The Life of
the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke
Whose Memory
the Holy Church Celebrates on the 18th of October
The Patron Saint of our Parish Church
We are so very blessed to have St. Luke as our patron
saint. But, how well do we really know him? Do we ask his
intercessions on our behalf before God’s throne of
glory? It is my hope and prayer that through the following
"Life of St. Luke" we will come to know and love our
heavenly patron even more, without hesitation always asking
for his prayers and intercession on our behalf.
Background of St. Luke
The holy Evangelist Luke was born in the Syrian city of
Antioch. His parents were not members of the Hebrew race;
and the very name "Luke" bears witness to this in part, for
it is an abbreviated form of the Latin name "Lucanus."
Furthermore, in one passage in his Epistle to the
Colossians, the holy Apostle Paul makes a clear distinction
between Luke and those "who are of the circumcision," that
is, the Jews (Col 4:10-15). In his own writings, however,
Luke shows a thorough knowledge of the Law of Moses and the
customs of the Jewish people. Hence, we may conclude that
Luke had already adopted the Jewish religion before his
conversion to Christ. Moreover, in his native land, which
was renowned for the flourishing state of the arts and
sciences, Luke had developed his intellect with various
scholarly studies. From the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to
the Colossians, we learn also that Luke had studied
medicine (Col 4:14). Tradition also informs us that he was
a painter. He undoubtedly received an excellent education
in general, for the quality of the Greek language in his
writings is far more pure and correct than that of the
other New Testament writers.
Coming to Christ
When rumor of the miracles and teachings of our Lord Jesus
Christ spread from Galilee throughout Syria and the entire
surrounding region, Luke journeyed from Antioch to Galilee,
where the Lord Jesus Christ had begun to sow the seeds of
His saving teaching. These seeds found good soil for
themselves in the heart of Luke, and bore much fruit. The
holy Luke was soon found worthy of a place in the company
of the Seventy Apostles and, after receiving traveling
instructions from the Lord and the power to work miracles,
he went "before the face" of the Lord Jesus Christ,
preaching the imminence of the kingdom of God and preparing
His way.
At the Crucifixion
During the final days of the Savior’s earthly life,
when, with the striking down of the Shepherd, the sheep of
His flock also were scattered, the holy Luke abode in
Jerusalem, lamenting and weeping for his Lord Who had
voluntarily accepted suffering. In all probability, Luke
also stood "afar off" among the others who knew Jesus, and
looked upon the Crucified One. But soon after, his sorrow
was turned into joy, for the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ
consoled Luke on the very day of His resurrection, counting
him worthy to see and converse with Him, as Luke himself
informs us in his Gospel in great personal detail (Luke
24:13-32).
On the Road to Emmaus
Grieving over the death of His Master and in doubt
concerning His resurrection, of which the myrrh-bearing
women had informed him, Luke set out from Jerusalem for
Emmaus in the company of Cleopas, another disciple of the
Lord. Along the road to that town, he was accounted worthy
to become the traveling companion of Him Who is "the way,
the truth and the life." Both disciples were walking and
conversing with one another when Jesus Himself overtook
them and walked with them. The Lord appeared to them, as
the Evangelist Mark relates, "in another form" (Mark
16:12), and not in the form in which they had known Him
before. Moreover, by the special providence of God, "their
eyes were holden" (Luke 24:16), that they might not
recognize the Lord Who had appeared to them. They supposed
that their Companion was one of the pilgrims who had come
to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover.
"What manner of conversation is this that ye have with one
another, as ye walk, and are sad?" the Lord asked them.
"Art Thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known
the things which are come to pass there in these days?"
Cleopas asked in return. "What things?" Jesus asked again.
"Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, Who was a prophet, mighty in
deed and word before God and all the people; and how the
chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned
to death, and have crucified Him. But we hoped that it had
been He Who should have redeemed Israel; and besides all
this, today is the third day since these things were done.
Yea, and certain women also of our company made us
astonished, who were early at the sepulcher; and when they
found not His body, they came, saying that they had also
seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive. And
certain of those who were with us went to the sepulcher,
and found it even as the women had said; but Him they saw
not."
Then said the Lord to them: "O foolish ones, and slow of
heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
His glory?" And, beginning with Moses, the Lord Christ
explained to them passages from all the prophets that told
of Him in the Scriptures. Thus, conversing with the Lord,
the disciples drew nigh to Emmaus without being aware of
it. And since His conversation was pleasing to them, and
their Companion made as if to journey further, they
besought Him to remain with them, saying: "Abide with us;
for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent."
Therefore He entered the town and sojourned with them in a
certain house. When He reclined with them to dine, He took
a loaf of bread from the table and, blessing it, broke it
and gave it to them. No sooner did the Lord do this than
His disciples immediately recognized Him. In all
probability, the Lord had performed this action in the
presence of His disciples previously; moreover, they may
have recognized Him from the wounds made by the nails that
had pierced His hands. But at that moment, the Lord
vanished from before their eyes, and they said to one
another: "Did not our hearts burn within us, while He
talked with us along the way, and while He opened to us the
Scriptures?"
