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Hospitality in Valaam was upheld as a great virtue. Usually very sensitive and strong personalities were chosen for this obedience. At the turn of the century thousands of pilgrims visited Valaam and all had to be met with love and a perception of what each individual pilgrim came for. The monastery had room for a thousand pilgrims. One such host was Father Luke, who was born in 1880. He labored all his life as a monk as guestmaster, full of compassion and warmth.
Once he said, "What wonder! The Lord entrusted the keys to the Heavenly Kingdom not to the pure Apostle John the Theologian, but to Peter who denied Him thrice, for he would know the fallen state from experience and would be kinder to sinners."
He was a firm defender of the Church Calendar.
He left for Valamo in Finland during World War II.
Luke was promised that he would be able to return to Old Valaam but he never saw Valaam again and died in Pskov Caves Monastery on December 2, 1965 as a righteous elder confessor. The monk in whose arms Father Luke reposed testified that Father Luke had achieved the blessed state and the Kingdom of Christ as a result of his conscientious reading of the works of Saint Isaac the Syrian.
From the Valaam Patericon.
Once he said, "What wonder! The Lord entrusted the keys to the Heavenly Kingdom not to the pure Apostle John the Theologian, but to Peter who denied Him thrice, for he would know the fallen state from experience and would be kinder to sinners."
He was a firm defender of the Church Calendar.
He left for Valamo in Finland during World War II.
Luke was promised that he would be able to return to Old Valaam but he never saw Valaam again and died in Pskov Caves Monastery on December 2, 1965 as a righteous elder confessor. The monk in whose arms Father Luke reposed testified that Father Luke had achieved the blessed state and the Kingdom of Christ as a result of his conscientious reading of the works of Saint Isaac the Syrian.
From the Valaam Patericon.
