The
faith.
When he arrived in Simferopol in 1946, Saint Luke had
thought that his knowledge and experience in surgery would be in demand.
However, a month-and-a-half passed before he received official permission to
practice medicine. From 1946 on, he worked as a consultant at the Simferopol
Hospital. He also assisted the Hospital for Invalids of the Great Patriotic
War. Until the end of 1947, he gave reports and lectures to doctors and
operated on patients and the wounded. Zhdanov (the official in charge of
Russian Orthodox Church Affairs) characterized his medical activity as very
active.
Archbishop Luke regularly attended meetings of the
surgeons' association, in which civil doctors and surgeons participated. He
would listen carefully to their reports and speeches and always introduced
necessary corrections. According to Dr. G. F. Pyatidvernaya, during a meeting, one surgeon asked the archbishop: "How can you, such a specialist, a
surgeon, believe in somebody whom you have never seen, in God?"