Back in Jerusalem the Risen Lord Appears once
More
Desiring to share their joy with the other disciples of the
Lord, Luke and Cleopas rose immediately from their meal and
set out for Jerusalem. There they found the apostles and
the other disciples assembled in one house, and, of course,
they announced to them straightway that Christ had risen
from the dead, and that they had seen Him and conversed
with Him. For their part, the apostles reassured them,
relating that the Lord had truly risen and had appeared to
Simon. Then Luke and Cleopas recounted to the apostles in
detail all that had transpired with them on the way, and
how they had recognized Christ the Lord in the breaking of
the bread. (*Partaking of Holy Communion, we also recognize
Christ in "the breaking of the bread".)
In the midst of their conversation, the risen Lord Himself
suddenly appeared among the apostles, bestowed His peace
upon them and calmed their troubled hearts. To convince
those who thought that what they were seeing was not merely
the ghost of their dead Teacher, the Lord showed them the
wounds which the nails had inflicted upon His hands and
feet, and partook of some food. Then the Evangelist Luke
was again accounted worthy to hear from the Lord an
explanation of all said of Him in the sacred Scriptures of
the Old Testament, and received the gift of understanding
the Scriptures (Luke 24:18-49).
St. Luke at Sebaste, Antioch, Greece, and
Phillipi
After the ascension of the Lord, the holy Luke remained in
Jerusalem for a time, with the other apostles; but later,
as tradition bears witness, he went to Antioch, his native
city, where there were already many Christians. Along the
road to Antioch, he passed through the city of Sebaste, the
principal city of Samaria. There he proclaimed the glad
tidings of the coming of the Messiah. There also, he found
the incorrupt relics of St. John the Forerunner. When it
came time for him to leave Sebaste, the holy Luke wished to
take them with him to his native land, but the Christians
there, fervently honoring the Baptizer of the Lord, would
not permit Luke to remove all his holy relics. Then, St.
Luke detached from them the right arm, under which Christ
had bowed His head when He had received baptism from John.
With this priceless treasure, the holy Luke arrived in his
homeland, to the great joy of the Christians of Antioch.
And he left that city only when he became the traveling
companion and fellow laborer of the holy Apostle Paul, who,
in the words of several ancient writers, was even one of
his kinsmen. This took place during the Apostle
Paul’s second missionary journey. At that time, St.
Luke and the Apostle Paul traveled to Greece to preach the
Gospel, and the holy evangelist was left behind by the
Apostle to the Gentiles to establish and organize the
Church in the Macedonian city of Philippi. Then, for a
period of several years, the holy Luke labored to spread
Christianity throughout those parts.
With the Apostle Paul
When, at the end of his third missionary journey, the
Apostle Paul again visited Philippi, Luke, on his
instruction and as the choice of all the faithful, went to
Corinth to collect alms for the poor Christians of
Palestine (cf. 2 Cor 8:18-19). When he had finished what he
had been sent to do, St. Luke departed with the Apostle
Paul for Palestine, stopping along the way to visit the
Churches on the islands of the Aegean archipelago, along
the coast of Asia Minor, in Phoenicia and in Judaea. When
the Apostle Paul was kept under guard in prison in the city
of Caesaria of Palestine, the holy Luke remained by his
side. And he would not forsake him even when he was sent to
Rome to stand trial before Caesar. Together with the
Apostle Paul he endured all the difficulties of their
voyage across the sea, and nearly lost his life (cf. Acts,
chapters 27-28).
The Gospel of St. Luke and the Book of the Acts of
the Apostles
On arriving in Rome, the holy Luke again stayed by the
Apostle Paul’s side and, together with Mark,
Aristarchus and several other of the apostles’
companions, preached Christ in the capital city of the
ancient world (this is evident from information given in
St. Paul’s Epistle to Philemon). In Rome, the holy
Luke wrote his Gospel and the Book of the Acts of the
Apostles. In his Gospel, he described the earthly life of
our Lord Jesus Christ, not only on the basis of what he
himself had seen and heard, but also taking into account
all that had been handed down by those "who from the
beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the Word"
(Luke 1:2). The holy Apostle Paul guided him in this labor
and afterwards approved the Gospel written by St. Luke. In
the same way was the Book of the Acts of the Apostles
written, as the tradition of the Church says, at the
command of the Apostle Paul.
