed to her that Christ turned his face

and His icon disappeared from the frame.

Anna always remembered this...

Anna Vasilievna's health got worse,

her nerves were always strained.

Anna could walk through the house,

but he could neither cook nor clean.

Professor Michaelovskii, in whose help Anna hoped,

he was also in a difficult situation.

Animal experiments did not confirm his theory,

in addition, his great son, fell ill suddenly.

- Hello, I came to Igor Michaelovskii, I am his mother.

- Valentin Felixovich!

- Hello, Valentin Felixovichh, I came to see my little girl, brought her apples and home-made milk.

- Ekaterina Sergheevna,

- I'm very sorry, but, tonight, Igor died.

- Receive my condolences.

- Nothing could be done...

- I want to see him!

- The inanimate body has been already taken by your husband, Ivan Petrovici. - Did he take him?

- My son, my dear!

- Get out, leave! You will ruin everything! - What are you doing with my baby?

- Don't you dare! Don't you dare!

- This is our son, my dear!

- You fool! You fool!

- He's dead! He's dead! What are you doing? - He's going to rise! He will resurrect!

- My dear! Why are you doing this?

- Stay back! Stay back you stupid!

- Vanea, Vanea what about you? Fecioraşule!

- I will resurrect him! I will raise him up!

Life does not end with bodily death.

In these days of hard trials and temptations sent to us,

according to the will of the Most High God...

Death is too great for what should appear insignificant even on the scale of temporal life.

Only death can fill everything that looks small

and insignificant.

How we behave towards each other if the present moment would be the only moment we have,

and if this moment should express all the love and care we have for the other!

Thinking of and remembering death, face us with the truth of life with such clarity and acuity,

which nothing else can offer.

In the streets they stopped shooting, only rarely one could hear fire.

We sat in the church and often thought, how will it be if we realize that every moment of our life,

could be the last one,

that the words we say,

could be the last.

We would live with such an intensity and depth that we would not be able otherwise to touch.

"Remembering death," were the words that never left my mind...

- Valentin Felixovich?

- Yes, Father.

- Don't you recognize me?

- I'm trying to remember...

- Moscow, 1908,

Professor Stepanov's anatomy lesson.

- Piotr Zverev.

- Zverev? And the medicine?

- What is written for us by our Father, it is impossible to know,

For it is beyond our understanding,

as our Father is beyond us.

- Serioja,

please invite the guests to come in.

- Hello, Valentin Felixovich. - Hello, take a seat.

- Thank you.

- Serioja, don't go.

- Valentin Felixovich, sir,

tell me please, why are you doing this?

- We closed the church because it is old and damaged,

we think about people's safety and you file complaints, send letters...

- If the church is damaged, why did you put there the religious business department?

- That's not your business,

you should take care of your health. It does not concern you.

- Yes, it is my concern!

- I am the archbishop!

- Valentin Felixovich,

I formally request you to terminate any protest

against the closing of the church in Ievpatoria.

- We hold the engineering document,

where is written black on white that the church is in a damaged condition.

- You know too well that closing of the church is illegal,

so I will continue to protest.

- I urge you not to stand in the way of the authorities, Valentin Felixovichh.

- It could end up bad for you...

- If you knew how many times I heard these words over the last 40 years,

you should not waste your nerves.

- Serioja, lead the guest.

- Savachii!

- Yeah, by the way...

- Hold it!

The silence did not last too long. The counterrevolutionaries started.

- Arbitashev!

There was a terrible human butchery in the huge workshop of the railroads.

- On the corridor to the left.

- You'll give him to drink a really good medicine. - No, I can not.

- You will do it,

he resisted torture, and you, would you resist?

- Give me a cigarette!

"Our doctor, the stupid, performs surgeries on "white" people at night!

- Which? - Felixovich, the professor.

- We'll talk with him too.

- Broader, broader...

The fire was back on the streets.

I perform surgeries for both parties.

- Pad,

clip...

- These bastards must be killed.

- That's how I told him.

- In case of resistance, shoot them!

- Your Grace, please tell me...

They decided to hide behind the white robes.

- You were afraid in those moments?

- The most frightening moment is...

when you can not help

people.

