Saint Luke, Evangelist

Luke is named by Paul in his letters as “the beloved physician” and as his fellow worker, and he stayed with Paul during his imprisonment. From the 2nd century the Church has held him to be the author of the third Gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles, two books addressed to one Theophilus; in the passages of Acts written as “we”, the author travels with Paul. Only his Gospel tells of the annunciation to Mary, the shepherds at Bethlehem and the parables of the good Samaritan and the prodigal son. An ancient prologue says he was a Syrian of Antioch who never married and died aged 84 in Boeotia in Greece. A later tradition makes him a painter of the first icons of the Mother of God.