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St
Luke the
Evangelist is thought to have been a Greek and the only Gentile author
of books of the Bible. He wrote both the Gospel According to
Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. His version of the
Christmas story is the most detailed and familar one. In
searching for images of him on the web, much of what one finds is old
Orthodox icons. The one above is 19th century Greek. It
shows him with a book, which is one of the most common ways that all of
the evangelists are depicted. Another St Luke's Episcopal Church,
in Kansas, has gathered a large number of these old Greek and Russian
Icons of him on its website; click here
to see them. That site also has what is known of his life story.
You will need to use your Back button to return to this site.
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In
the West, the tradition, though apparently not the evidence, that St
Luke was an artist, specifically a painter, is very strong. On
the right is El Greco's version of this, showing him with an
illustrated book and a paintbrush.
St Luke as an Artist
El Greco, 1608, oil on canvas, 53 x 71 cm.
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In
particular, Luke was
believed to have painted the Virgin, and there are many depictions of
him doing so; one is shown at the left.
St. Luke Portrays the Virgin
Domenico Cresti, known as "Il Passignano" -
Passignano around 1560
Oil on canvas, 332x228 cm -
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
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Here is a
larger and more
detailed one:
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St
Luke
drawing a picture of the madonna
1435-1440, by Rogier Van Der Weyden,
oil and tempera on panel, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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Another
strong tradition is
that St Luke was a physician. For this we have the authority of
St Paul, who refers to him as "the Beloved Physician" in Colossians
4:14.
It is more difficult to find artistic representations of this;
understandably, artists seem to have preferred to portray him as an
artist. However, at the right is a stained glass window, from St
John's Episcopal Church in Stamford, CT, which shows St. Luke with the
usual evangelist's book in one hand, and a plant, representing healing
herbs, in the other.
Stained Glass Window
by Clayton & Bell, London, 1917.
St John's Episcopal Church, Stamford, CT
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No one will be
surprised to learn that St Luke is the Patron Saint of both Artists and
Physicians, as well as of our church.
His feast day is October 18.
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In Iconography,
at least in the
West, the symbol of St Luke is the winged bull. It is sometimes
referred to as a winged ox, but I think here at St Luke's in the Bull
City we can go with the bull.
One source says that this is because these are symbols of sacrifice,
the sacrifice that Jesus made for the world. This does not
account for the wings, but apparently they were a common feature at the
time these symbols evolved - the Lion of St Mark has wings, too.
A wonderful depiction of the winged bull of St Luke, shown at the
left,is on the bosses (the ornamental architectural elements
where Gothic arches cross) in the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral Church
of St Peter in Exeter, England.
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