this period, such as revealing to two brothers the location of their dead father's buried treasure. Numerous proofs of Luke's holiness are also given, such as sleeping in a trench to remind himself of death, or being visited in dream by an angel who let a hook down Luke's mouth and 'drew out a certain fleshly member therefrom', freeing him from the temptations of the flesh. Exodus Luke was forced to leave Ioannitza by an invasion of the Bulgarian emperor Symeon (which Luke had predicted). Luke, followed by the local villagers, fled to a nearby island, almost perishing when attacked by Bulgarians in a stolen ship. After the invaders withdrew, Luke, now aged 21, enrolled in a school in Corinth, but soon left after he found the other students insufficiently serious. Instead, he went to serve a stylite at Zemena for the next ten years, until he was stranded in the Peloponnese on an errand when the harbour master refused to allow him to return to Hellas, fearing raids (whether Bulgarian or Arabic is not mentioned). When Luke was ejected from his oratory in the Peloponnese after a rainstorm, his hagiographer comments that 'God perhaps arranged these things beneficially, lest dwelling too long in the land of Pelops he do an injustice to his fatherland', perhaps indicating a rival cult of the saint in the Peloponnese and providing an interesting example of patriotism towards the theme. Return The Life also cites Symeon's death in 927 and the succession of his more pacific son Peter as a reason why Luke returned to Ioannitza to build his own community. Luke drew so many followers that he found the distractions unbearable and decided to retreat further into the wilderness. Three years later, however, Luke was displaced again, this time by a Magyar invasion. Just as before, Luke retreated with the local villagers to a nearby island. Once there, Luke found the desert island to be a suitable place to pursue his solitary ascetic life, and stayed for three years, enduring terrible thirsts. Eventually Luke's companions persuaded him to leave, and he settled for the remainder of his life in the far more amenable environment of the present Hosios Loukas, where he founded his hermitage c. 946 AD in the area of Stiris (which may be a corruption of Soterion, or place of healing). Here brethren gathered to the elder, and a small monastery