To the rank of saints Italian doctor film. Love is healing

In July 1941, a new surgeon appeared at the evacuation hospital 15-15 of Krasnoyarsk. News had previously reached Krasnoyarsk about an extraordinary doctor who saved many from death. But when a two-meter-tall man in a cassock and with a pectoral cross entered the hospital, the doctors were taken aback. Having made the sign of the cross, Valentin Feliksovich Voino-Yasenetsky, Bishop Luka, ordered an icon to be hung in the operating room and began his duties as chief surgeon.

He was appointed to this position after a letter to Kalinin, which he sent in the first days of the war: “I, Bishop Luka, Professor Voino-Yasenetsky, am serving exile in the village of Bolshaya Murta, Krasnoyarsk Territory. As a specialist in purulent surgery, I can provide assistance to soldiers at the front or in the rear, wherever I am entrusted. I ask you to interrupt my exile and send me to the hospital. At the end of the war I am ready to return to exile.”

For the first time in 14 years after his first arrest, he was able to work as a surgeon and “pounced” on work like a hungry person on food. He amazed his colleagues with his skill - he could perform both the finest eye surgeries and extensive joint resections. The famous traumatologist Priorov, who came to the hospital for an inspection, said that he had never seen such brilliant results in the treatment of the wounded as those of Voino-Yasenetsky.

Officer's salute

His patients paid him with deep, sincere gratitude. wrote in his autobiography: “The wounded officers and soldiers loved me very much. When I walked around the wards in the morning, the wounded greeted me joyfully. Some of them, unsuccessfully operated on in other hospitals for wounds in large joints, cured by me, invariably saluted me with their straight legs raised high.”

Believers also reached out to the surgeon saint, although by that time all churches in Krasnoyarsk were closed. The saint petitioned for the opening of a church in Krasnoyarsk and combined treatment of the wounded with hierarchal service, going on Sundays far out of town, to a small church in a cemetery...

At the same time, the priest-surgeon resumed his scientific activities, holding numerous conferences on military field surgery. Another joy these days was associated with the fact that the Holy Synod equated the treatment of the wounded with valiant episcopal service and elevated Voino-Yasenetsky to the rank of archbishop.

After the war, Archbishop Luka was sent to serve in Tambov. When the chairman of the Tambov regional executive committee presented him with a medal “For valiant labor in the Great Patriotic War,” the bishop noted that he could have done much more good if he “had not been dragged around prisons and exile for eleven years. How much time has been lost and how many people have not been saved!” Dead silence hung in the presidium. Finally, someone awkwardly mumbled that we must forget the bad things, to which Saint Luke loudly replied: “Sorry, I will never forget!”

Heavy cross

And there was something to forget. A brilliant graduate of Kyiv University abandoned his professorial career and followed the path of a zemstvo doctor, working in modest hospitals in the poorest Russian provinces. Wanting to alleviate the patient’s suffering during surgery, he developed approaches to spinal anesthesia, which makes it possible to anesthetize a specific area of ​​the body without general anesthesia. This became the basis of his doctoral dissertation. Published as a separate book, it received the international prize “For the best essays that pave new paths in medicine” and was sold out so quickly that the author was not even able to submit several copies to the University of Warsaw in order to receive a reward.

He became famous as a doctor before the revolution. Near Kursk, he cured a young man who was blind from birth, and crowds of blind men, holding each other by the shoulders, flocked to the doctor like pilgrims. Working in the Pereslavl-Zalessky zemstvo hospital for 10-12 hours a day in the operating room and outpatient clinic, at night he created a major work, “Essays on Purulent Surgery.”

And a few years later, after Valentin Feliksovich lost his beloved wife and was left with four children in his arms, he accepted the priesthood. Soon Voino-Yasenetsky was arrested. The book was completed in the cell, and proofreadings were also sent to the prison. When the first edition of the Essays was published in 1934, Father Valentin became Bishop Luke.

