Monument to outstanding surgeon and theologian Voino-Yasenetsky opened in Krasnoyarsk

A bronze monument to outstanding surgeon and theologian Valentin Voino-Yasenetsky (Archbishop Luka) was opened in a public garden in Krasnoyarsk (an administrative centre in Siberia) on Friday. Valentin Voino-Yasenetsky was canonised by the Bishop Synod in 2000.

The most dramatic years in Voino-Yasenetsky's life are linked with Krasnoyarsk. In the late 1930s he didn't want to renounce his holy order and was exiled to Siberia.

Voino-Yasenetsky graduated from the medical faculty of the Kiev University in 1904 and was a perfect surgeon. During the Great patriotic War (1941-1945) he operated at Krasnoyarsk hospitals and saved lives of many wounded soldiers. His manual of purulent surgery was awarded with the Stalin Prize in 1946 and is still highly popular with many doctors.

In 1942 Luka became the Archbishop of Krasnoyarsk and a member of the Holy Synod. Since 1946 before his death in 1961 he was the Archbishop of the Crimea and Simferopol.

The monument was erected near the local Bishop House, an architectural celebrity. The monument was created by Krasnoyarsk sculptor Boris Musat on people's donations.