- Who is there? - It's me, Andrew.

- You need something?

- I heard that a white soldier is hiding here.

- We do not have anyone here.

- Don't you really have?

- Don't you know that it's not good to lie to the Soviet government?

- You're not allowed to stay in these clothes, the surgery is on going.

- Hello, gentlemen, doctors!

- On behalf of the Soviet power, you are arrested!

- Wonderful, are you letting us to finish the surgery?

- Surgery?

- Oo, spirit!

- I have to confiscate it for the proletariat.

- Whay did you say, doctor? To finish the surgery?

- Anna Vasilievna! - Speak gently, the kids are sleeping.

- What happened? - They arrested Valentin Felixovich.

- Where? Why? - In the hospital, he was performing a surgery for an officer.

- And where did they take him? - Rumors say they took him to the railroad workshop.

- Sophia Sergeevna, take care of the children, please.

The very phrase: "to take someone in the workshops of the railways"

was in those days, synonymous with "he was taken to be shooted".

- Anna Vasilievna!

- I just asked you Professor, leave the proletariat alone,

and you complained against me.

- Now they will take you in the dissection room... very well!

- The city declared emergency state,

and without permission you can not leave the house.

- In a second, in a second,...

- It burns, really. - Sweetheart, it's gonna be ok, so...

- And in the morning, Valentin Felixovichh will return, if not...

we'll think about what to do.

- Leave me a vial of morphine and a syringe,

I'm afraid of a night's crisis.

- You just know it's not allowed.

- I'm afraid... Thank you.

- Move!

- Faster!

Man is like grass,

and how much is needed to crush him?

I was thinking about seeing Rotenberg's fear, when he was walking.

Yesterday, we were talking while we were performing surgery,

if to forgive means only to forget.

- Who did you bring? - The doctor and this good-for-nothing.

- Go to entrance 12, take them!

- Faster!

- Receive them.

- Revolutionaries or counterrevolutionaries? - Counter.

- Stay in a row at the counter.

- Follow me, faster!

- You'll be next after him!

- Let's get out of here sooner.

- Do you see that door?

- Bezuglai!

- Behind this door,

our sins are calculated,

and then the punishment is given.

- Belokoni!

- Bacikov!

- Voino-Iasenecki!

- Serioja,

come closer.

- I'll tell you a secret.

- Grandpa told me.

- It will help you...

Moghilev, 1884

- Grab me!

At the devil's mill, flour is crushed!

- Grandpa, doesn't hurt you to call you like that?

- They think I'm friend with the bad spirits.

- Mother of God!

- And God asked three questions to man.

- What is the most valuable moment in a man's life?

- What is the most important person in a man's life?

- What is the most important act?

And man thought about it all his life,

and he became old, but he did not understand.

He thought he would die without finding the answer.

Suddenly, he saw a little girl feeding some ducks.

The little girl asked, "Why are you so musing, Grandpa?"

And he replied, "I am sad because I have not found the answer to the questions God has asked me.

And the little girl said, "It's very simple!

The most important moment in life is the present.

It is the only one we have, because the past has gone and the future is not yet here.

The most important person is the one who is next to you, at the moment.

And the most important thing is to do what is right for this person.

"But how do I know what he or she needs?"

- It's your duty to understand that.

Thus, I tried all my life,

to do what is useful to my neighbor.

- Valentin Voino-Iasenecki.

- Voino-Yassenetskii...

and Dr. Rotenberg.

"You performed a surgery for a white officer, isn't it?"

- Hello, Doctor.

- Hello, do we know each other?

- The important thing is I know you.

- What did you bring here the doctor?

"Well, here is the paper, he cured a white officer.

"That's why they are doctors, to cure them all without exceptions.

- I would shoot both of them...

- We can do it any time.

- You two,

lead the professor and the doctor at home!

- In 1917, he removed two bullets from my stomach.

- Yes, you are right, we have now many injured.

And my poor, sick Anna,

she knew I had been arrested, she knew where I was taken,

she lived horrible hours until my return.

That profound shaking of the soul was very badly reflected on her health,

and the disease has started to progress rapidly...

The last days of her life...