Wherever the bishop was, he preached the Gospel. For this he was even exiled to the Arctic Ocean. In the small village of Plakhino, consisting of five huts that looked more like a haystack, he baptized children and treated the sick. When the bishop was exiled to Krasnoyarsk, crowds of people saw him off, and churches on the Yenisei greeted his ship with the ringing of bells. At stops, Vladyka served prayer services and preached.

His spirit was not broken either by the persecution of the authorities, or the envy of his colleagues, or the illnesses that overcame him over the years, or the blindness that struck Archbishop Luka in 1955 in the Crimea. He could no longer operate, but the patients asked him to at least be present at the operation.

Archbishop Luke is canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as a holy confessor and saint; his memory is celebrated on June 11.

Announced to the saints. The Neapolitan doctor was not only a good doctor, but also a man with a big soul. His deep faith gave him a sense of mercy and compassion for others. In his opinion, she could heal better than any doctor.

Giuseppe Moscati: biography

He was born in Benevento (Italy), formerly known as the "city of witches", in 1880. He was the sixth child in the family and had 8 more brothers and sisters. His father was a sought-after lawyer, so the family lived in abundance. When his parents moved to Naples, little Giuseppe turned 4 years old. It is in this city that he will live until the end of his days.

In 1889, the boy completed his studies in primary school and continued his studies at the Lyceum. After graduation, he enters the university at the Faculty of Medicine.

During the First World War, Giuseppe Moscati tried to enroll in a volunteer detachment, but was refused, as the commission decided that medical skills would be much more useful in the rear. He was sent to work in a hospital, where during wartime there were more than three thousand wounded front-line soldiers under his care.

In 1919, he received the position of chief physician in one of the Naples hospitals for terminally ill patients. After 3 years he was given the right to teach in a public clinic.

The following year, the country's government sent Moscati to the capital of Scotland, the city of Edinburgh, where a congress of physiologists from all over the world was held.

His deep faith in Christ and his encouragement of patients to participate in Christian church rituals gathered around him many enemies in the form of atheists.

Selfless, ignorant of self-interest, too pious - this is exactly what friends say Giuseppe Moscati was. His biography ended too early. He died at the age of 47.

His knowledge and works helped in the study of diabetes and the creation of insulin. Moscati tried not to take money for treatment from the poor; he even helped them with small amounts, which he invested in the prescription he wrote out.

Reading about this, many people probably wondered: “Are there any doctors like Giuseppe Moscati now?”

Personal life

Moscati decided not to tie the knot and devoted his life entirely to his profession and the world. Avoiding worldly temptations, he consciously chose celibacy, claiming that he had never known a woman.

He lived with his sister, who ran the household and was in full control of the finances, protecting the great doctor from everyday problems.

"Sick - Nature's Book"

The actions of Giuseppe Moscati tell the best story about what a merciful and pure person he was.

For example, when he was called to help a sick person living in a neighborhood with a bad reputation, he did not refuse. If someone started talking about the danger of such areas, Moscati said: “You can’t be afraid when you go to do a good deed.”

One day, acquaintances met Giuseppe in one of the squares, which was located far from his place of residence. When asked what he was doing here, the doctor answered with a laugh: “I come here to become a spittoon for a poor student.”

The guy was sick with the initial stage of tuberculosis, and if the owners of the room he was renting found out about this, he would have been kicked out. Giuseppe came every day to collect and burn dirty handkerchiefs and exchange them for clean ones.

But the most touching incident, testifying to Moscati’s boundless kindness and professionalism, occurred with an old man in need of daily supervision. Working at the hospital, Giuseppe was very busy and could not come to the old man every day, so he offered him an interesting way out. Every morning, the old man must sit at a table in a cafe, past which Moscati walks to work, and drink hot milk with cookies (naturally, at the expense of the good doctor). Every time, passing by the establishment, Giuseppe looked out the window and checked if he was sick. If he was not there, it meant a deterioration in the old man’s health, and Moscati would go to his home on the outskirts of the city as soon as he had free time.

