18 OCTOBER: SAINT LUKE THE EVANGELIST
A physician who wrote the Gospel for pagans
Born in Antioch to a pagan family, Luke was a physician who was concerned about his patients and who was well aware of their weaknesses and misery. After hearing Saint Paul speak about Jesus, Luke embraced the faith and never left the Apostle again, following him to his martyrdom in Rome in 67 A.D.
He is the author of the third Gospel, which is the longest and bears his name, and of the Book of The Acts of the Apostles, which recounts the early events in the Christian communities.
The Gospel according to Luke gathers testimonies on the events of Jesus’ life, the miracles he performed, the birth of John the Baptist and the lives of Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. For him, Jesus was the messenger of God’s mercy. In fact, his Gospel expresses God’s tenderness and goodness more than those of Matthew and Mark. He chronicled episodes and gestures of Jesus that were not mentioned by the other evangelists, such as the parable of the Good Samaritan, the parable of the prodigal son, the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus, Jesus’ prayer to the Father for his executioners and his promise of Heaven to the good thief.
Luke, who became a witness of God’s tenderness, used several medical terms to describe the illnesses and ailments of those who turned to Jesus. Concerned about the authenticity of what he wrote, he affirmed that he had verified his sources, revealing his professionalism as a physician.
From what we know, Luke was well educated and skilled in writing in Greek, which he knew well. After all, the recipients of his Gospel were Gentiles. He wanted to make them understand that the message of salvation was for everyone, not only for the Hebrews. There is no doubt that he was a skilled narrator.
Luke stayed close to Paul and became his most loyal disciple. In his Letters, the Apostle described Luke as a “fellow worker” and “our dear doctor”. He wrote that he was the only one who had stayed close to him and loyal until the end. According to tradition, this is the last information available regarding the Evangelist.
Dante described the Evangelist Luke in his Latin work, Monarchia, as scriba mansuetudinis Christi, a writer of Christ’s meekness, mercy and love.
There is no doubt that Luke’s Gospel outlines the image of Jesus, who had come to the world to seek and save what had been lost. He highlighted Jesus’ firm preferential option for the least ones, the poor, the excluded and the marginalized.
Because according to tradition, Luke was he first one to depict the face of our Lady, he is the patron saint of painters and artists. He is also the patron saint of sculptors, notaries and, because of his profession, physicians and surgeons.
Tradition holds that Luke died at the age of 84 and was buried in Thebes. His remains were moved to Constantinople after the second half of the fourth century, and either in the same century or in the eighth century, they were translated to the Basilica of Santa Giustina in Padua.