St. Luke the Apostle

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He is the 3rd Evangelist, the writer of the Holy Book of Acts and the partner of St. Paul in his ministry trips. Ibevanios mentioned that St. Luke was one of the seventy disciples and one of Emmaus’ disciples. Other scholars mentioned that he was a Gentile from Antioch and converted to Christianity very early around 36 AD by one of the disciples. He met St. Paul in his 2nd ministry trip on his way to Macedonia and accompanied St. Paul to Philippi (Acts 16:9, 16:6-8, 16:10). After the founding of the Philippian Church, St. Luke remained there to take care of it until he met again St. Paul on his last trip to Jerusalem. He accompanied St. Paul in his imprisonment in Caesara and Rome till the martyrdom of St. Paul.

In reality, St. Luke was a very humble person, although he wrote his Holy Gospel and the Holy Book of Acts he did not mention much about himself. He remained honest and faithful to St. Paul as he mentioned to St. Timothy “Luke alone is with me” (2 Timothy 4:11). He was martyred in his 84th year in Elaea in Greece and his relics with those of St. Andrew the Apostle were transferred to the Apostles’ Church in Constantinople as mentioned by St. Jerome.

St. Luke wrote his Holy Gospel based on what he heard from witnesses as St. Mary the Virgin to a well-to-do-man from Alexandria, called Theophilus about 70 AD. He wrote the Holy Book of Acts recording the history of the Church beginning from the Ascension of the Lord to the 2nd year of Paul’s imprisonment in Rome and so he is the true father of the history of the Christian Church. He was a physician (Colossians 4:14) and so he presented the Lord Jesus Christ in his Holy Gospel as the true physician for the human race and the true Savior of the world. Also, he was painter and to him it belongs the honor of painting the first portrait of St. Mary the Virgin.