Saint Luke the Evangelist

Physician and Evangelist
(1st century)

Saint Luke is the author of the third Gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles, together the longest contribution of any single author to the New Testament. He was a physician by profession, a fact mentioned by Saint Paul in the Letter to the Colossians, and his medical training may account for the particular sensitivity to human suffering and the precise observation of physical detail that characterises his writing. He was a Gentile by birth, almost certainly a Greek, and his Gospel reflects the universal scope of Christ's mission to all people without distinction of race or background.

He was a close companion of Saint Paul, accompanying him on his second and third missionary journeys and remaining with him through his imprisonments, as the we passages of the Acts of the Apostles indicate. When Paul writes from his Roman imprisonment, he mentions that only Luke is with him. This loyal companionship in prison and in the hardships of apostolic travel speaks well of Luke's personal character and devotion.

His Gospel is distinguished by several characteristics that have made it especially beloved. It contains the Magnificat, the Benedictus, the Nunc Dimittis, and the Gloria in Excelsis, the four great canticles that have been incorporated into the Divine Office of the Church. It contains unique parables, including the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, the latter sometimes called the greatest short story ever written. It alone records the appearance of the angel at Gethsemane, the sweat like drops of blood, and several other details of the Passion. It shows a particular concern for the poor, for women, for sinners, and for the outcasts of society.

Luke is traditionally depicted with an ox, one of the four living creatures of the Apocalypse, and is the patron of physicians, surgeons, artists, and painters, the last patronage arising from the tradition that he painted a portrait of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He is said to have died peacefully in his eighty-fourth year. His feast is celebrated on October 18th.