Feast Day – 18 October
A companion of Paul (2 Tim 4:11; Phlm 24). Luke was a Gentile Christian (Col 4:11) hailed by Christian tradition as the author of the third Gospel and its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles. He may have been born in Antioch; Paul speaks of him as “Luke the beloved physician” (Col4:14). His training as a physician may be reflected in the New Testament books attributed to him, where we find examples of medical language and an excellent command of Greek style and word choice, the product of the classical education that was customarily provided for the student of medicine.
Images of St Luke in Our Church
There are two important images of St Luke in our church, a sculpture of St Luke and the Virgin Mary on the façade of the church and a commemorative stain glass window in the alcove on the right upon entering the church.
The Portland stone sculpture on the façade of the church was carved by David John who completed all of the sculptures in stone and wood in the church. The sculpture depicts the medieval legend that St Luke painted an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary which is on display in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome (the “Salus Populi Romani”). The ox or bull at St Luke’s feet is the symbol for St Luke (one of the “tetramorphs” from Ezekiel 1:10) since his Gospel focuses on the sacrificial nature of Christ’s death for our salvation. For balance, the Blessed Virgin Mary has a dog at her feet, an appropriate symbol for the paragon of faithfulness. The model for the dog was Fr Trotman’s dog, Punch.
The new St Luke window was designed to complement the two existing windows that were removed from the old church. The subject of St Luke holds two books that he wrote, one to symbolise the Gospel and the other The Acts of the Apostles. The bull, symbol of St Luke the Evangelist, stands below in the predella panel and above the inscription, chalice and shield. The whole window is surrounded by a decorative floral border of medicinal plants.
The cloak of St Luke has a design of leaves to symbolise medicinal herbs and these are partially acided from various flashed pieces of glass in blues and greens to form the pattern. In the borders of the new window different medicinal herbs in paint and stain are set off against a dark background with borders of more slender lines of mixed rubies and blues. (For a description of these herbs and plants and their significance to St Luke, please see the display in the church next to the windows.)
To break up the heavier outer cloak the inner fringed garment has a lightly painted quarry pattern to echo the quarried glass in the existing windows. The two snakes of the Caduceus are placed either side of St Luke: to symbolise medicine.