Her silence spoke beyond words,

and the pain, it was so hard,

like the pain of a parent who is separated forever from his children...

- Mom told us to be good,

if we are not, he will rebuke us.

- Vanea,

they are big, Sasha wears the size 25.

- They are not for Sasha,

- They are not for Sasha...

- But for whom?

- For Igorash...

- Igor is no longer.

- I will ressurect him!

- What to do, what should I do?

- Burry the baby, please, let's bury the baby,

He is in that cold weather...

- Let's go and pray to the Lord.

- To give us wisdom...

- Kneel down.

- Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us, sinners.

Suffering...

is the only place where evil and good meet.

Professor Michaelovsky could not accept both the death of his son,

and his own weakness.

On the contrary, I had never experienced life with such intensity.

I noticed that only the present time belonges to me,

here and now...

Looks like I found the answer to my grandfather's question.

- What happened?

- Forgive me.

- Why?

For the last 12 nights I sat near her

and during the day I worked in the hospital.

The last and terrible night came...

- Please...

- I'm very tired...

- I want to fall asleep.

- I love you!

- Until when?

- Forever!

- Anna!

- Stop it!

- Why are you doing this, my dear?

- Valenika...

- Look into my eyes!

- Look at me!

- I struggled as much as I could,

and now, my powers are exhausted.

- No no no. I will not let you go!

- You are a mother, you are my wife... - Have mercy...

- Let me go, I'm tired,

- I'm tired of death...

- You are the mother of my children, you are my love, you are my wife!

- I will not let you go !!!

- Anna?

- Anna!

- Annaaaa!

[Psalm 113] Praise the Lord, you his servants; praise the name of the Lord.

Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.

The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?

He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people.

He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children.

happy mother of children...

- Valentin Felixovich?

- What happened?

- Sophia Sergeevna, do you allow me?

- Come in, please.

- I am listening to you...

- Sophia Sergeevna, I know you very little...

- So little, as I do not know...

- Do you believe in God?

- What I'm about to tell you might seem weird,

but believe me, I have a lucid mind,

and I ask you to receive my words with faith.

- So...

- While reading the psaltery,

for Anna,

- I had a revelation...

- It was the blessing of the Lord...

to entrust you,

the growth and care

of my children.

- Sophia Sergheevna,

please,

replace her for my little children,

their dead mother.

- You...

- Are you asking me?

- I would never have dared

to make you this proposal,

if I had not

the head physician's apartment,

in which there are 5 rooms,

so good placed,

that you could occupy a room

totally isolated from mine.

- No... - Sophia Sergeev...

- Forgive me...

- Wait...

- For the servant's eternal rest...

- And who can read them?

- It's just locked...

- Here it is locked... The Kingdom of Heaven

can you close it? It's always unlocked.

- You're a fool, nobody can do even a prayer for the deceased...

- He's no longer your priest, they arrested him.

- What are you saying, he's inside, praying for our sinful souls.

- Yes, he prays. He's in a tomb at the railroad...

- In the tomb?

- In the ditch, behind the train depot.

- Everybody is there...

with a bullet in their heads.

- Lord have mercy and protet us....

- What do you say, where is your God?

- Is with me...

- Get the cross off!

- Move, God calls you!

- Come on!

- Load!

- Shut up!

- Shoot!

- Father, Vasile?

- You confused me with someone else...

- Father, Vasile!

I have never thought about the priesthood,

but, seeing the blasphemous masquerades and mockings directed against our Lord Jesus Christ,

my heart cried with power:

- I can not stay silent!

After some sermons held in the church meetings,

Bishop Inochentie told me:

- Doctor,

you must become a priest!

- I will be!

- If that's the will of God!

If the universe were so, as the materialists present it to us,

there would not be so much beauty, color, mystery and infinity in it...

I was ordained deacon.

Only a week later I was ordained a priest.

Two years later,

On the feast of Transfiguration

I was tonsured as a monk with the name of "the evangelist, doctor and icon-painter apostle", Luke.

and ordained as a bishop.

Tashkent, 1922

Naturally, the ordination of a professor has produced a huge sensation in Tashkent.

Students of the faculty of medicine came to me,

teachers also...

