Who was St Luke?

Almost all that we know about Luke comes from the New Testament. He was a physician (Colossians 4:14), a companion of Paul on some of his missionary journeys (Acts 16:10ff; 20:5ff; 27-28). Material found in his Gospel and not elsewhere includes much of the account of Our Lord's birth, infancy and boyhood, some of the most moving parables, such as that of the Good Samaritan and that of the Prodigal Son, and three of the sayings of Christ on the Cross: "Father, forgive them," "You will be with me in Paradise," and "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."

In Luke's account of the Gospel, we find an emphasis on the human love of Christ, on his compassion for sinners and for suffering and unhappy persons, for outcasts such as the Samaritans, tax collectors, lepers, shepherds (not a respected profession), and for the poor. The role of women in Christ's ministry is more emphasized in Luke than in the other Gospel writings.

In the book of Acts, we find the early Christian community poised from the start to carry out its commission, confident and aware of divine guidance. We see how the early Christians at first preached only to Jews, then to Samaritans (a borderline case), then to outright Gentiles like Cornelius, and finally explicitly recognized that Gentiles and Jews are called on equal terms to the service and fellowship of Christ.

Much of the above is extracted from James Kiefer's Christian Biographies to which you are referred for further information. Some other web pages about Saint Luke are:

Satucket Software
The Catholic Community Forum
Catholic Online Saints
Christus Rex (miniature of St Luke from Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry)
Getty Museum (twelfth century miniature)
British Library (page from the Lindisfarne Gospels) larger image

Traditionally, the four evangelists are symbolized by a man for Matthew, a lion for Mark, an ox for Luke, and an eagle for John, on the basis of Revelation 4:6-10. Thus Luke's coat of arms is shown here as a gold winged ox (representing the sacrificial aspects of Christ's life so stressed in Luke's Gospel) on a red field (indicating that Luke was a martyr). Our thanks go to the folks at the SAINTS homepage for supplying the coat of arms.

St Luke the Evangelist

An engraving from a prayer book published in 1773

St Luke's day is celebrated on 18 October. In the Church of England, the following collect (special prayer) and readings are used on that day.

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.

Readings

Isaiah 35:3-6 or Acts 16:6-12a
Psalm 147:1-7
2 Timothy 4:5-17
Luke 10:1-9

this page was last modified on 3 March 2007