The author of the Gospel according to St. Luke and of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke was a gentile and physician, who traveled with Saint Paul on his second missionary journey from Troas to Philippi, and on the third journey from Philippi to Jerusalem. Also, he went with Paul when he was taken as a prisoner to Rome. Luke's Gospel is dated between 70 and 90 A.D.

According to later tradition, Luke was one of the Seventy who were appointed by our Lord to go to all of the places where our Lord would later visit (Luke 10:1). It is said that he was a painter. In the Middle Ages a picture of our Lady in Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, was credited to him. Also, the Russian church believed that the first Holy Icon of the Madonna and Child was painted by Saint Luke. Luke, therefore, is the Patron Saint of both physicians and artists. Luke's Gospel emphasizes that the life, death, and ministry of our Lord was a message of salvation to ALL.