They could not understand and appreciate my decision.

For them, science was the only religion.

I was trying to explain the anti-scientific nature of materialism...

It's absurd to consider real only what we can see with the eyes,

and to reject what we can not comprehend with the mind.

- Hello, Lev Vasilyevich.

- Congratulations, I think...

I do not know what to say in such situations.

- So we have two planned surgeries,

and a seriously injured man just brought in the emergency room.

- We'll start with him.

- I mean...

- You...

- I do not see any reason not to perform a surgery.

- Do you allow me?

- Of course... forgive me, Father Valentin.

- Here they are! These are the priest's children! Let's get them!

- Let's get them out of here! With stones!

- Come on, let's see you, defender!

- Look at him how serious he is!

- Like he is in the church.

- Your father didn't teach you to fight?

- Pries's children...

- Everything it's because of dad, because of him.

- He says he helps people!

- And who can help us?

- Let's go.

- Sophia Sergeevna will rebuke us.

Tashkent, 1924

- The commission came for a long time?

- It is not known, they review the material goods,

it may take a while...

- Valentin Felixovichh, the revision commission ordered the icon to be removed.

- Grigorii Alexandrovici,

the patient is yours, continue the surgery.

- Valentin Felixovich. Wait! Please!

- Valentin Felixovich?

- You shouldn't be in the surgical room now?

- This is the chief doctor's room, am I dismissed?

- No, why?

- Take a seat. Here you go.

- Doctor, please understand me too...

- While the fight with religion continues throughout the country,

in the polyclinic, in the surgical room of the district hospital,

there is an icon haning up... How do you think the rulers will allow something like that?

- In my opinion, for leaders, it is important to treat the sick,

and to create favorable conditions for their healing. And for me, being a faithful man,

a favorable condition is the Icon,

who is at my workplace, that is, in the surgical room.

"You mean, Doctor,

you can not perform a surgery without an icon?

- Why, not? I can.

- But I can trust the positive result of the surgery.

- And a surgeon without trust, he shouldn't be in the surgical room.

- Let me go.

- Wait! You know, if it was not Violeta Alexeevna's wish to be operated only by you...

- Our conversation would have been different, doctor!

- Sidorkin! - Did you call me?

- Get the icon from the car, the one you took from the operating room and give it to the doctor.

- I understand!

- Continue the operation!

- Thank you!

- You have to eat a little, I've prepared a soup.

- I'll die soon ....

- Do not say that...

- Death...

we should not fear death.

- We should be afraid

to go into eternal life,

carring evil deeds...

- Forgive me, please.

- The prison destroyed him...

"There, in one day, he was aging like in a year.

- They took everything from him, absolutely everything!

- Life, health... How could they?

After ten years of imprisonment, exiles and tortures...

- You ???

- Look into my eyes!

Arrests, interrogators.

I was not allowed to sleep. Investigators were changing one after another...

What I could hear and see, it seemed like the hallucinations of a tired mind.

The priest, who became an investigator, thought he was...

the King of Darkness.

- Well, you did not expect to see me here?

- How did you get here, Zverev?

- Life is changing, people change.

- You are...

the fourth investigator this week.

Ten years of blame, interrogation and exile...

My four children were cared by Sergheevna Sophia.

- You are free.

She and the children were banished from the head physician's apartment and assigned to a small room where they barely had a place to sit,

and the children were sleeping on overlapped "two-levels" beds.

- Are not you tired yet?

During all these ten years, I knew how hard is for they to grow and become mature.

Tashkent, 1937

- And what are you gonna do now?

- I do not know.

- I'll work in the sanitation service.

- Name?

- Voino-Iasenecki.

- We were on the list. - Yeah, you're number 7, go ahead.

- Thank you.

- Misha, what sanitation?

- What are you suggesting to me?

- Where do you go?

- Leave them alone, they are the priest's children.

- I will not betray my father!

- Cast out all of them, no visits today. - Are they canceled?

-No visits today.

- What do you mean no visits? Why?

- You're moking people!

- I told you to leave!

For a month, the children came every day,

and each time the meeting was canceled.

Accusations became more ridiculous...

Conveyor belt continues...

