St. Luke, Evangelist

OLD TESTAMENT: Deuteronomy 17:1-20
NEW TESTAMENT: The Gospel According to St. Matthew 14:1-21
PSALMS: Morning - 97
Evening - 16; 62

A Gentile rather than a Jew, St. Luke was trained as a physician and after he became a Christian wrote the Gospel according to St. Luke and its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles. He also accompanied St. Paul on several of his missionary journeys around the Meditteranean. His Gospel is the only one not written in cycles and is instead a purely historical account. He most likely interviewed many people associated directly with Christ such as the other disciples who were still alive and the Theotokos as well. It is for this reason that his gospel contains the most information of the Blessed Virgin in the early life of Christ. His second work focuses on the early Christian church from its birth at Pentecost until St. Paul preaches in Rome.

It is tradition that he died in his mid eighties. His symbol is the ox or calf, which signifies the priestly aspect of Christ. It is in his Gospel where all of Scripture is told to make sense: "'How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? ' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself."-Luke 24:25-27.