October 18: Feast of St. Luke

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Luke, the physician and companion of St. Paul whose Gospel preserved the most extensive biography of Jesus Christ. St. Luke wrote a tremendous amount of the New Testament, including the earliest history of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles.

Scholars hold that St. Luke came from the large metropolitan city of Antioch, a part of modern-day Turkey. Historians do not know whether Luke came to Christianity from Judaism or paganism, although there are strong suggestions that Luke was a gentile convert. Experts in archeology and ancient literature have ranked St. Luke among the top historians of his time, besides noting the outstanding Greek prose style and technical accuracy of his accounts of Christ’s life and the Apostles’ missionary journeys. Other historians adduce from St. Luke’s writings that he was the only one of the four Gospel writers to incorporate the personal testimony of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose role in Christ’s life emerges most clearly in his Gospel. Tradition credits him with painting several icons of Christ’s mother, and one of the sacred portraits ascribed to him – known by the title “Salvation of the Roman People” – survives to this day in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.

St. Luke was also among the only companions of Paul who did not abandon him during his final imprisonment and death in Rome. After the martyrdom of St. Paul, in the year 67, St. Luke is said to have preached elsewhere throughout the Mediterranean, and likely died as a martyr.

Let us pray. “Lord God, who chose Saint Luke to reveal by his preaching and writings the mystery of your love for the poor, grant that those who already glory in your name may persevere as one heart and one soul and that all nations may come to see your salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you, for ever and ever. Amen.”

For more on St. Luke: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2018-10-18

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