The life of St Luke the New of Mount Stirion
He gave himself early to prayer and ascetic discipline, and the stories handed down about him include reports of levitation during prayer, of healings granted through him that others had thought beyond help, and of a gift for foretelling events, including a prediction that Byzantine forces would one day take Crete back from Arab rule.
Around the year 946 he settled on the slopes of Mount Helicon at a place called Stiris, and other men drawn by his example gathered near him, forming the beginning of a monastic community. He died there seven years later, in 953, after a long illness, having foretold beforehand that the place would one day hold a great church and monastery, a prophecy his disciples went on to fulfill after his death. His tomb became known afterward for a fragrant oil said to flow from it, a wonder the Church associates with a small number of its most renowned saints, and the community that grew up around his memory, known today as the Monastery of Hosios Loukas, remains a place of pilgrimage to this day.
