Ekaterina I. Kalikinskaya, Candidate of Sciences in Biology, Director of the Museum of the Сentre named after St. Luke in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Member of Saint Petersburg Orthodox Doctors Society, Member of the Russian Society of Historians of Medicine, Lecturer of Lomonosov Moscow State University’s Faculty of Fundamental Medicine, Member of the Writers’ Union of Russia.
St. Luke’s medical practice began in the Red Cross hospital, with which he travelled to Siberia during the Russo-Japanese war, straight after graduating from the medical faculty. During the First World War, he worked in Pereslavl-Zallesky’s provincial hospital, which was converted into an infirmary, as well as in the Cities Alliance’s hospital.
In September 1941, the exile archbishop was appointed chief surgeon in the Krasnoyarsk’s combined evacuation hospital no. 1515. According to the author, who first researched this topic in the archives of Saint Petersburg’s Military Medical Museum, in December 1941 the amount of surgical work reached its maximum, and the range of operations was very diverse. St. Luke read a course of lectures in the hospital, introduced unified principle of treatment into practice, developed a technique for late resection of joints, trained two female surgeons N. S. Panova and A. Kh. Levikova, who became the head of the Department after his leave. In total, 8012 patients were treated in the hospital from September 1941 to May 1945, 2384 people (29,75%) returned to the military unit. There were 94 deaths (1,17%) for the whole period.
The Saint continued to work in the hospitals of Tambov starting from February 1944, where he continued to introduce the methods he developed into medical practice.
During these years he prepared a new edition of «Sketches of Purulent Surgery», the manuscript was submitted to the Committee of Stalin Prizes. After the award of the Stalin Prize, the Saint became, according to his own words, persona grata for the society. He, however, believed that the celebration of his scientific works was important mostly for the increase of church’s authority in the Soviet State.