Feastday of St.

Luke, the Evangelist, Patron of Physicians and Surgeons - October 18 Luke, the writer of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, has been identified with St. Paul's "Luke, the beloved physician" ( olossians !"#!$. %e know few other facts about Luke's life fro& Scripture and fro& early hurch historians. 't is believed that Luke was born a Greek and a Gentile. 'n olossians #()#! speaks of those friends who are with hi&. *e first &entions all those "of the circu&cision" ) in other words, +ews ) and he does not include Luke in this ,roup.

Luke's ,ospel shows special sensitivity to evan,eli-in, Gentiles. 't is only in his ,ospel that we hear the parable of the Good Sa&aritan, that we hear +esus praisin, the faith of Gentiles such as the widow of .arephath and /aa&an the Syrian (Lk.!"01)02$, and that we hear the story of the one ,rateful leper who is a Sa&aritan (Lk.#2"##)#3$. Accordin, to the early hurch historian 4usebius Luke was born at Antioch in Syria. 'n our day, it would be easy to assu&e that so&eone who was a doctor was rich, but scholars have ar,ued that Luke &i,ht have been born a slave. 't was not unco&&on for fa&ilies to educate slaves in &edicine so that they would have a resident fa&ily physician. /ot only do we have Paul's word, but 4usebius, Saint +ero&e, Saint 'renaeus and aius, a second) century writer, all refer to Luke as a physician.

%e have to ,o to Acts to follow the trail of Luke's hristian &inistry. %e know nothin, about his conversion but lookin, at the lan,ua,e of Acts we can see where he 5oined Saint Paul. 6he story of the Acts is written in the third person, as an historian recordin, facts, up until the si7teenth chapter. 'n Acts #8"9)3 we hear of Paul's co&pany "So, passin, by :ysia, they went down to 6roas. ;urin, the ni,ht Paul had a vision" there stood a &an of :acedonia pleadin, with hi& and sayin,, ' o&e over to :acedonia and help us.' "

6hen suddenly in #8"#( "they" beco&es "we"" "%hen he had seen the vision, we i&&ediately tried to cross over to :acedonia, bein, convinced that God had called us to proclai& the ,ood news to the&." So Luke first 5oined Paul's co&pany at 6roas at about the year 1# and acco&panied hi& into :acedonia where they traveled first to Sa&othrace, /eapolis, and finally Philippi. Luke then switches back to the third person which see&s to indicate he was not thrown into prison with Paul and that when Paul left Philippi Luke stayed behind to encoura,e the hurch there. Seven years passed before Paul returned to the area on his third &issionary 5ourney.

'n Acts 0("1, the switch to "we" tells us that Luke has left Philippi to re5oin Paul in 6roas in 19 where they first &et up. 6hey traveled to,ether throu,h :iletus,

6yre, aesarea, to +erusale&. Luke is the loyal co&rade who stays with Paul when he is i&prisoned in <o&e about the year 8#" "4paphras, &y fellow prisoner in hrist +esus, sends ,reetin,s to you, and so do :ark, Aristarchus, ;e&as, and Luke, &y fellow workers" (Phile&on 0!$. And after everyone else deserts Paul in his final i&prison&ent and sufferin,s, it is Luke who re&ains with Paul to the end" "=nly Luke is with &e" (0 6i&othy !"##$.

Luke's inspiration and infor&ation for his Gospel and Acts ca&e fro& his close association with Paul and his co&panions as he e7plains in his introduction to the Gospel" "Since &any have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled a&on, us, 5ust as they were handed on to us by those who fro& the be,innin, were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, ' too decided, after investi,atin, everythin, carefully fro& the very first, to write an orderly account for you, &ost e7cellent 6heophilus" (Luke #"#)>$.

Luke's uni?ue perspective on +esus can be seen in the si7 &iracles and ei,hteen parables not found in the other ,ospels. Luke's is the ,ospel of the poor and of social 5ustice. *e is the one who tells the story of La-arus and the <ich :an who i,nored hi&. Luke is the one who uses "@lessed are the poor" instead of "@lessed are the poor in spirit" in the beatitudes. =nly in Luke's ,ospel do we hear :ary 's :a,nificat where she proclai&s that God "has brou,ht down the powerful fro& their thrones, and lifted up the lowlyA he has filled the hun,ry with ,ood thin,s, and sent the rich away e&pty" (Luke #"10)1>$. Luke also has a special connection with the wo&en in +esus' life, especially :ary. 't is only in Luke's ,ospel that we hear the story of the Annunciation, :ary's visit to 4li-abeth includin, the :a,nificat, the Presentation, and the story of +esus' disappearance in +erusale&. 't is Luke that we have to thank for the Scriptural parts of the *ail :ary" "*ail :ary full of ,race" spoken at the Annunciation and "@lessed are you and blessed is the fruit of your wo&b +esus" spoken by her cousin 4li-abeth.

Bor,iveness and God's &ercy to sinners is also of first i&portance to Luke. =nly in Luke do we hear the story of the Prodi,al Son welco&ed back by the over5oyed father. =nly in Luke do we hear the story of the for,iven wo&an disruptin, the feast by washin, +esus' feet with her tears. 6hrou,hout Luke's ,ospel, +esus takes the side of the sinner who wants to return to God's &ercy. <eadin, Luke's ,ospel ,ives a ,ood idea of his character as one who loved the poor, who wanted the door to God's kin,do& opened to all, who respected wo&en, and who saw hope in God's &ercy for everyone.

6he reports of Luke's life after Paul's death are conflictin,. So&e early writers clai& he was &artyred, others say he lived a lon, life. So&e say he preached in Greece, others in Gaul. 6he earliest tradition we have says that he died at 9!

@oeotia after settlin, in Greece to write his Gospel. A tradition that Luke was a painter see&s to have no basis in fact. Several i&a,es of :ary appeared in later centuries clai&in, hi& as a painter but these clai&s were proved false. @ecause of this tradition, however, he is considered a patron of painters of pictures and is often portrayed as paintin, pictures of :ary. *e is often shown with an o7 or a calf because these are the sy&bols of sacrifice ) the sacrifice +esus &ade for all the world.