- So many inquiries would have been enough for 5, if not even more.

"Didn't you, at the order of the German espionage service, come to Tskkent?"

- You were recruited by German intelligence.

- Anti-Bolsheviks agitation.

- Spying!

- How did you become a priest without theological studies?

- Put your right hand on the table!

- Do not feel sorry for you, think about your children!

"The community of your bishops affect the image of the Soviet scientists.

- Take down your clothes and the investigations will disappear!

- Take down your clothes and the investigations will disappear!

- At night you pray, and during the day you operate people, are you not afraid, father?

- What relationship do you have with the woman you live with?

- Making a plot with Professor Michaelovski's wife, you determined him to suicide. You tried to massk the murder of a Soviet scholar as suicide.

- Do not talk so much about God. So, don't you give up?

- His God is all over... - Jesus was doing miracles...

- And the Soviet scientist can not, why?

- You will miss the opportunity to practice surgery...

- Your investigation takes a political turn...

- You're going to rot here, Iasenetki!

"So you decided to sacrifice surgery for the sake of faith?"

- You're going to rot, don't you really understand?

- Father, O Almighty God,

The third arrest and interrogation were the hardest to bear.

... strengthen my powers.

Being totally exhausted by interrogations and torture, I declared the hunger strike.

Nine days after started to vomit blood.

I hardly understood the words and I had hallucinations.

- Please forgive me, Valentin Felixovich, because I eat in your presence. I feel very uncomfortable...

- I have so much work that I just do not have time to go somewhere to take lunch.

- Do you want me to serve you?

- Eat a little, eat.

- I will not tell anyone else. Everyone will believe that you are still in hunger strike.

"Do you believe in something, Zverev, in anything?

- In the Kingdom of Heaven is nice to believe when the earth doesn't burn your feet.

- And when it burns you, you have to believe even more.

- Do your children share the same opinion?

- All right, we'll help you.

Trusting the promises of ending the torture, I interrupted the first hunger strike.

But I was still subject to interrogation,

being always transferred from one cell to another.

- Why do you scream? - Boss, look, our comrade is feeling bad, he's almost dead.

- If he wants, he can pray. Behold, I give you the priest in the room, pray you bandits!

- Do you allow me? I am a doctor.

- See... he dies...

- Knife, I need something sharp, do you have? - This is good?

- Yeah, and a cannula for tracheotomy, a cannula...

- Are you kidding? Where can I get you a cannula here?

- I want a small tube, finger thickness...

- Hey you bald, give him your pipe.

- Faster. - Here it is, is it good?

- Yes. Fire, fire, fire... - Give me the matches faster!

- Take it.

- Hey you wizard, if the old man dies, I will kill you with this tool, do you understand?

- I ask you, do you understand ?! - Take it...

- It's all about the Lord's will. Keep him still!

- Hold it with all your strength. Hold his head.

- Hold it! - Hold his feet.

- Give me a tissue, a piece of cloth. - Tissue? Here's the tissue.

- You impressed me, you saint. - What do you say old man, will we survive?

Hell continued... And in this hell, a former priest threatened me with death.

I declared the hunger strike for the second time.

- You're still threatening me with shooting, the death of my body...

- The body is subjected to corruption, but the soul is immortal. I do care for my soul, and you?

- You know, I prefer the death of the soul than the body.

- Christ suffered for all, and what did he obtain?

- He saved the world.

- Let's admit, but should humanity be saved?

- I think not. Christ took upon Him our sins, and people, they all rejoiced,

and then ran again to sin until the coming of another Messiah, which again will save them all.

- You better eat a little.

- Yeah, yeah, take...

- Allow me, do not be afraid. Mmm...

- You should quit smoking.

- And to worry not so much. - Oh... hmm?

- I advise you to always have nitroglycerin in your pocket.

- But why should I explain it to you, you are a doctor, even if you have unfinished studies.

- Do you want to tighten your detention conditions? I can organize that!

"So you gave him some advice?"

- We are all men, we are all weak.

- My duty is to treat, not to judge.

- You are free.

- Iasenetki, are you not tired yet?

- I still can make it.

- You're an illustrious scholar, a skillful surgeon.

- You should save lives now, and look what you do...

