OCTOBER 18 - ST. LUKE
St. Luke was born in Antioch. He was a gentile doctor who was a good and kind man. He heard about Jesus from the great apostle Paul and soon became a Christian. The Bible calls Luke “the beloved physician.”
After becoming a Christian, he went everywhere with St. Paul. Luke was a great help to him in spreading the faith in Greece and Rome. He was with Paul when he was shipwrecked and through other dangers as they traveled from place to place.
St. Luke wrote two books in the Bible: the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Although he did not meet Jesus while he was on this earth, he wanted people to know and love Jesus like he did.
So he talked to people who knew Jesus. He wrote down all that they had seen Jesus do and heard Jesus say.
Saint Luke spent time with Mother Mary learning all he could about Jesus from her. From Mary he heard about how the angel Gabriel appeared to her at the Annunciation. He also heard all 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 and spread the good news after Jesus 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 believe he died in Greece. He is one of the four evangelists, or Gospel writers.