Saint Luke the Blessed Surgeon (Архиепископ Лука, born Valentin Felixovich Voyno-Yasenetsky) was an outstanding 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.
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.