- I save souls.

- Souls?

- I'm curious, whose souls?

- Yours included.

- Oh, thank you.

- You'd better think about the patients who probably need your help right now.

- You stand in vain, you resist to devote yourself to medicine and science.

- You'll just forget everything, sitting here in prison. And, if you give up your clothes,

I guarantee you the freedom and restoration of all your rights, as a citizen of SU.

- Give up these clothes! If you do not listen to me, talk to your son. You just wanted to see him, didn't you?

- Father!

- Hello, my dear...

- Did something happen? Tell me, what happened?

- They want to expel me from college.

- But you know why?

- Why Aliosha was expelled from the 10th grade?

- Why Lena sit alone in bench like a leprosy? - Why Valic almost doesn't speak anymore?

- Take your cross with dignity and you will receive the reward...

- It's your cross!

- You are my children, so the cross is ours, of all.

- Dad, they asked me to deny you!

- And you?

- I refused.

- You have to deny me...

- The visit is over!

- Do what I told you, my son.

- I'll always be your father...

-You remember Serioja, you asked me about fear...

- I was not afraid for me.

- For the family, yes, very afraid.

- And for those who were arrested.

- And most of all, for those who arrested them...

- For those who arrested them? They did not suffer.

- If we think a little bit...

- Because death will take them also...

- Death like death...

- But beyond death...

- Look into the eyes! Your investigation takes a political turn.

- He resisted. And you? Will you resist?

- Does it hurt?

- By plotting with Michaelovsky's wife, you instigated her to murder her husband.

- He committed suicide.

And then, you tried to mask the murder of a Soviet scholar as a suicide.

- These are delusional affirmations.

- How tired I am! Is it so difficult to recognize your defeat?

- Security!

- Wonders will not happen! Anyway you will admit everything.

- Guards! Guards!

- Get up, get up, I said!

- How? Already? Father, do not leave me... I'm sorry, I repent!

- Just breathe! The Lord is merciful! Just breathe! Zverev breathe!

- I can not...

- Get up or I kill you! - Allow me, I'm a doctor, I want to help him!

- Comrade Captain!

- Breathe, Zverev! Just breathe! Pray to God!

- Forgive me... I just wanted to help you.

- Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy!

After Zverev's death, the GPU immediately decided,

to be exiled to the North Polar Circle for a period of three years.

- Leave him! Leave him!

- What are you doing? Didn't you hear the signal? Come on, go on! - Where do I start? There are people on the rails!

- Immediately free the road! - Ok! Follow me!

- Listen, they have to be scared a little... start the steam, sound the horn!

- Old woman, get up! Get out of here faster!

- Come on, start slowly, they'll run away...

- Listen commander, here it is not possible to do it slowly. The road is on the slope, I may not stop in time.

- Start immediately, you stupid! I command you!

- Stop ordering, you smarty! Don't try to scare me! I fought in war, I'm not afraid!

"And before shooting me, go and find another engineer.

- I'm gonna show you later, asshole!

- Come on! Speak faster, we do not have time.

- Stand up good people. Thank you for your involvement.

- I bow in front of you, get my blessing. - Father, Luke!

- Brothers and sisters!

- In the name of the Lord, please let me go in peace!

- That's my way!

- I chose it myself...

- And I have to go up to the end!

- What shall we do without you, Your Grace?

- I will always be with you in my prayers and in your hearts.

- My dear people, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen! - Release him! Father, do not leave! Do not let us, Father!

- Where? Hold on!

This is how the wandering through exiles began...

It seemed to me that not only man, but all mankind, is sick.

And for its healing, it takes a great deal of patience.

Patience and the virtue of seeing yourself in your neighbor.

To find in him, that unexplainable beauty that God sees in each of us.

The virtue of forgetting about the self, to the end.

Contemplation of the neighbor - contemplation of God.

Serving your neighbor - serving God.

- Look how they expect us!

- Look, Senia!

"You missed something, old man, on the boat are only prisoners, whom do you greet so nicely?

- See what's going on...

- Who? It's not allowed!

- Petrovici, be merciful, to celebrate the feast, we pray you all.

- When will we have such an opportunity?

