Medical Career and Contributions
He showed exceptional artistic talent in his youth and studied at the Kiev Academy of Fine Arts, but turned to medicine, earning his medical degree from the University of Kiev in 1903. He worked as a district physician before specializing, treating trachoma patients as an ophthalmologist.
His scholarly work centered on surgery and anesthesia. He published a study of regional anesthesiology in Petrograd in 1915 and in 1916 defended a thesis on regional anesthesia of the trigeminal nerve, being the first to describe trigeminal nerve anesthesia by ethanol injection. He also devised joint-resection operations for the treatment of osteomyelitis.
In 1934 he authored his most influential work, a treatise on purulent surgery (variously rendered Sketches of Purulent Surgery or Notes on Purulent Surgery), which established a new surgical specialty and remained in use as a reference; he received the degree of Doctor of Medical Science in 1936. In March 1917 he had become head surgeon and professor at the hospital in Tashkent.
Episcopal Ministry
He was ordained a priest in 1921 at the age of 44. In 1923 he received monastic tonsure and was consecrated Bishop of Tashkent and Turkestan, a see he held until 1927.
He later served as Archbishop of Krasnoyarsk and Yenisei (1942–1944), Archbishop of Tambov and Michurinsk (1944–1946), and finally Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea from 1946 until his death in 1961. By tradition he is said to have refused to operate without an icon present in the room.
Over some 38 years of clergy service he is reported to have delivered 1,250 sermons, of which 750 were preserved in twelve volumes. He became completely blind in 1955, attributed to glaucoma, yet continued to carry out his ecclesiastical duties.
Soviet Persecution and Confession
In the mid-1920s he was arrested and tried on false charges of providing inadequate surgical care to Red Army soldiers and was convicted; sources record a sentence of sixteen years. He was arrested again in 1930 and sentenced to three years of exile.
Arrested once more in December 1937, he underwent interrogation over more than two years; the synaxarion relates that he initially signed a confession under sleep deprivation but later recanted it. In 1940 he was sentenced to five years of exile in the Krasnoyarsk region.
During the Second World War he offered his medical services to the state, being appointed a consultant to the hospitals of Krasnoyarsk in 1941, and he opened a church in the suburbs of Krasnoyarsk in 1943. In 1946 he received the Stalin Prize for his scientific publications, and he is said to have donated most of the award to help children affected by the war. He also received a medal for labour during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.
Repose and Glorification
He celebrated his last Divine Liturgy at Christmas of 1960 and delivered his final sermon on Forgiveness Sunday, reposing on 11 June 1961 at the age of 84. Despite government attempts to minimize his funeral, an estimated 40,000 faithful are reported to have taken part in a procession that lasted some three and a half hours.
He was announced as a saint by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in November 1995, and officially glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church on 25 May 1996. His relics were disinterred on 17 March 1996 before a large crowd, and accounts relate that his heart was found incorrupt. The relics were transferred to the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Simferopol on 20 March 1996. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ranked him among the saints on 13 June 2019.
Relics & Shrines
His relics rest in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Simferopol, where they were enshrined in March 1996.
Miracles & Traditions
Historically Documented: An asteroid discovered on 14 October 1971, designated 6161 Wojny-Yasenetsky, was named in his memory.
Traditional Accounts: When his relics were disinterred in 1996, accounts relate that his heart was found incorrupt and that a fragrance emanated from the relics. His relics are venerated as continuing to work miracles at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Simferopol, at Sagmata Monastery in Greece, and elsewhere.
