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| St. Luke the Apostle, Byzantine icon, 15th century, Recklinhausen Icon Museum |
Saint Luke is believed to have been born in Antioch, likely around the time of Jesus Christ. The fact that Saint Luke received an education in the manner of the learned gentiles of the time is reflected in his writings. Author of both the Gospel of Saint Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke’s writing is eloquent and dramatic, reflecting an intimate knowledge of the Homeric Greek tales as well as the tragedies of Euripides that the Saint would have studied in his youth. Allusions to Platonic ideas also indicate Saint Luke’s prodigious knowledge. In the literary sense, the Saint’s writing is among the most sophisticated among the New Testament authors.
Saint Luke’s symbol is the winged ox, as Saint Luke’s Gospel is especially notable for its highly detailed account of the sacrificial Passion of Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead.
As a result of his writings, his immovable faith, and his dedication to following the precepts of Jesus Christ, Saint Luke was a trusted companion of Saint Paul, accompanying him to Rome at the end of Saint Paul’s life around the year 64 AD. Saint Luke was said to have perished himself in Boeotia at the old age of 84, as tradition would have it, being martyred, hanged from an olive tree. His body was interred in Thebes in Greece, and later, in the year 338, his remains were transferred to Constantinople. Eventually, the relics of Saint Luke’s were divided between the Basilica of Santa Giustina in Padua and the Cathedral of Prague.
We can trace back the Christian tradition of Saint Luke’s association with the art of painting to the 8th century. Legend has it that Saint Luke was the first painter of icons. Saint Luke, who knew Our Blessed Mother personally, was said to have received a mystical vision of the Virgin and Christ Child, which he then painted. Many churches, both in the Western and Eastern traditions, house icons which were said to have been executed by the hand of Saint Luke: among them the Black Madonna of Czestochowa in Poland, the Virgin of Vladimir located in Moscow, and the Madonna del Rosario, which holds the distinction of being the oldest image of Our Lady in Rome.
In the late Middle Ages, groups of painters first coalesced into the Guilds of Saint Luke, which offered that profession protection and the opportunity for advancement in their trade. During the late Renaissance, painters in Rome established an Academy of Saint Luke. In most major European cities, Saint Luke’s Guilds persisted well into the Baroque era.
Saint Luke’s importance to the art of painting and that of art in general is indeed multifaceted. Saint Luke’s association with painting the first icons established a rich tradition of representation in both the Western and the Eastern Orthodox churches. That a follower of Christ who was a gentile was responsible for the faith’s early imagery demonstrates the rich legacy left to Christendom by the skilled painters of our pagan past. And there is no doubt that our great Saint Luke, devoted to the representation of Our Lady and Our Lord Jesus Christ, helped to guide us through the great periods of iconoclasm that besieged the Church in ages past. Subsequently, the Church emerged victorious, adorned with beautiful paintings of Jesus Christ, Mary, and the Saints to this very day.
Sanctus Lucas, Ora pro nobis.
~ By Pasquale De Davide
According to the old rules, before mixing his colours, the painter was directed to fall on his knees and recite the following prayer.*
O Lord Jesus Christ, Our God, who wast endowed with a Divine and incomprehensible nature, Who didst take a body in the womb of the Virgin Mary for the salvation of mankind, and didst deign to limn the sacred character of Thy immortal Face, and to impress it upon a holy veil, which served to cure the sickness of the satrap Abgarus and to enlighten his soul with the knowledge of the True God; Thou Who didst illuminate with Thy Holy Spirit, Thy Divine Apostle and Evangelist Luke, that he might represent the beauty of Thy most pure Mother, who carried Thee, a tiny Infant, in her arms and said, “The Grace of Him Who is born of me is poured out upon men!” Do Thou, Divine Master of all that exists, do Thou enlighten and direct the soul and heart and spirit of Thy servant; guide his hands that he may be enabled worthily and perfectly to represent Thy image, that of thy most holy Mother, and those of all the Saints for the glory, the joy and the embellishment of thy most holy Church. Pardon the sins of all those who shall venerate these icons, and of those who, piously casting themselves on their knees before them, shall render honor to the models which are in the heavens. Save them, I beseech Thee, from every evil influence, and instruct them by good counsels, through the intercession of Thy most holy Mother, of the illustrious Apostle and Evangelist, Saint Luke, and of all thy Saints. AMEN.
(*) Reprinted from Saint Luke, the Patron Saint of the Worshipful Company of Painters, Otherwise Painter-Stainers by Walter Hayward Pitman, Imprinted for the Author. London 1889.