He devoted a lot of time to students and aspiring doctors, sharing his knowledge and experience with them, saying: “There is no hierarchy next to the patient.”

Many asked him the question of how he withstands colossal daily loads, depriving his body of proper rest. To which the Neapolitan doctor replied: “He who takes communion every morning has an inexhaustible supply of energy.”

All quotes from Giuseppe Moscati are clear evidence of the purity of his soul.

A film about a life filled with love and dedication

There are many films in the world that make you think about your life after watching them. This is exactly what the biographical film “Giuseppe Moscati: Healing Love” is, directed by Giacomo Campiotti.

Both the plot and the production of the film about the life of a Neapolitan doctor were performed at a high professional level. The film looks like a breeze. The interweaving of life's joys and sufferings shown in the film can melt even the coldest heart.

A little about the plot

The film begins with two friends graduating from medical school and preparing for their final exams. Young Moscati was able not only to brilliantly cope with this task, but also to help his friend.

From now on, friends will have an internship in one of the hospitals in Naples, where strict rules cannot be violated, but for them this is the best place to develop their medical skills.

Giuseppe spends days in the hospital and tries to give each patient maximum attention, thereby winning respect and love among the patients. And when an earthquake occurs in Naples, he is the first to run to the rescue and saves more than a dozen patients.

Many people, while viewing the film “Giuseppe Moscati: Healing Love,” come to understand that charity and faith are more than daily Bible reading and prayer. As the Holy Scripture says: “Faith without works is dead.”

Canonization

Giuseppe Moscati's body was reburied in 1930 in the Gesu Nuovo (church in Naples). Exactly 45 years later he was beatified. The process of canonization occurred after the mother of a Naples resident with cancer saw in her vision a doctor who healed her son of the disease. From the photograph presented to her, she recognized Giuseppe.

The canonization carried out by John Paul became a clear example of the fact that even a modern layman who has chosen a simple profession can become a saint.

Today, the relics of Moscati Giuseppe are kept in the Church of Gesu Nuovo. Within its walls there is a recreated doctor's room, where several medical instruments that he used and his clothes are kept.

Healer St. Luka Krymsky

our contemporary, canonized

St. Luke of Crimea – our contemporary (in the world Valentin Feliksovich Voino-Yasenetsky: April 27 (May 9), 1877, Kerch - June 11, 1961, Simferopol). Russian scientist, surgeon, healer and spiritual figure, preacher, writer, bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. For numerous merits and extraordinary abilities, he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church and canonized.

Fate led him along the missionary path. But at first he did not intend to be not only a priest, but also did not immediately discover his calling to become a doctor. Since childhood, the future archbishop loved to draw, graduated from the Kyiv Art School and was about to enter the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.

At the last moment, he decided that he had no right to do only what he liked. And this decision turned his subsequent life upside down. Medicine was a new frontier that he set for himself. He had to do something that was difficult, and he almost forced himself to learn something that was alien. Nevertheless, unexpectedly for himself, Voino-Yasenetsky became interested in anatomy. And in the end, “... from a failed artist he became an artist in anatomy and surgery” (as he recalled about himself).

After defending their dissertation in 1917, the Voyno-Yasenetskys moved to Tashkent. There Valentin Feliksovich received the position of chief physician and surgeon of the city hospital.

There, the surgeon, as a deeply religious person, finds himself at the church congress of Turkestan and gives a fiery report - only because the state of affairs in the Tashkent diocese seemed depressing to him. But he was by no means an indifferent person.

And after the meeting, the ruling bishop came up to him and said: “Doctor, you need to be a priest. Your job is not to baptize, but to evangelize,” and entrusted him with the work of preaching.

A prominent scientist, author of medical monographs, healer, c Saint Luke spoke about faith simply and clearly, with God’s inherent gift. But he continued to operate and lecture at the medical faculty, where he came straight in a cassock and with a cross on his chest.

