Saint Luke the Evangelist

The 18th of October is the feast day of Saint Luke the Evangelist ((Latin: Lūcās, Ancient Greek: Λουκᾶς, Loukãs, Hebrew: לוקאס‎, Lūqās, Aramaic: לוקא‎, Lūqā’, died March 84 AD). He is the patron saint of artists, bachelors, bookbinders, brewers, butchers, doctors, glass makers, glassworkers, glaziers, gold workers, goldsmiths, lacemakers, lace workers, notaries, painters, physicians, sculptors, stained glass workers, surgeons and unmarried men.

The following is from Butler’s Lives of the Saints:

ST. LUKE, a physician at Antioch, and a painter, became a convert of St. Paul, and afterwards his fellow-laborer. He is best known to us as the historian of the New Testament. Though not an eye-witness of Our Lord’s life, the Evangelist diligently gathered information from the lips of the apostles, and wrote, as he tells us, all things in order. The acts of the Apostles were written by this Evangelist as a sequel to his Gospel, bringing the history .of the Church down to the first imprisonment of St. Paul at Rome. The humble historian never names himself, but by his occasional use of “we” for “they” we are able to detect his presence in the scenes which he describes. We thus find that he sailed with St. Paul and Silas from Troas to Macedonia; stayed behind apparently for seven years at Philippi, and, lastly, shared the shipwreck and perils of the memorable voyage to Rome. Here his own narrative ends, but from St. Paul’s Epistles we learn that St. Luke was his faithful companion to the end. He died a martyr’s death some time afterwards in Achaia.

Reflection.—Christ has given all He had for thee; do thou give all thou hast for Him.

Image: Miniature of Saint Luke from the Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany (1503–1508) by Jean Bourdichon.