The Evangelist Saint Luke

November 1, 2022

Saint Luke the evangelist, the physician, became a martyr on November 1 (Tikimet 22). This holy man was one of the number of the seventy-two disciples whom the Holy Gospel mentioned. He ministered to the Apostles Peter and Paul and wrote their histories.

After the death of Peter and Paul, Luke preached in the country of Rome. Those who worshipped idols came to an agreement with the Jews. They stood up before the Emperor Nero and cried out concerning Luke the disciple. They made accusations against him and said, “He brings very many men under his teaching by means of his sorcery.” The Emperor Nero commanded that they should bring Luke before him. When the apostle knew that he was about to depart from this world, he found an old man who was a fisherman. He gave him the books and the volumes which were with him. He said to him, “Take good care of these books, for they will be of benefit to you and will make thee to arrive on the road of God.”

When he had come to Nero, Emperor of Rome, he stood up before him. The emperor said to him, “How much longer will you lead men into error by thy sorcery?” Saint Luke answered and said to him, “I am not a magician, but an Apostle of our Lord Christ, the Son of the Living God.” The emperor commanded [his soldiers] to cut off his right hand, saying, “I cut off this hand which wrote books”; straightway they cut off his hand. Saint Luke said to him, “Verily we do not fear the death of this world, but behold thou shalt at this moment see the power of my God Jesus Christ, to Whom be praise!” The saint reached out his left hand, and took up in it the right hand, which had been cut off, and made it to cleave to its proper place. It remained there firmly and became like to the other. Then he separated it from the wrist and it remained thus.

Those who were there marveled, the chief officer, his wife and very many men believed in our Lord Christ. They were in number two hundred and seven and seventy souls. The emperor commanded his soldiers to cut off their heads, the head of Saint Luke the apostle, and the soldiers cut them off. The saints received crowns of martyrdom in the kingdom of the heavens.

They placed the body of Saint Luke the apostle in a hair sack and cast it into the sea, and by the Will of God the waves of the sea brought it to an island. A certain man who was a believer found it, and he gave it honorable burial. This holy man wrote his Gospel for Theophilus, who was a Gentile, and also wrote for him the “Acts of the Apostles.”

May Saint Luke’s intercession and blessings be with us, Amen.

Source: The Ethiopian Synaxarium pages 103-104