He is the patron saint of artists and painters but above all of doctors and surgeons. Son of pagans, Saint Luke belongs to the second Christian generation. The universal Church celebrates it on October 18th.
Dante Alighieri he defined it as “scribe of the meekness of Christ” for the predominance, in his Gospel, of images of meekness, joy and love.
Companion and collaborator of Saint Paul, who calls him “the dear doctor”, he is above all the author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.
He prefaces his Gospel with two chapters in which he recounts the birth and childhood of Jesus. In them the figure of Mary stands out, the “handmaid of the Lord, blessed among all women”. The heart of the work, however, is made up of a series of chapters that report Jesus’ preaching on the ideal journey that takes him from Galilee to Jerusalem. The Acts of the Apostles also describe a journey: the glorious progression of the Gospel from Jerusalem to Asia Minor, to Greece up to Rome. The protagonists of this exhilarating undertaking are Peter and Paul.
At a higher level the true protagonist is the Holy Spirit, who descends on the Apostles at Pentecost and guides them in announcing the Gospel to the Jews and pagans. As an attentive observer, Luke knows the weaknesses of the Christian community just as he noted that the coming of the Lord is not imminent. It therefore opens up the historical horizon of the Christian community, destined to grow and multiply for the spread of the Gospel. According to tradition, Luke died as a martyr in Patras in Greece.
The doctor of Antioch
A long tradition has it that it originated from Antioch, so much so that it was named “the Antiochian doctor”.
As is known, this important city, which corresponds to present-day Antakia in south-eastern Türkiye, was founded as the capital of the kingdom of Syria in 301 BC; a large Jewish colony flourished there and it was then the seat of one of the oldest Christian communities. Luke, whose name is probably short for Lucan, was born there as a pagan, but became a proselyte or at least a sympathizer of the Jewish religion.
He was not a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth; he converted later, despite not even appearing as one of the original seventy-two disciples.
He became a member of the Antiochian Christian community, probably around the year 40. He was then a companion of Saint Paul on some of his travels. He is found with the apostle of the Gentiles in Philippi, Jerusalem and Rome. Substantially his disciple, he shared the Pauline universal vision of the new religion and, when he decided to write his own works, he did so above all for the communities evangelized by Paulthat is, generally for converts from paganism. However, he also met with Saint James the Less, head of the Church of Jerusalem, with Saint Peter, for a longer period with Saint Barnabas and perhaps with Saint Mark.
Guercino, San Luca shows a painting of the Madonna and Child
According to tradition also a painter
The qualification of doctor attributed to Luca is confirmed, according to scholars, by the internal examination of his works. His culture and specific preparation were certainly known among the communities he was part of; he may even have cured the Mother of the Lord. Certainly his general knowledge and experience of men were quite remarkable. Proof of this is the style and use of the Greek language as well as the very structure of his writings. The date of composition of the Acts is traced back to the years 63-64, that of the Gospel to a year or two earlier. Luca also cultivated art and literature. An ancient tradition even has him as the author of some “Madonnas” which are still venerated today, as in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
The mortal remains preserved in Padua
In truth, nothing certain is known about Luke’s life after the death of Saint Paul. Indeed, it is not certain whether he ended his earthly existence with a natural death or as a martyr hanging from an olive tree. Obviously the place of the first burial is unknown.
There are three cities in particular that refer to a tradition of translation of the body of the evangelist: Constantinople, Padua and Venice. They are therefore cities around which and from which his cult spread.
Very recent studies have shown that his mortal remains are his, with the exception of the head, preserved in Padua in the Benedictine basilica of Santa Giustina. They would have arrived in the Venetian city to save them from the destruction of the iconoclasts and already in the 14th century a chapel and an Ark, known as the Ark of San Luca, were built for them.
The symbol of Saint Luke the Evangelist is the calf, a sacrificial animal.