October 18 - St. Luke

OCTOBER 18

ST. LUKE

It is generally believed that Luke was a gentile doctor. He was a good, kind man who came to know the Lord from the great apostle Paul. After he had become a Christian, he went everywhere with Paul. Luke was a great help to him in spreading the faith. The Bible calls Luke "the beloved physician."

St. Luke is the author of two books in the Bible: the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Although he did not meet Jesus while the Lord was on this earth, he wanted to write about him for new converts. So he talked to those who had known Jesus. He wrote down all that they had seen the Lord do and heard him say. It is believed that Luke learned some important information from the Blessed Virgin Mary herself. Mary would have been the person who could describe the details of the angel Gabriel's appearance to her at the Annunciation. Mary could have best told about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt.

Luke also wrote the story of how the apostles began to teach the message of Jesus after he went back to heaven. It is in Luke's book, The Acts of the Apostles, that we learn how the Church began to grow and spread.

St. Luke is the patron saint of doctors. We are not sure when or where Luke died. He is one of the four evangelists, or Gospel writers.