The Life
Luke was a Greek-born physician from Syrian Antioch — a careful, learned, well-read man trained in the medical arts of his time. He came to faith in Christ during the Lord’s earthly ministry and was numbered among the Seventy Apostles whom the Lord sent out two by two to preach. He walked with the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus and recognized him in the breaking of the bread. He became the constant companion of the Apostle Paul, traveling with him on his missionary journeys and staying with him to the very end. He wrote two of the supreme books of the New Testament: the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. By tradition he also painted the first icons of the Most Holy Theotokos, who blessed his work with the words: “the grace of him who was born of me be with these icons.” He died peacefully in Greece at age eighty-four. His feast is October 18.
On the very afternoon of the Resurrection, two disciples were walking from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, about seven miles away. They were grieving. They had hoped that the Lord would redeem Israel; he had been crucified instead, three days before. As they walked, the Lord himself drew near and walked with them. They did not recognize him. He asked them why they were sad. They told him everything. He opened the Scriptures to them, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, showing them how the Christ had to suffer all these things and enter into his glory. When they reached the village, they invited him to stay. At supper, he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him — and he vanished. The story is in Luke 24, told with such warmth and intimate detail that the Fathers have always thought Luke himself was one of the two on that road.
Luke became the closest of all of Paul’s companions. He met him at Troas, sailed with him across to Macedonia, helped found the church at Philippi, traveled extensively with him through Greece and Asia Minor. He came with him to Jerusalem for the last time. He was on the ship with him during the great storm and shipwreck off Malta. He came with him to Rome and stayed during his first Roman imprisonment. He stayed during the second imprisonment too, when everyone else had left. “Only Luke is with me” — those four words are one of the most touching lines in the New Testament. The doctor who could have stayed safely in any of the great cities of the empire chose to stay with the chained Apostle to the end.
Luke begins his Gospel with a beautiful preface that explains what he was trying to do. Many people had already begun to write down accounts of the things that had been fulfilled. Luke wanted to do something thorough. He says: “It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed” (Luke 1:3-4). He went and interviewed eyewitnesses. He gathered the oral tradition of the Church. He arranged everything carefully in order. The Gospel he produced is the most literary of the four — the most polished Greek, the most carefully composed, full of beautiful parables and stories that the other Gospels do not record.
There is a beautiful tradition that Luke was also a painter, and that he painted the first icon of the Most Holy Theotokos with the Christ-child in her arms. When the Theotokos saw the icon, she said: “The grace of him who was born of me and my mercy be with this icon.” From that single original Luke painted others. He also painted icons of the Apostles Peter and Paul. The tradition is preserved by many of the early Fathers and has shaped the entire Orthodox iconographic tradition for nearly two thousand years. The Hodegitria (“She who shows the way”) icon of Constantinople, the Vladimir icon, and many others have been traced traditionally to Luke as their original. Whether or not the surviving icons are physically the very wood Luke painted on, the tradition holds that the practice of writing icons of the Most Holy Theotokos goes back to Luke himself. He is the patron of every iconographer.
After the Apostle Paul was martyred in Rome around the year 67, Luke continued the apostolic work. He went to Achaia (southern Greece), to Libya, to Egypt, to the Thebaid in upper Egypt. He preached, he established churches, he ordained bishops and presbyters. He traveled for many more years before settling finally in Greece, where he had begun his apostolic life with Paul. He died peacefully there at age eighty-four. His relics were buried in Greece and were eventually transferred to Constantinople, then later to Padua in Italy.
These are the words of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, after they recognized the risen Lord in the breaking of the bread. Their hearts had been burning all the way as he opened the Scriptures to them. They had not understood why. Now they did. They had been walking with the Lord himself. The Fathers have always loved this verse because it captures something every Christian knows: when the Scriptures are read in the presence of the Spirit, the heart burns. The same fire that warmed the disciples on the road to Emmaus warms every Christian who hears the Gospel preached, every Christian who prays the Psalms in the morning and evening, every Christian whose heart is opened by the Holy Spirit to the meaning of the Word.
Luke lived to be eighty-four. He died peacefully in Greece, surrounded by the disciples he had taught. The tradition records that he was the only Evangelist apart from John who did not die by martyrdom — though the Coptic and some other traditions hold that he too was martyred at the very end. He had carried his medical bag, his manuscripts, and his brushes faithfully across the Mediterranean for over fifty years. His body was buried in Greece. His relics were eventually moved to Constantinople, then to Padua in Italy. A portion was returned to Greece in 1992 and now rests at Thebes. He is the patron saint of physicians, of iconographers, of careful scholars, of every Christian whose ordinary professional life becomes the vehicle of his Christian vocation.
Luke matters to every Orthodox Christian for many reasons. He gave us the third of the four Gospels — the most literary, with the most parables, the longest, the most carefully composed. He gave us the entire Christmas story from the angel’s appearance to Zacharias all the way to the angels and the shepherds. He gave us the Magnificat, the Benedictus, the Nunc Dimittis, three of the great hymns of the Christian tradition that are still sung at Vespers and Compline every day. He gave us the road to Emmaus and the supreme image of every Eucharistic encounter with the risen Lord. He gave us the Acts of the Apostles, the foundational history of the Church. By tradition he gave us the first icons of the Theotokos. He stayed with Paul to the end when everyone else had left. He is the patron of doctors, of iconographers, of scholars, of every faithful disciple who carries the work forward across long years.