Luke the Evangelist
Luke, the evangelist, was a Greek doctor — St. Paul, whose disciple he became, described him as "our beloved Luke, the physician" — and may have been born in Antioch. His writings, the third Gospel and the continuation of the Acts of the Apostles, suggest that he travelled with Paul on some of his missionary journeys; Paul refers to Luke as his companion in three letters written from Rome.
There is a second-century tradition that Luke died, unmarried, in Greece at the age of 84; it is unlikely that he was martyred.
The much later tradition that he was an artist, the reason for his patronage of painters, is unfounded. However, his artistry with words has inspired numerous artistic masterpieces by others.
Luke’s patronage of painters is based on the tradition that he painted a portrait of the Virgin Mary, and variations on this theme were popular with Dutch and Flemish artists during the l5th and l6th centuries.
|
Collect Almighty God, you called Luke the physician, whose praise is in the gospel, to be an evangelist and physician of the soul: by the grace of the Spirit and through the wholesome medicine of the gospel, give your church the same love and power to heal; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. |
Feast Day - 18th October Patronages - Painters; physicians; surgeons; sculptors. Emblem - Winged calf (one of the symbols of the four evangelists).