With St. Paul in Rome unto his Martyrdom
After two years in chains in the dungeons of Rome, the
Apostle Paul was released and, departing from Rome, visited
several of the Churches he had founded before. At this
time, the holy Luke was again his companion. But before
long, the Emperor Nero initiated a cruel persecution
against the Christians in Rome. The Apostle Paul then
returned to Rome, that by his discourse and example he
might encourage the persecuted Church, make it steadfast,
and, if it so pleased God, share with the faithful the
crown of martyrdom. He was arrested by the pagans and
imprisoned again. Yet even then the holy Luke did not
forsake his teacher, and he alone, among all the
apostles’ fellow laborers, stayed at his side during
that period of time which was so terrible that the apostle
compared himself to a victim doomed to be slaughtered. "I
am now ready to be offered," he wrote to his disciple
Timothy, "and the time of my departure is at hand. Do thy
diligence to come shortly unto me; for Demas hath forsaken
me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto
Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
Only Luke is with me" (2 Tim 4:6, 10-11).
St. Luke in Italy, Dalmatia, Gaul, Macedonia, and
Achaia
It is quite possible that Luke was also a witness to the
martyrdom of the Apostle Paul in Rome. After the repose of
his teacher, the holy Luke, as the tradition of the Church
informs us, spread the Gospel of Christ in Italy, Dalmatia,
Gaul, and especially, Macedonia, in which he had labored
before for several years. He also evangelized Achaia, which
borders on Macedonia.
St. Luke in Egypt
When he was already quite elderly, the Apostle Luke
undertook a journey to far away Egypt and there labored
greatly and endured many afflictions for the holy name of
Jesus. He arrived in Egypt, having first passed through all
of Libya, and in the Thebaid of Egypt converted many to
Christ. In the city of Alexandria, he ordained as bishop a
certain Abilius to be a successor to Annas, who had been
ordained by the Evangelist Mark, and had carried out his
ministry for twenty-two years.
The Martyrdom of St. Luke
Returning to Greece he again set up churches there,
primarily in Boetia, ordained priests and deacons, and
healed those sick of body and soul. Like his friend and
mentor, the Apostle Paul, St. Luke fought the good fight,
finished his course and kept the Faith. At the age of
eighty-four, he died a martyr’s death in Achaia,
crucified on an olive tree in lieu of a cross. His precious
body was buried in Thebes, the principal city of Boetia,
where his holy relics, which were responsible for a
multitude of hearings, were to be found until the second
half of the fourth century; they were subsequently
transferred to Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern
Empire.
The Holy Relics of St. Luke
The location of the relics of the holy Apostle Luke became
known in the fourth century because of the healings worked
there. Many cures were worked through them especially for
those who suffered from diseases of the eyes. The Emperor
Constantius, the son of the holy Emperor Constantine the
Great, the equal of the apostles, on learning from the
Bishop of Achaia that the body of St. Luke lay in Thebes,
dispatched Artemius, then Prefect of Egypt, to translate
the relics of the holy Luke to the capital, which Artemius
accomplished with great solemnity.
A Miracle at the Transfer of St. Luke’s Holy
Relics
During the transfer of the holy relics of St. Luke from the
seaside to the church, the following miracle took place. A
certain Anatolius, a eunuch who was one of the imperial
chamberlains, was afflicted with an incurable illness. He
had expended a great deal of money on physicians, yet had
not obtained a cure; but then, approaching the precious
relics of the Apostle Luke with faith in their miraculous
power, he entreated the holy one for healing. He drew near
the honored reliquary of the saint and, to the extent of
his ability, helped to carry it. And what happened? The
disease left him before he could walk many steps. After
this, he joyfully carried the precious reliquary to the
Church of the Holy Apostles, where the relics of St. Luke
were enshrined beneath the altar together with the relics
of the holy Apostles Andrew and Timothy. There they became
a well-spring of miracles and were venerated with
particular love by the Orthodox Christians.
St. Luke, the First Iconographer of the
Church
The writers of the ancient Church inform us that St. Luke,
acceding to the pious desire of the early Christians, was
the first to paint the image of the all-holy Theotokos,
holding in her arms the pre-eternal Infant, our Lord Jesus
Christ; and later painted two other icons of the all-holy
Theotokos and brought them to the Mother of God for her
approval. On seeing the icons, she said: "May the grace of
Him Who was born of me and my mercy be with these icons!"
The holy Luke also painted on boards the images of the holy
pre-eminent Apostles Peter and Paul, and was thus himself
the initiator of the good work of iconography, to the glory
of God, the Mother of God and all the saints, unto the
adornment of the holy churches and the salvation of the
faithful who piously venerate them. Amen.
The Apolytikion (Troparion) for St. Luke, in Tone
3
O holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke,
Intercede with the merciful God,
That He grant our souls forgiveness of sins.
The Kontakion for St. Luke, in Tone 2
Let us praise the divine Luke,
The herald of true piety, the orator of ineffable
mysteries, the star of the Church;
For the Word, Who alone knoweth the secrets of man’s
heart,
Hath chosen him with the wise Paul to be a teacher of the
nations.
Megalynarion for St. Luke
O Luke, discourser of God, blessed is thy right hand,
For by it two sacred writings of the word of God were
recorded for us, the faithful,
Together with the noble icon of the Theotokos.
