Saint Luke

Luke was a Gentile, probably from Antioch in Syria, and a doctor: Paul calls him “Luke the most dear physician” (Colossians 4). He became Paul’s companion on his journeys, and in several places the Acts of the Apostles slips into “we,” as its author tells what he saw himself. He was with Paul in his last imprisonment: “Only Luke is with me” (2 Timothy 4).

He wrote two books for a Christian named Theophilus: a Gospel and its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles. Together they make up more than a quarter of the New Testament. He tells us that he wrote only after “having diligently attained to all things from the beginning” (Luke 1).

Without Luke we would not have the Annunciation, the Visitation, the shepherds at Bethlehem, or the finding of the child Jesus in the Temple. Many believe he learned these things from the Virgin Mary herself. Nor would we have the three canticles the Church sings every day: the Benedictus, the Magnificat and the Nunc dimittis. Only he tells the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son (Luke 15), and the promise to the good thief. His Gospel is the Gospel of mercy, of prayer, of women and the poor, and of the Holy Spirit.

An ancient tradition says that he painted the first icon of the Virgin, and so artists as well as doctors claim him. His emblem is the ox, the animal of sacrifice, because his Gospel begins with Zachary offering sacrifice in the Temple.