Saints the Month-18 October: St. Luke The Evangelist
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When we think of St. Luke, the first associations that come to our mind are his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. It is a shame that in the West we rarely think of him as an artist. One of the earliest traditions that developed around St. Luke was that he was the first icon painter. This tradition is still very much alive in the churches of the East and India but alas is rather secondary in the West. This was not always the case; throughout medieval cities artists formed Guilds of St. Luke and we also see many art academies dedicated to him.
Tradition has always held that the subject of the first icon was Our Lady with the Christ-Child. It is thought that he painted Mary whilst she lived on Patmos with St. John. There are nearly fifty images (and one sculpture) accredited to St. Luke. Most famously The Black Madonna of Częstochowa or Our Lady of Vladimir (The others can all be found here). Of course it seems unlikely that all are the work of St. Luke and many have suffered under primitive ‘restoration’ techniques.
St. Luke’s example gives us an important message as Christians. Through his writings and art he shows not only that the preaching of the Gospel is not contained to one set form, but that the Faith is transmitted through both Sacred Scripture and Tradition.
