unless otherwise stated.
Saint Luke.
Evangelist.
Feast Day 18 October.
Double of The Second-Class.
Red Vestments.
Saint Luke.
Evangelist.
Illustration: UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY
Artist: René de Cramer.
"Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium".
Used with Permission.
Saint Luke.
Available on YouTube at
English: Saint Luke.
Français: Saint Luc.
Artist: James Tissot (1836–1902).
Date: 1886-1894.
Current location: Brooklyn Museum, New York.
Credit line: Purchased by public subscription.
Source/Photographer: Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum.
Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2007, 00.159.207_PS2.jpg
(Wikimedia Commons)
Saint Luke, originally a pagan, was born, according to Eusebius, at Antioch, the Capital of the Kings of Syria. Saint Paul tells us that he exercised the profession of a physician. He accompanied Saint Paul (The Apostle of the Nations) on his travels, and was with him during most of his Missions and when he was twice a prisoner in Rome.
Owing to his connection with this Master and the other Apostles, he was enabled to write The Third Gospel, which Saint Jerome and Saint John Chrysostom describe as "The Gospel of Saint Paul".
Like The Doctor of The Gentiles (Saint Paul), he addresses himself to pagans to show them that Salvation is brought by Jesus to all men, without exception, who believe in Him. He is symbolically represented as an Ox, one of the four animals in the Vision of Ezechiel [Third Lesson of The First Nocturn at Matins], because, at the beginning of his Gospel, he mentions the Priesthood of Zacharias, and because the Ox was usually the victim in the sacrifices of The Old Law.
The Mass of Saint Luke, like that of Saint Mark, offers this particular; that its Gospel refers to the instructions given by The Saviour to His seventy-two Disciples, both these Evangelists (Luke and Mark) not having been Apostles, but only Disciples of Our Lord.
Saint Jerome relates that Saint Luke died in Achaia, Greece, at the age of eighty-four.
Mass: Mihi autem.
Preface: Of The Apostles.
Thank you, Zephyrinus, for this detailed as always vignette on the great evangelist, S. Luke, the “Dear and Glorious Physician” cited 3 times in the NT all in S. Paul’s Epistles (Col. 4:14 “The beloved physician, Luke..”; 2 Tim. 4:11 “Only Luke is with me.”; Phil. 1:24 “Mark,Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers [send you greetings also].”), who commands a central position in the New Testament: because his two works, of course both the Gospel and The Acts of the Apostles, scholars tell us comprise together roughly 25% of the New Testament. As we know from reading the two books, Luke often goes into more detail on the Birth of Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, many of miracles, the parables and stories Jesus tells his audience (The Prodigal Son; The Rich Man and Lazarus), and the post-Resurrection appearances (The Two Disciples Travelling to Emmaus).
ReplyDelete(Note by Dante P., continued)
Part II: Fr. Gaspar Lefebvre, OSB, notes S. Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 260-339), “The Father of Church History,” as well as S. Jerome (ca. 350-420) clearly state Luke as the author and a Syrian from Antioch. Besides the testimony in Acts that he accompanied S. Paul, most of the ancient traditions are firm on the fact that he died at the age of 84 sometime near the end of the 1st C. AD, some saying that he was martyred, and his tomb was at ancient Thebes in Boetia or modern day northern Greece. About 338 A.D., his sarcophagus was removed to Constantinople. (cont, Note by Dante P)
ReplyDeletepart III: Catholics have long been ridiculed that “the ‘relics of those saints’ are medieval forgeries to gain income for the church or town of the shrine.” So, an interesting development worthy of Sherlock Holmes has recently unfolded regarding the relics of S. Luke.
ReplyDeleteThese had long been enshrined at the Abbey of S. Giustina in Padua in Italy, but his skull was reserved at Prague in the Cathedral of S. Vitus in the Castle of Prague. (is said to be reserved at the ) Vatican). The coffin is known to have been in Padua at least since 1177 AD during Crusader times, possibly to protect it from the Muslims. It was last opened in 1562 A.D. and then sealed since that time. (cont. note by Dante P)
Part IV: In 1998, Dr. Guido Barbajani, a PhD of genetics at the University of Ferrara, was asked by the bishop of Padua to examine the relics. He extracted DNA from a tooth in the coffin (there was no skull of course, that being taken by Emperor Charles IV to Prague in 1354), and determined by a comparison to modern-day Syrian population genes from Aleppo that the skeleton and remains were of Syrian origin, and Carbon-14 dating placed their age between 72AD and 412 AD— consistent with the tradition of the skeleton being the relics of S. Luke.
ReplyDeleteDr. Barbujani then obtained permission from the custodians of the Cathedral at Prague to examine the skull. He found the skull fit perfectly on the skeleton at Padua, and the tooth he had examined fit perfectly a socket on the right jawbone. (Source: 'Body of St. Luke' Gains Credibility, By Nicholas Wade, Oct. 16, 2001, NY Times; Also, Natl Library of Medicine, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Oct 16;98(23):13460–13463. doi: 10.1073/pnas.211540498, “Genetic characterization of the body attributed to the evangelist Luke.”)
Summary: so, as we keep finding, as with more complete science brought to bear on the Shroud of Turin, or the Tomb of S. Peter under the Vatican Basilica, It turns out those holy relics were indeed carefully preserved only relics, in this case, almost certainly the relics of the “dear and glorious physician,”Saint Luke. Ha. -Comment by Dante P
ReplyDeleteA wonderful exposé, Dante P, for which we are most grateful.
DeleteOne wonders whether those that previously scoffed will now apologise, unreservedly.
One suspects that they haven't got it in them to do so.