Saint Luke

Luke is traditionally considered the author of the third Gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles: that is, of a quarter of the whole New Testament. Together, those two books tell the story that runs from Nazareth all the way to Rome. What we know about him is little and late. The first attributions of those texts to “Luke, from Antioch and companion of Paul” are found in writings from the second half of the second century. Paul, in the Letter to the Colossians, calls him “the beloved physician” — and that’s where his patronage of doctors comes from. He was almost certainly a Greek convert, not a Jew: he is the only non-Jewish author in the entire New Testament, and it shows. He writes the best Greek of the four evangelists, takes care to date events by consuls and governors, and in the prologue he says exactly what he did: he gathered the testimony of those who were there and put it in order. His is the Gospel of women, of the poor and of the forgiven: only he tells of the prodigal son, the good Samaritan, the thief on the cross, and the two of Emmaus. His symbol is the ox, because his account begins with Zechariah offering sacrifice in the Temple. A late tradition also makes him a painter and credits him with the first portrait of the Madonna; that’s why he is the patron of painters. If your name is Luke, today is your name day.