To a Spiritual Child
Regarding Luke of Crimea and How We, Genuine Orthodox Christians, Ought to View Him
Dear …….,
You asked me to inform you regarding the topic of Luke of Crimea and whether we, the Genuine Orthodox Christians, consider him a saint.
First, brother, we must say what “The Saint” is.
Holiness is the purpose of our stay in this world. The Church points out certain people who attained this purpose. They were always MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH and never outside the Church.
There is a modern madness to find saints in our days. For some reason, we believe that these modern “saints” will express us better. Beyond that, a collective delusion is often created which has nothing to do with true devotion toward a saint. I remind you of the case of “Gerontissa” [Eldress] Gavrilia. A few years ago, people had raised that Gerontissa higher than any saint, until even members of this very state Church of Greece were forced to confess that the views of the “Gerontissa” were not Orthodox at all, and then the “Gerontissa” began to disappear from the internet.
Living saints do not make themselves famous, but rather work so secretly that it is difficult for anyone to realize they were saints. Saints love obscurity and hide their virtue. For the most part, saints are despised throughout their lives.
But so-and-so and so-and-so perform miracles…
The holiness of a person is not proven simply by some miracles. We could cite many patristic texts confirming to us that even the damned appear to us to perform miracles. I mention here simply one text with the answer of Holy Martyr Justin:
“Question 5. If in the churches of heretics powers are worked, such as healings of diseases and expulsions of unclean spirits, abundance of the fruits of the earth and gushing forth of oil, how is it not necessary from these things that they be confirmed in error?
Answer. Just as the rising of the sun upon the evil and the good and the raining upon the righteous and unrighteous is not a confirmation of the evil and unrighteous in their wickedness and unrighteousness, but a preparation for just punishment, so the working of certain powers among heretics is not a confirmation of them in error. For if the working of powers were a proof and sign of piety, the Lord would not have declared as disapproved and unworthy of intimacy with Him those who said: ‘Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and perform many powers in Your name?’ saying to them: ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!’ Would He who taught us to feed and give drink to the hungry and thirsty not much rather Himself do things similar to what He taught us, heaping coals of fire upon the heads of those who have not worthily known the Giver of faith?”
— (P.G. 6, 1256)
And clearly we read in the Holy Gospel:
“The Lord said: ‘Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” ‘ “*
— (According to Matthew, Ch. 7: 21-23).
What is certain is that a Saint must indeed be a faithful member of the Church. The Church has boundaries.
Where was the Church in the days of Luke of Crimea in the Soviet Union?
We know that the beginning of the twentieth century was a time when the Church would again begin to be shaken by heresies. In 1920, the heretical encyclical of the Patriarchate of Constantinople was issued, setting sail for ecumenism; and for ecumenism to succeed, the encyclical says, the Church must have a common calendar with the heretics of the West (even if it does not have one with Orthodox Christians themselves). From the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the heresy of ecumenism would spread to most Orthodox countries.
Russia had already fallen to communism since 1917.
In the Russian Church, a schism occurred in 1927. Not merely a simple schism, but an effort to replace the Church of Christ with a “church” that would accept orders from the Antichrist himself!
We confess that the Church is one. This Church will always be with the truth and can never be heretical.
In 1922, the Soviets helped the so-called “Living Church” appear in Russia. This “Church,” headed by Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), tried to appear as the Orthodox Church and exploited the imprisonment of the legitimate Patriarch Tikhon. Then the people rejected this “church” and followed Patriarch Tikhon, who was released from prison, and the “Living Church” quickly faded away. Metropolitan Sergius showed repentance and, after a public confession of Faith, was accepted back into the Church as a metropolitan under the Holy Hierarch Patriarch Tikhon.
Soon the Bolsheviks realized that they could not extinguish the Church so easily. So they thought of offering a “church” to the people of Russia once again.
The Bolsheviks chose Comrade Tuchkov to destroy the Church. On December 13, 1926, they arrested Metropolitan Sergius, and by the time he was released on March 30, 1927, the plan to replace the Church had been made. On July 29, 1927, Metropolitan Sergius signed the well-known “Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius.” Metropolitan Sergius declared, supposedly for the entire Church of Russia, the complete submission of the Church to the plans of atheist Bolshevism.
This “church” did exactly what we read in the Gospel that Satan asked on the Mount of Temptation [Forty-Day Mount]. It submitted to and worshipped Satan in order to receive some worldly protection.
The Bolsheviks would leave certain churches operating, but they would no longer be churches of Christ, but churches subject to the atheists, with clergy and bishops who were KGB agents. Is there salvation in such a “church”? Is it the Ark of Salvation?