In the 20s, the GPU took over Archbishop Luke and his wanderings began. In 1921, the head of the local Cheka, Latvian Peters, organized a show trial of “reactionary” doctors andValentin Voino-Yasenetsky was summoned to court:

Tell me, priest and professor Yasenetsky-Voino, how is it that you pray at night and slaughter people during the day?

I cut people to save them, but in the name of what do you cut people day and night?

How is it that you, professor, believe in God? You cut people's legs, arms - have you ever seen a soul?

I also operated on the brain and performed craniotomy, but I never saw the mind there either. And I didn’t find any conscience there either.

However, the personal authority of the preacher by that time was so great that the matter ended with exile to Arkhangelsk. The second exile was to Siberia. Throughout the war from 1941 to 1945, Voino-Yasenetsky saved the wounded in the Krasnoyarsk hospital and continued his research in the field of purulent surgery.

For scientific work "Essays on purulent surgery" repressed archbishop received the Stalin Prize I degrees in 1946. God's providence saved him from persecution, thanks to his surgical practice and talent as a scientist.

In the same year c Bishop Luka was transferred to Crimea. He spent the last 15 years of his life in Simferopol: as always, he treated, helped the poor, and restored the devastated diocese.

Healing with the icon of St. Luke of Crimea

Nowadays people come to the icon of St. Luke for healing . He is still in the hearts of people - a healer from God. Famous case of miraculous healing a boy musician who injured his hand. Doctors gave him a disappointing diagnosis and the operation did not give a reliable result. Then the boy began to come to Ksv. Lukey is on his knees asking for help. He said that he really wanted to become a pianist...

During his lifetime, the healer Archbishop Luke treated people with the help of medicine and the word of God. Now anyone can read his books, works on medicine and philosophical treatises "Science and Religion", "Spirit, Soul and Body". His memory is kept in the Holy Trinity Convent (Simferopol). The relics of the saint rest there. In 2000, he was canonized and canonized.

Giuse?ppe Mosca?ti(Italian: Giuseppe Moscati; July 25, 1880 - April 12, 1927) - saint of the Roman Catholic Church, Italian doctor, researcher, university professor.

Biography

Born July 25, 1880 in Benevento. Giuseppe was the sixth of nine children in a wealthy family; his father was a prominent lawyer. When Giuseppe was 4 years old, the family moved to Naples, where he spent the rest of his life. After graduating from primary school in 1889, he entered the Lyceum Victor Emmanuel, then studied at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Naples, from which he graduated in 1903 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.

After graduating from university, he worked as a freelance adjunct in one of the Neapolitan hospitals. During the eruption of Vesuvius in 1906, he was assigned to lead the evacuation of the hospital in Torre del Greco - he saved the patients at the risk of his own life. In 1908, he became a full-time assistant in the department of physiological chemistry at the Neapolitan Medical Institute. In 1911 he made a great contribution to the elimination of the cholera epidemic in Naples. In the same year he was accepted as a member of the Italian Royal Medical and Surgical Academy.

During the First World War, he tried to enroll as volunteers, but was turned down, believing that his medical abilities would be more useful. In the hospital where Moscati worked during the war, up to 3,000 wounded soldiers were under his care.

In 1919, he was appointed chief physician of the department for terminally ill patients in one of the Neapolitan hospitals. In 1922, a special commission of the Ministry of Public Education gave him the right to freely teach in a general medical clinic. In 1923 he was sent by the Italian government to the International Physiological Congress in Edinburgh. Moscati made a great contribution to the study of the problem of diabetes; his works greatly contributed to the discovery of insulin. He was the editor-in-chief of the medical journal Reforma Medika.

According to his colleagues, Moscati was known for his dedication, selflessness and deep piety. He almost never took payment for treatment from the poor, and helped those especially in need himself, putting banknotes in the prescriptions he wrote out. He openly professed the Christian faith, taking communion daily and encouraging the sick to participate in church sacraments, for which he made many enemies in the medical community from among materialists and anti-Christians.

