Venerable Luke of Hellas (+c. 946)
The Venerable Luke of Hellas was born in the Greek village of Kastoria. His parents were poor farmers. The saint worked hard, tilling the land and tending the sheep. He obeyed his parents without murmuring. The compassionate young man often shared his portion of food and his clothes with the poor, for which he had to endure many reproaches from his parents. Once he gave most of the seed that he was to sow on his field to the destitute, but God rewarded him for his compassion: that year the harvest was greater than before.
From his youth the saint prayed much and diligently. Once his mother saw him raised up in the air during prayer.
After his father’s death Luke secretly left his mother, went to Mount Athos and became a novice; but God heard the prayer of his grieving mother and miraculously brought him back to his parental home. Here he lived for about four months and calmed his mother, and then, now with her blessing, withdrew to Mount John. Here too he was tonsured a monk by clergy who had come to venerate this place. After this Luke intensified his labours, and for his tireless efforts the Lord granted him the gift of clairvoyance.
The venerable father spent seven years on Mount John, and after this an invasion of the Bulgarians forced him to change the place of his labours, and he went to Corinth. Here he learned of a stylite monk who laboured in Patras; he sought him out and spent ten years in obedience to him, and then returned to his homeland and settled again on Mount John. Here the multitude of people coming up disturbed the Venerable Luke’s quiet, and so, with the blessing of his teacher Theophylact, he moved with his disciple to a more remote place. Three years later, because of Arab raids, the saint moved to the desolate and waterless island of Ampelon. The last place of his labours was Steiris (Soterion). Here a brotherhood gathered around the venerable father, and a small monastery was founded, whose church was consecrated in the name of the holy Great Martyr Barbara. In this monastery the venerable father worked many miracles and healed illnesses of soul and body. He foresaw the approach of his end, shut himself up in his cell, and for three months prepared to meet death. The venerable father reposed on 7 February 946. His last words were: “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit!” Afterwards a church was built over his grave. Myrrh flowed from the saint’s incorrupt relics, and many healings took place.