Metropolitan Sergius established a “church” with the atheist regime as its foundation. They fell under the anathema of the legitimate and holy Patriarch Tikhon. Sergius and those with him left the Church and joined the concoction of the Bolsheviks.
In 1927 (St. John of San Francisco [Maximovitch] also confirms this), the “Patriarch” of Constantinople and reformer of the calendar, Gregory VII, supported the “church” of the Bolsheviks and positioned himself against the Holy Patriarch of Russia, Tikhon. The pseudo-church of the Bolsheviks would remain in full communion with the ecumenist, new-calendarist Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The fact that Russia remained (for certain reasons) with the Old Calendar says nothing to us, as we are not thirteen-dayers [mere calendar-counting zealots]. And thus was born today’s Patriarchate of Moscow, which maintained communion with the other patriarchates, but was simply a state organ of the Bolsheviks.
Patriarch Tikhon anathematized the fake church of the Bolsheviks. The genuine Christians of Russia followed Patriarch Tikhon until his martyric end, and afterwards Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy, and after the murder of Metropolitan Peter in prison, Metropolitan Cyril of Kazan, and after the death of Metropolitan Cyril of Kazan, the genuine hierarch Metropolitan Joseph of Petrograd took charge of the Church. The Church Abroad never recognized Sergius’s and the Bolsheviks’ “church.” You asked me about the stance of Holy Metropolitan Philaret of New York. He too never recognized the fake church they called the “Patriarchate of Moscow,” but anathematized it.
The agents of the NKVD (Narodny Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del — the ancestors of the KGB) went from bishop to priest with Sergius’s Declaration. Usually, those who did not sign Sergius’s Declaration met a horrific death. This church inside Russia was named the Catacomb Church, because the genuine Church of Christ now had to hide.
Did Luke of Crimea know about the existence of Christ’s Catacomb Church?
Indeed he knew it, but he chose the easier path, which is, however, separation from our Christ! Not only did he know it, but he fought against the Church and the genuine Orthodox.
We mention this not from some book that is against Luke, but from the official biography written in Russia by Luke’s devotees:
- Book Title: The Saint-Surgeon: The Life of Archbishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky)
- Author: Maruschak, Vasily, Archdeacon
- ISBN: 5-89101-162-X | Year: 2006
- Published with the blessing of Patriarch of All Russia Alexy II
- Page 225 (The event mentioned occurred in 1948):
“Then Luke told me that in a settlement in the Bakhchysarai region lives a hieromonk named Hippolytus (Veryutin), a former Josephite (see previously regarding the legitimate Metropolitan Joseph of Petrograd) (9) who recognizes neither him as Archbishop nor the Patriarch, and wanders through the villages performing various religious rites, and asked me to take measures to prevent these rites.
In three or four days I summoned the hieromonk Hippolytus (Veryutin). He was an elderly man of 80 years living with a family of farmers in the Bakhchysarai region. During the German occupation (when the catacomb believers were free—my own comment) he was a priest in the village of Bazarchik, which today is a village belonging to the postal district of Bakhchysarai.
Veryutin denied that he performed rites. Nevertheless, I reprimanded him, saying that he could not perform any rite or sacred service without the necessary registration documents. Following this, there were no complaints that he performed rites.”
(9) Josephites — Followers of Holy Hieromartyr Joseph, Metropolitan of Petrograd, who was shot in 1937 for not accepting the “church” of Sergius Stragorodsky.
Here we clearly see that Luke of Crimea was against the true Church of Russia and that he denounced Catacomb Christians without considering what the Soviet authorities could do to them.
I attach the original Russian.
The conclusions are yours….
Святитель-хирург: житие архиепископа Луки (Войно-Yасенецкого)
Марущак, Василий, протодиакон
1948
Затем Лука мне заявил, что в одном из населенных пунктов Бахчисарайского района проживает иеромонах Ипполит (Верютин), бывший иосифлянин [9], не признающий ни его, как архиепископа, ни Патриарха, который ходит по деревням и совершает различного рода требы, просил меня принять меры, запрещающие ему совершать требы.
Дня через три-четыре иеромонах Ипполит Верютин мною был вызван. Старик лет 80, проживающий в семье одного колхозника в Бахчисарайском районе. В период немецкой оккупации был священником в селе Базарчик – теперь село Почтовое Бахчисарайского р-на.
Верютин отрицал совершение им каких-либо треб. Все же он мною был предупрежден: как не имеющий соответствующих регистрационных документов, не может совершать никаких треб и обрядов. После этого каких-либо сообщений о том, чтобы он совершал требы, не поступало.
[9]. Иосифляне — последователи митрополита Ленинградского Иосифа (Петровых), расстрелянного в 1937 году, стоявшего в оппозиции к Заместителю патриаршего Местоблюстителя Сергию (Страгородскому).