He died in 1927 at the age of 47 from a sudden illness.

Canonization

Three years after Moscati's death, his body was reburied in the Neapolitan Church of Gesu Nuovo on November 16, 1930; another 45 years later, on November 16, 1975, Giuseppe Moscati was beatified. After the case of the miraculous healing of Neapolitan Giuseppe Fusco from cancer recorded by the relevant commission (in a vision, the patient’s mother observed a man in a white coat who came to him, whom she then identified as Moscati from a photograph), the process of canonization was initiated.

Giuseppe Moscati was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 25, 1987, as a pious layman who used his profession as a doctor to spread Christianity and works of mercy among the sick in need of spiritual help. Moscati's canonization became an example of how holiness can be achieved by a modern layman who has chosen an ordinary secular profession. It is significant that the canonization was announced at the end of the General Synod of Bishops, which for almost two months discussed the topic of the vocation and mission of the laity in the Church and the world. In his speech dedicated to the canonization of Giuseppe Moscati, John Paul II said:

The center of veneration for Giuseppe Moscati in Naples is the Church of Gesu Nuovo, to which the body of the saint was transferred three years after his death. Subsequently, the relics of Giuseppe Moscati were placed under the altar of one of the side chapels, and a museum dedicated to the saint was built in the former sacristy. The walls of the memorial hall are hung with numerous votive offerings from believers, the furnishings of Moscati’s room have been recreated, and his clothes and medical instruments are kept.

Anyone who loves good cinema should definitely watch the film “Giuseppe Moscati: Healing Love” (directed by Giacomo Campiotti, 2007). This Italian film in English version is called “Doctor of poor”, i.e. “Doctor of the Poor,” because it talks about a real-life doctor who treated poor people, and not just treated them, but gave them his whole life. The film is actually a biography of the Neapolitan doctor and great humanist Giuseppe Moscati, canonized by the Catholic Church about 30 years ago.

The film is a biography of the doctor and great humanist Giuseppe Moscati

And this is perhaps the most amazing thing about this film - the fact that the main character was a real person of flesh and blood, and not a fictional character at all. Why? Yes, because otherwise it would probably be difficult to believe in the reality of the created image - it is so close to the ideal to which Christ called His disciples.

The desire of this Catholic to get closer to Christ, to fulfill His commandments in deeds is very significant and useful even for us, Orthodox Christians. As in Gospel times, it was useful for individual representatives of God’s chosen people to learn that a pagan, a Canaanite and a Samaritan through their deeds turned out to be closer to God than they themselves. That is why, without preaching ecumenism at all, we offer our readers a story about this film, which, after all, is just a work of art, and not a hagiographic monument.

Moscati appears alive and spontaneous in the film. There is nothing stilted, fictitious or schematic in his image. This is a young man, a student at a medical university. He can easily persuade a friend to run away from lectures to swim in the sea, he jokes, falls in love - in a word, he lives life to the fullest. Much more complete than the people around him, accustomed to the conventions of this world, which he constantly “explodes”.

He is truly alive because he feels the taste of every single moment, appreciates and loves every person he meets along the way. He is able to notice what others do not notice, because his attention is entirely immersed in the present and, most of all, in people. He does not skim over them with a superficial glance, as many of us are accustomed to doing. And while communicating and getting to know each other in the bustle, he truly sees everyone, plunging into their life, problems, desires and troubles. He doesn’t do all this on purpose – it’s just the way he’s designed. It is natural for him to live by the needs of his neighbor; one might even say that this is his main need. And this is what makes him unique and different from most of us.

His love truly heals people, and not just their bodies.

