Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke of the Seventy — October 18 / October 31 (Julian Calendar)

Saint Luke, Holy Apostle and Evangelist, was born in Antioch in Syria. He belonged to the circle of educated Greeks and was a physician by profession. When he heard about Christ, Luke travelled to Palestine, where he received the saving teaching from the Lord Himself. Even during the Savior’s earthly life, Saint Luke, as one of the Seventy Apostles, was sent by the Lord to give the first preaching of the Kingdom of Heaven (Lk. 10:1–3). After the Resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Luke and Cleopas on the road to Emmaus.

Luke accompanied the holy Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey, and from then on the two were never parted. He remained at the side of the Lord’s chosen Paul even when all his other helpers had abandoned him (2 Tim. 4:10). After the martyric end of the chief apostles, Saint Luke left Rome and preached throughout Achaia, Libya, Egypt and the Thebaid; he ended his earthly life in the struggle of martyrdom in the city of Thebes.

According to tradition, Saint Luke was also the first painter of icons of the Mother of God. Beholding her holy image, the All-Holy Virgin is said to have declared: “May the grace of the One born of me, together with my intercession, be with this icon!” Tradition also connects the Atskuri icon of the Mother of God with the name of Luke the Evangelist. The icons of the chief apostles, Peter and Paul, are likewise ascribed to the holy apostle.

The Gospel of Luke was written in Rome in the years 62–63 under the guidance of the Apostle Paul. As he himself tells us in the opening verses, his aim was to describe more fully, and in chronological order, everything that was known about Jesus Christ and His teaching, and so to give Christian hope a firm historical foundation (Lk. 1:1–4).

The Acts of the Apostles also belongs to Luke the Evangelist. It is the continuation of the four Gospels and tells of the labors and struggles of the holy apostles after the Ascension of the Savior. Particular attention is given to the Council of the Apostles (AD 51), a great event in the life of the Church, which laid the dogmatic foundation for the separation of Christianity from Judaism and secured its independent spread throughout the world (Acts 15:6–29).