- Please, please...

- It's not allowed.

- For the feast...

- Okay, but hurry up you old man.

- Petrovich, take a piece.

- Old man, isn't it that you came to greet me?

- Stop you boy! Our last piece of bread is not for you.

- Father! Father, high priest!

- Come to us, have mercy.

- In God's will, Archbishop Luke.

- Vladika, receive from us, according to the old custom, bread and salt.

- Father, it happened to have no priests here. Some have died, others have entered the "Living Church"

and therefore we pray, bless us sinners,

and in honor of the holy feast, ordain to priesthood,

our deacon.

- I bless you, my sons!

- I bless you, brothers and sisters!

- May Lord protect you. May Lord have mercy on you!

- In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

- In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

- In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

"Now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen!

- Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres

"Give me, in the name of the Lord.

"Give me a penny in the name of the Lord.

- To a blind man, give me, please...

"Give me, in the name of the Lord.

"Give me a penny in the name of the Lord.

- What is your name? - My nickname is Fedica.

- Dogs have nicknames, and you're human. And your name is not Fedica, but Theodor, that means - the gift of God.

- Do you believe in God? - I believe, but it seems He forgot about me. Give me a penny, please.

- Do not be afraid, I'm a doctor, I want to see your eyes...

- Have you blinded long time ago?

- From childhood.

- How old are you? - 70.

- It's too early to ask for mercy.

- I think I can help you. - Really?

- Come with me.

- Hold on to my shoulder...

- Courage!

- I'll be your guide.

- Let's see what we have here, ah...

- So, Theodor, let's start with Lord's help!

- Hang on, so do not move.

- In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

- And now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen!

- God's servant, Theodor

- Open your eyes.

- I'm afraid!

- You have nothing to be afraid of.

- Make the sign of the Holy Cross,

and open them.

- Lord! I see you!

- Thank you, Father!

- You do not have to thank me, son.

- The Lord has healed you, through my hands.

- Pray to Him always. Glory to you, O Lord!

- Just breathe.

- Vladika Luke! - What happened?

- Look how many people come...

- What to do?

- What to do?

- Let's treat them, with God's help.

- Grandpa, you need a new vestment,

I can not repair this one anymore.

- Repair it, my daughter.

- You're an archbishop

and this vestment is full of holes.

- Repair it, repair it.

- Poor people are many...

Bolshea Murta, 1940

- I was expecting you for so long!

- The big white shaman.

- I'm not a shaman.

- My very old man is struggling so much.

- We've been waiting for you for three days.

- Who told you about me?

- Other shamans talked about you.

- They were here, beat the drums, but they could not cure him.

- They said he was possessed by a bad evil spirit, and they can not control him.

"And they also said that a great white shaman appeared in our lands,

which turned the sight of some blind-born people. Is that true?

- Yes, it's true, but I'm not a shaman. I am an orthodox priest.

- God, through our prayers, my hands, drives away the evil spirit.

- Do you want to cut him? - I'll make a small cut...

that the evil spirit may withdraw. Do you have a thread?

- Here we are, stitching with hair threads.

- Nice, I have not sewn yet with hair. Hmm! It's good.

- God help!

- Serioja. - Yes, Your Grace.

- Look there, near the icons,

is a cross...

It's handcrafted.

- You brought it out of exile? - Yes...

- Take it, it's yours. - No no, how to take it?

- Take it, please...

- When I will be longer, it will remember you of me.

When the war began, my desire to be helpful where it was needed,

was accomplished in the following way:

I sent a telegram to the President of the Supreme Soviet Presidium, M.I.Kalinin:

"I, Bishop Luke, Professor Voino-Yassenetski, execute a condemnation to exile on the basis of the article...

in the village of Bolshea Murta in Krasnoyarsk.

Being a specialist in septic surgery, I can help the soldiers,

wherever a position will be entrusted to me.

I ask that my exile be interrupted and to be sent to a hospital unit.

I am ready to return to exile after the end of the war.

Bishop Luke".

- Under the sign of your Cross,

may all the opposing powers crush.

- Is Voino-Yassenetski here? - Here, here, be quiet...

- God's servant, Roman, is baptized.

- In the name of the Father.

