It was a quiet May night in 1923. In distant Tashkent, all the residents are resting. The streets are deserted. Only at the G.P.U. offices are people awake. The Chekists work day and night, studying information, preparing indictments, planning arrests. The revolution must be protected with tooth and nail from the "enemies of the people." But they are not the only ones awake. At the chief doctor's house, the exiled Bishop Andrew arrives in utmost secrecy. The churches of Tashkent have fallen into the hands of the schismatics, and Bishop Andrew must perform the tonsure service. Everything will be done in secret. The chief doctor's bedroom is transformed into a catacomb. The tonsure service begins. The chief doctor's young children are asleep. The eldest son recounts:
"One night I was in my bed. My father came for the tonsure, and Sophia Sergeyevna was with him. They thought I was asleep. Sophia was begging him not to become a monk, for our sake, his children. But my father was adamant."

The renowned chief surgeon, already a priest, Father Valentin, takes the big step. From Valentin, he is named Luke. From the lips of the exiled bishop, he attentively listens to the prophetic prayers of the tonsure.
"Do not prefer anything over God... for you will be hungry, and thirsty, and naked, insulted and mocked, reviled and persecuted, and subjected to many other sorrows which characterize a life according to God..."
The chief doctor-priest responds firmly, with determination: "Yes, with God's help, honorable father."