On the Feast Day of St. Luke of Crimea, Metropolitan Alexander Celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Metropolitan District Representation in Moscow

June 11, 2026 – the feast day of святитель and physician Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Holy Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and Sophia at the Patriarchal Metochion in Moscow – the Representation of the Metropolitan District of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Concelebrating with the hierarch were: Vice-Rector of the Alma-Ata Orthodox Theological Seminary, Candidate of Theology, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Hegumen Agafangel (Gagua); Archpriest Pavel Vishnevsky; Archpriest Alexiy Fedorenko; Hieromonk Daniil (Makagon); Hieromonk Viktorin (Aseev); Head of the Metropolitan’s Protocol Service Protodeacon Roman Golovin; Deacon Anatoly Ledenev and Deacon Roman Frolov.

Praying during the service were: Secretary of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District, Honored Worker of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Russian Church Singing O.N. Ovchinnikov; staff of the Representation and parishioners of the church.

The church choir, directed by Anna Rozhnova, performed the liturgical hymns.

The sermon after the Communion verse was delivered by Archpriest Pavel Vishnevsky.

Following the Liturgy, a festal glorification (slavlenie) was held in honor of St. Luke the Confessor and Healer of Crimea.

Metropolitan Alexander thanked the clergy, monastics, and faithful for their common prayer, congratulated those gathered on the feast of the Crimean saint, and delivered a sermon.

At the conclusion of the service, the hierarch presented awards of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District. In recognition of their labors for the benefit of Orthodoxy and in connection with milestone anniversaries, the following church honors were bestowed:

Hegumen Agafangel (Gagua) – the Order Yntaly Kyzmet Ushin (“For Zealous Service”);

A.V. Bugaevsky, Chairman of the Orthodox Society Skiniya, church and public figure – the Order Yntaly Kyzmet Ushin (“For Zealous Service”);

V.I. Litvyakov – the Order Enbek Ushin (“For Labors”).

The hierarch wished the recipients spiritual and physical strength and God’s help in all their good works and endeavors.

In his sermon dedicated to the memory of St. Luke of Crimea, Metropolitan Alexander stated in part:

“A world-renowned surgeon, an outstanding scholar, professor of medicine, recipient of a state prize, and author of many unique scientific works, he was glorified by the Church as an ascetic of piety, a sufferer for the faith of Christ, a man of prayer, and a herald of the Gospel teaching. From childhood, love for God and neighbor held first place in his heart. These holy qualities he embodied in his ministry as both archpastor and surgeon.

For decades, without holidays or days off, sparing neither emotional nor physical strength, he labored in medicine, especially helping the poor and needy. While working as a surgeon in Tashkent, the future hierarch actively participated in church life. The words of Bishop Innocent of Tashkent and Turkestan — ‘Doctor, you must become a priest’ — he received as a call from God. After three years of priestly service, Father Valentin accepted monastic tonsure with the name of the holy Apostle, Evangelist, and physician Luke. On May 31, 1923, Hieromonk Luke, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and All Russia, was secretly consecrated Bishop of Tashkent and Turkestan. From that moment began his confessional path of the Cross.

Numerous arrests, humiliations, tortures, and exiles did not weaken the saint’s zeal in fulfilling his archpastoral duty and medical ministry. During his third exile near Krasnoyarsk, at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Bishop Luke offered his medical skill to the authorities for the treatment of wounded soldiers. Thousands were saved from death or lifelong disability. Until the end of his earthly life, despite grave illnesses and trials, the saint regularly celebrated divine services, constantly preached, and received the suffering.

St. Luke the Confessor reposed in the Lord on June 11, 1961. God glorified His servant with abundant miracles: through the saint’s prayers, many healings from illnesses and infirmities have occurred and continue to occur. In 2000, at the Jubilee Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, he was canonized as a hierarch and confessor.

Glorifying in prayer and hymnody this wise hierarch and compassionate physician, we should remember his teachings, his lessons of righteousness, with which he tirelessly addressed his flock: ‘In works of mercy we may show great zeal, great diligence; we may always be merciful to the unfortunate, the hungry, the sick, the discouraged, the broken in spirit — we can, we can be merciful!’

May the Lord, through the prayers of St. Luke the physician, together with bodily and spiritual health, grant us the grace-filled strength not merely in words, but in deeds, to live a life founded upon the Gospel.”