The Icons of Saint Luke

According to tradition, St Luke was the first person to complete three pictures of the holy Mother of God carrying the Child of God in her arms. He showed them to the Holy Virgin for approval, while she was still alive. She received these holy pictures joyfully and said: "May the grace of him to whom I gave birth be within them!" Later, St Luke made pictures of the Holy Apostles and bestowed upon the Church this pious and holy tradition of venerating the icons of Christ and his Saints." St Luke came from the city of Antioch the Great. Of noble birth, he particularly excelled in the areas of medical science and pictorial art. Under the reign of Emperor Claudius (c. 42 AD), while he was caring for the sick around Thebes in Beotia, he met the Apostle Paul, whose ardent words convinced him that the absolute truth he had been seeking for so many years could indeed be found among the disciples of Jesus Christ. After he had been separated from his master, Luke returned to Greece to proclaim the Gospel there. He again set up his abode in the Thebes area where he died peacefully at the age of eighty. Wishing to glorify his faithful servant, God poured a miraculous liquid over his tomb; this cured the eye complaints of those who anointed themselves with it in faith. So it was that even after his death, St Luke continued to practise medicine. Many years later (on March 3, 357), Emperor Constantius, son of the great Constantine, ordered St Artemios, Duke of Egypt, to take the relics of the Saint to Constantinople, and had them laid to rest under the Altar of the Church of the Holy Apostles, beside the Holy Relics of the Apostles Andrew and Timothy.