Apostle · 1st century
Luke
Apostle and Evangelist Luke
New Calendar October 18 Old Calendar October 31
Why they are a saint
Luke was known as companion of Paul, author of the Gospel of Luke and Acts. Tradition calls him a physician and the first iconographer of the Theotokos. The years given for this life are 1st century. Orthodox Christians honor that first generation of witnesses.
Life
Saint Luke was a native of Syrian Antioch and a physician. Hearing of Christ, he came to Palestine and accepted His preaching; as one of the Seventy he was sent out to preach the Kingdom of Heaven. After the Resurrection the Lord appeared to him and Cleopas on the road to Emmaus.
He accompanied the Apostle Paul from his second missionary journey onward and remained with him when others had left. He wrote his Gospel at Rome around 62-63, carefully investigating the facts and drawing on the Church's oral tradition and on what the Virgin Mary herself had told him, and he also wrote the Acts of the Apostles. Tradition credits him with painting the first icons of the Mother of God.
After the martyrdom of Peter and Paul he preached in Achaia, Libya, Egypt and the Thebaid, and ended his life as a martyr in the city of Thebes. His relics were later taken from Constantinople to Padua in Italy; at the request of the Orthodox Metropolitan of Thebes, a rib from them was sent to be venerated in his original tomb in the Orthodox cathedral at Thebes.
Sources: OCA Lives of the Saints. Retold in our own words.
Traditional patronage
The cited source names no specific patronage.
Patronage / why chosen as patron
Patron of physicians, hospitals, the sick, because he healed the sick, as told in his life.
Prayer
O holy Luke, pray to God for us.
A short general prayer to a saint, not a liturgical text. No public-domain troparion for this saint is included.