He acutely feels the pain of others, which is why he becomes a doctor. Moscati declared throughout his life that the main force is. He constantly proved this by combining brilliant medical abilities with love for his neighbor. Moscati argued that even simple sympathy would heal a patient more quickly than a doctor’s indifferent performance of his duties, and he convinced his students of this. Actually, this power of love makes him not an ordinary doctor, but an outstanding one. The patients love him like their own. And this is no wonder - without his attentive help, many of them would have died long ago. His love truly heals people, and not just their bodies. The street thief who stole his wallet becomes his best friend. A boy whose fate was predetermined by society - either to die on the street from hunger or in prison. No one would delve into his needs and fears if not for Moscati. No one would understand or know that poverty made him this way and that at the age of 12 he was the only breadwinner in a large family. No one would have appreciated his cheerful, perky disposition, his lively character, or even known that his main dream was to learn to swim in the sea.

Moscati turned out to be the only person for whom all these experiences of a small boyish heart found a lively response. And such a response is found in him not by a dozen, but by hundreds, thousands of people. He helps them not only as a doctor, he gives them food and money for medicine, and when there are too many sick people, he also gives them his shelter - right at home he sets up a hospital for people who cannot pay for treatment in the hospital. When a plague epidemic sweeps through the city, he himself goes to the poor neighborhoods to stop the infection. He has a unique ability to discern a divine creation, a living human soul, behind the rags and scabs, behind the terrible face of poverty and illness.

He has the ability to discern the human soul behind the terrible face of poverty and disease

This highest degree of indifference is an integral element of his internal structure.

Love sharpens his medical intuition, helping in diagnosis. He makes accurate diagnoses where the most experienced doctors make mistakes. A typical episode is when, with some incredible flair, he rushes to resuscitate a person who was considered dead, and literally resurrects him. He doesn’t just perform certain manipulations - he looks into each patient’s eyes, looks with love, from which the patient literally blossoms, because he understands: he is not alone with the disease. He has Moscati.

Love also sharpens his human sense. When a person close to his soul dies, he simply cannot help but feel it. He feels this almost supernaturally and rushes to the one who has no one else near him. He is always there for those who need him most. It’s as if he doesn’t live on his own—the Creator’s love for his sick creation—the human race—acts through him. A creature eternally suffering, homeless and unhappy. And this creature reaches out to meet Him - through Moscati and through people like him.

He does not live on his own; the Creator’s love for the human race acts through him.

With his intelligence, beauty and talent, Moscati could achieve a lot. Money, honors, a career and the main beauty in the city could be at his feet if he only wanted it. But all these things were never his goal and did not even have independent value for him. He could have become a wonderful husband, but the beauty could not have become his equally wonderful wife, she would not have been able to bear the cross that is the only one possible for him. And he is not angry with her for this, he understands.

At the same time, the world does not like Moscati - he is too inconvenient for the world. Moscati irritates even those closest to him and goes through envy and betrayal. But his love turns out to be able to heal these qualities too. Even the most bitter, offended, envious heart miraculously throws off this leprosy and returns to its real self, returns to God.

Moscati did not need anything for himself in life - an example of that very rare non-covetousness and sacrifice that we observe with such surprise among the saints. He is also a person with a very strong inner core, confident in the correctness of what he is doing. Moscati could not be shaken - he was like a mountain that could not be moved.

Speaking about Moscati, I find myself completely identifying him with the actor Beppe Fiorelo - he played him so well, he got into the role so well.

In world cinema there are a number of films that are indisputable from an artistic point of view, which at the same time relate to the phenomenon of religious culture and intersect with it. The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, “The Passion of the Christ” by Mel Gibson, and among our domestic films, this also includes “The Island” by Lungin and “Pop” by Khotinenko. It is always joyful when the metaphysics of Christianity, which is difficult to embody on screen, succeeds without vulgarity and falsehood. Sometimes such films even become a kind of artistic sermon, they have such a strong impact on the viewer. But for some - primarily for people who are still outside the threshold of the Church - such films can become a kind of first proof of the reality of Christ, a living embodiment of His preaching and a clear evidence of His love for us.

Of course, Healing Love is exactly that kind of film. It is also worth watching because of the excellent direction, brilliant acting and dramatically twisted plot. And in the finale, even the most reserved person will find it difficult not to cry.