SAINT LUKE
Evangelist
(Feast)
St. Luke, a physician and painter at Antioch, was converted by St. Paul. He is best known as the historian of the New Testament and St. Paul's travel companion. Though not an eye-witness of our Lord's life, the Evangelist diligently gathered information from the lips of the apostles, and wrote, as he tells us, all things in order.
The Acts of the Apostles were written by St. Luke as a sequel to his Gospel, bringing the history of the Church down to the first imprisonment of St. Paul at Rome. The humble historian never names himself, but the occasional use of "we" for "they" marks his presence in scenes he describes. We thus find that he sailed with St. Paul and Silas from Troas to Macedonia; stayed behind apparently for seven years at Philippi, and, lastly, shared the shipwreck and perils of the memorable voyage to Rome.
Here, his own narrative ends, but from St. Paul's Epistles we learn that St. Luke was a faithful companion to the end. He was martyred in Achaia, modern-day Greece.