"I have a telegram for him, from the General Secretary of Turuhansk. - Let him finish the baptism. - Baptism?

Amen; and the Son. Amen; and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"We have to make the old man happy, his telegram was answered.

- And why are you happy? He will die there in the damned war.

- In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"And the war, Your Grace, was it difficult?"

- It's hard Serioja, when you do not have faith...

- When you live like the fallen leaves...

- But when you have faith and zeal...

- You can endure them all.

Krasnoyarsk, year 1941

In the first three weeks of work, I operated more than eighty injured.

And only ten days later, I was appointed consultant to all the hospitals in Krasnoyarsk.

- That's how it is. He'll be able to run, and you said it was hopeless case...

- I thought he had no chance. - Put the sutures, and if I can, I'll go to see other wounded people.

- You don't stop to amaze me, Professor. How do you manage?

- It's due to years of experience...

- When we go to surgery, we need to consider not only the abdominal cavity, but the whole patient,

which unfortunately doctors call it so often the "case".

- God help!

- And he's still blind of one eye...

- Wait, wait...

- What do we have here? - Riabotov soldier, right shoulder skein wound.

- It is heavily infected, urgently in the operating room. - All right, take him to the room.

- Hello, fighters. - Hello, Comrade Doctor.

- What do we have here? - Soldier Scvortov, his right foot is wounded, with a medium gravity contusion.

- Is the bone involved? - Not.

- In room 7, to the slightly injured.

- So Sergeant Simonenco, wound by being shooted in the abdomen.

- Doctor, I heard you are a true priest.

-Yes, my son...

-Let me see. Just a little, just a little...

- Pray for me, Father, I feel I'm gonna die soon.

- Pray to God for the forgiveness of my sins, so it will be easier for me to die.

- I'm baptized...

- It's too soon to die, son. Believe in the Lord and in his power.

- Prepare the operating room urgently. Most likely the liver was touched.

- Hold it! Lord, Lord, strengthen his soul and body. Resist, sergeant!

I never hid in front of the sick that were dying, the gravity of their condition, to help them to realize their end.

- You will live, Sergeant Simonenko!

But if there was at least a small chance to save a human life, I could not miss it.

For, just my personal death, would have been a brief stop in the path of the service of my neighbor...

In 1946, I received the first Stalin prize for my work "Septic Surgery Studies"

and at the end of the war, I was decorated with the medal "For heroic effort in the Great War for the Defense of the Homeland 1941-1945".

- Serioja...

- Turn on the candles, please.

- I forgave you, Serioja!

- Forgive me, You Grace! I'm sorry!

- I'm weak and helpless. Forgive me the sinner...

- God will forgive you. The Lord is merciful...

- Go in peace, my son.

- Call Katia.

- Grandpa, who is God?

- God is LOVE!

I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to you

Deliver me from my enemies, O God; be my fortress against those who are attacking me. Deliver me from evildoers and save me from those who are after my blood.

Lord, Thou hast been our refuge in generation and generation. I said: O Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.

O Lord, unto Thee have I fled for refuge, teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God; For in Thee is the fountain of life, in Thy light shall we see light.

Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us according as we have hoped in Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.

Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.

Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the God of our fathers, and praised and glorified is Thy name unto the ages. Amen.

In 2000, the Archbishop of Crimea and Simferopol, Luke, was put among the saints of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Like during his life, he always help people,

so now, whoever addresses the Holy Father with faith and love receives help.

Let us therefore follow the words of St. Apostle Paul: "Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith"

Addressing St. Luke and following his faith, a lot of people receive spiritual and bodily healing. The blind see, the powerless become powerful, and the non faithful find God...

"Instead of amputated fingers, others started to grow." Nazar, Feodosia, 2001

"The joy of being a mother, I owe it to the saint". Victoria, Moscow, 2011

"The doctors were speechless, his lungs restored." Tatiana, Odessa, 2011

"We thank the Saint for the miracle of healing our son." Elevteris, Greece, 2012

"I felt like someone was doing surgery." Olga, Georgia, 2005

"St. Luke was leading the surgeon's hands." Michael, 2006

"My feet just stopped hurting." Tatiana, 2014