Large lithium molybdate (Li 2 MoO 4 ) crystal boules were produced by using the low thermal gradient Czochralski growth technique from deeply purified molybdenum. A small sample from one of the boules was preliminary characterized in terms of Xray-induced and thermally-excited luminescence. A large cylindrical crystalline element (with a size of ⊘40 × 40 mm) was used to fabricate a scintillating bolometer, which was operated aboveground at ∼ 15 mK by using a pulse-tube cryostat housing a highpower dilution refrigerator. The excellent detector performance in terms of energy resolution and α background suppression along with preliminary positive indications on the radiopurity of this material show the potentiality of Li 2 MoO 4 scintillating bolometers for low-counting experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 100 Mo.