St. Luke the Evangelist

Feast (1969 Calendar): October 18
Double of the II Class (1955 Calendar): October 18

Today is the feast day of St. Luke, the patron saint of physicians, surgeons, goldsmiths, painters, and bachelors. He wrote the Gospel according to St. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible. His name literally translates to "bringer of the light." According to tradition, he also "painted" the first icon. In fact the two most important icons in the world are attributed to him: "Salus Romani Populi" which is the Roman Icon at St Mary Major, and Our Lady of Częstochowa, which was the Byzantine Icon in Constantinople. The icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa was later brought to Jasna Gora which is the largest Marian shrine in the world. Also of note, Częstochowa is believed to be written on the table the Holy Family used in Nazareth.

St. Luke was born a pagan in Antioch in c. 74 AD and possibly was a slave. He was one of the first converts. St. Luke met St. Paul at Troas and evangelized Greece and Rome with him. During Paul's two years in prison, St. Luke stayed in Rome. St. Luke died a martyr.

"According to tradition, he was an artist, as well as a man of letters; and with a soul alive to all the most delicate inspirations, he consecrated his pencil to the holiest use, and handed down to us the features of the Mother of God. It was an illustration worthy of the Gospel which relates to the divine Infancy; and it won for the artist a new title to the gratitude of those who never saw Jesus and Mary in the flesh. Hence St. Luke is the patron of Christian art."- Excerpted from The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.

St. Luke Day As a Former Holy Day of Obligation

The first catalog of Holy Days comes from the Decree of Gratian in c. 1150 AD, which shortly thereafter gave way to the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX in 1234, which listed 45 Holy Days. In 1295, Pope Boniface VIII enacted the decretal Gloriosus, which "commanded that each of the feasts of the twelve apostles, four evangelists, and four doctors of the Church be celebrated as an officium duplex" (The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law by Anders Winroth and John Wei).

In 1642, His Holiness Pope Urban VIII issued the papal bull Universa Per Orbem which mandated the required Holy Days of Obligation for the Universal Church to consist of 34 days as well as the principal patrons of one's one locality (e.g. city and country). Those days were the Nativity of Our Lord, the Circumcision of Our Lord, the Epiphany of Our Lord, Monday within the Octave of the Resurrection, Tuesday within the Octave of the Resurrection, Ascension Thursday, Monday within the Octave of Pentecost, Tuesday within the Octave of Pentecost, Most Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, the Finding of the Holy Cross, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Dedication of St. Michael, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, St. Andrew, St. James, St. John (the December feast day), St. Thomas, SS. Philip and James, St. Bartholomew, St. Matthew, SS. Simon and Jude, St. Matthias, St. Stephen the First Martyr (the December feast day), the Holy Innocents, St. Lawrence, St. Sylvester, St. Joseph, St. Anne, and All Saints.  

Ultimately Universa Per Orbem helped bring more uniformity to the Church since some parts of the Catholic world observed even more holy days of double precept (i.e., mandatory attendance at Mass and rest from servile work). One of those former days which kept in some places as the Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist. 

For instance, in modern-day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, which were included in the ecclesiastical province of Mexico, the feasts were regulated by the Third Council of Mexico in 1585, as American Catholic Quarterly Review states: 

"In these parts besides those already mentioned, the faithful observed as holy days of obligation St Fabian and St Sebastian (January 20th), St Thomas Aquinas (March 7th), St Mark (April 25th), St Barnabas (June 1), the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin (July 2), St Mary Magdalene (July 22), St Dominic (Aug 4), the Transfiguration (Aug 6), St Francis (Oct 4), St Luke (Oct 18), St Catharine (Nov 25), the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin (Dec 18). 

Things to Do (Excerpted from Catholic Culture):

• Read the Acts of the Apostles. St. Luke accompanied St. Paul on his missionary journeys — we could spiritually adopt a missionary and accompany him or her with our prayers.
• St. Luke depicted Mary vividly in words. Learn and pray the three precious canticles preserved for us by him — the Benedictus, the Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis.
• Pray for doctors and those who care for the sick through the intercession of St. Luke, patron of physicians.
• Foods this day to honor St. Luke would include some beef dishes, as he is the patron of butchers. So perhaps a nice cut of steak would be in order? For dessert, bake some raisin Banbury Tarts to evoke the festivals of England on this day, or a cake in the shape of a book with decorations of a calf or ox for this evangelist.
• Today is also known as "Sour Cakes Day" in Scotland because baked cakes were eaten with sour cream in Rutherglen.
• This day is also "St. Luke's Little Summer," a period of summerlike days that occur around October 18 (like the term "Indian Summer," which officially occurs between Nov 11-20), named to honor the saint's feast day. In the past, St. Luke's Day was not observed by the secular world as much as St. John the Baptist's Day (June 24) and Michaelmas (September 29), so to keep in the forefront, St. Luke gives us some golden days before the cold of winter.

Prayer:

Let holy Luke, Thine Evangelist, we beseech Thee, O Lord, intercede for us, who for the glory of Thy name ever bore in his body the mortification of the cross. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal