Tag: stluke

Saint of the Day – 18 October – St Luke the Evangelist

St Luke, the inspired author of the third Gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles, was a native of Antioch in Syria and a physician and one of the early converts from paganism. He accompanied St Paul on a considerable part of his missionary journey.   He was also his companion while in prison at Rome on two different occasions.   His account of these events, contained in the Acts, is first hand history.   His symbol is a Winged Ox anticipated by Ezekiel.    The ox, recognised as the animal of sacrifice, was applied to St Luke because his Gospel emphasises the atonement made by Christ’s sacrifice of Himself on the Cross.   His name means “bringer of light” (= luke).

Luke’s Gospel is, above all, the Gospel of the Merciful Heart of Jesus.   It emphasises the fact that Christ is the salvation of all men, especially of the repentant sinner and of the lowly.   Legend says that Luke painted the Blessed Virgin’s portrait.   It is certainly true that he painted the most beautiful word-picture of Mary ever written.

St Luke came from Antioch, was a practising physician and was one of the first converts to Christianity.   He accompanied St Paul, who converted him, on his missionary journeys and was still with him in Rome when St Paul was in prison awaiting death.   We hear no more of him afterwards and nothing is known of his last years.   The Church venerates him as a Martyr.

St Luke’s Gospel is principally concerned with salvation and mercy – in it are preserved some of our Lord’s most moving parables, like those of the lost sheep and the prodigal son.   Dante calls St Luke the “historian of the meekness of Christ.”   It is also St Luke who tells us the greater part of what we know about our Lord’s childhood.

“According to tradition he was an artist, as well as a man of letters and with a soul alive to all the most delicate inspirations, he consecrated his pencil to the holiest use and handed down to us the features of the Mother of God.   It was an illustration worthy of the Gospel which relates to the divine Infancy and it won for the artist a new title to the gratitude of those who never saw Jesus and Mary in the flesh.   Hence St Luke is the patron of Christian art.” …-Excerpted from The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.

St Luke did not personally know our Lord and like St Mark, the author of the second Gospel, he is not included among the apostles.   For this reason the Gospel chosen for their feast is the account of the sending forth of the seventy-two disciples.   According to St Jerome, St Luke died in Achaia (Greece) at the age of 84 and it is unknown whether or not he died a martyr’s death. 

His symbol is a Winged Ox anticipated by Ezekiel.    The ox, recognised as the animal of sacrifice, was applied to St Luke because his Gospel emphasises the atonement made by Christ’s sacrifice of Himself on the Cross.  His name means “bringer of light” (= luke).

Saint of the Day – St Luke the Evangelist – 18 October – Physician, disciple of St Paul, Evangelist, Author of the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.   Tradition says he was an artist too.  He was born at Antioch and Died in c 74 in Greece.   Some say he was martyred, others that he died of natural causes.  His relics reside at Padua, Italy.   Patronages – artists, bachelors, bookbinders, brewers, butchers, doctors, glass makers, glassworkers, glaziers, gold workers, goldsmiths, lacemakers, lace workers, notaries, painters, physicians, sculptors, stained glass workers, surgeons, unmarried men,  2 cities.   Attributes – Evangelist, Physician, a bishop, a book or a pen, a man accompanied by a winged ox/winged calf/ox, a man painting an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a brush or a palette (referring to the tradition that he was a painter).   St Luke is one of the Four Evangelists—the four traditionally ascribed authors of the canonical Gospels.   The early church fathers ascribed to him authorship of both the Gospel according to Luke and the book of Acts of the Apostles, which would mean Luke contributed over a quarter of the text of the New Testament, more than any other author.   Prominent figures in early Christianity such as Jerome and Eusebius later reaffirmed his authorship.   The New Testament mentions Luke briefly a few times and the Pauline epistle to the Colossians refers to him as a physician (from Greek for ‘one who heals’);  thus he is thought to have been both a physician and a disciple of Paul. Christians since the faith’s early years have regarded him as a saint.   He is believed to have been a martyr, reportedly as having been hanged from an olive tree, though some believe otherwise.

Luke came from the large metropolitan city of Antioch, a part of modern-day Turkey.   In Luke’s lifetime, his native city emerged as an important center of early Christianity. During the future saint’s early years, the city’s port had already become a cultural center, renowned for arts and sciences.   Historians do not know whether Luke came to Christianity from Judaism or paganism, although there are strong suggestions that Luke was a gentile convert.

Educated as a physician in the Greek-speaking city, Luke was among the most cultured and cosmopolitan members of the early Church.   Scholars of archeology and ancient literature have ranked him among the top historians of his time period, besides noting the outstanding Greek prose style and technical accuracy of his accounts of Christ’s life and the apostles’ missionary journeys.

Other students of biblical history adduce from Luke’s writings that he was the only evangelist to incorporate the personal testimony of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose role in Christ’s life emerges most clearly in his gospel.   Tradition credits him with painting several icons of Christ’s mother and one of the sacred portraits ascribed to him – known by the title “Salus Populi Romano – Salvation of the Roman People”– survives to this day in the Basilica of St Mary Major.

Some traditions hold that Luke became a direct disciple of Jesus before His ascension, while others hold that he became a believer only afterward.   After St Paul’s conversion, Luke accompanied him as his personal physician– and, in effect, as a kind of biographer, since the journeys of Paul on which Luke accompanied him occupy a large portion of the Acts of the Apostles.   Luke probably wrote this text, the final narrative portion of the New Testament, in the city of Rome where the account ends.

Luke appears in Acts during Paul’s second journey, remains at Philippi for several years until Paul returns from his third journey, accompanies Paul to Jerusalem and remains near him when he is imprisoned in Caesarea.   During these two years, Luke had time to seek information and interview persons who had known Jesus.   He accompanied Paul on the dangerous journey to Rome where he was a faithful companion   After the martyrdom of St Paul in the year 67, St Luke is said to have preached elsewhere throughout the Mediterranean and possibly died as a martyr.   However, even tradition is unclear on this point.   Fittingly, the evangelist whose travels and erudition could have filled volumes, wrote just enough to proclaim the gospel and apostolic preaching to the world.

Luke’s unique character may best be seen by the emphases of his Gospel, which has been given a number of subtitles:
1) The Gospel of Mercy
2) The Gospel of Universal Salvation
3) The Gospel of the Poor
4) The Gospel of Absolute Renunciation
5) The Gospel of Prayer and the Holy Spirit
6) The Gospel of Joy