Saint Luke the Evangelist

Luke was a Gentile Christian, probably from Antioch in Syria, whom Saint Paul calls "the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14). He became Paul's faithful companion on his missionary journeys, and in his last imprisonment Paul wrote, "Only Luke is with me" (2 Timothy 4:11).

Luke wrote the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, carefully researched from eyewitnesses. His Gospel is the Gospel of mercy, of the poor and of women, giving us the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, and the stories of Jesus's infancy: the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Magnificat and the Nativity in Bethlehem. In Acts he tells the story of the early Church from the Ascension to Paul's arrival in Rome. An ancient tradition says he died at an old age in Boeotia, in Greece. His symbol is the ox.

Because tradition says Luke painted the Virgin Mary, many famous icons are attributed to him, and artists and physicians take him as patron. In the United States, many dioceses celebrate a White Mass near his feast for doctors, nurses and health care workers.

In Lima, Peru, October is the purple month of the Señor de los Milagros, and his great procession often goes out on October 18.