Patron Saint of Doctors

Saint Luke, the Evangelist, was a Greek doctor; he was called “Our Beloved Luke, the Physician” by the peripatetic Saint Paul of Tarsus (Col. 4:14). There is much evidence of Saint Luke’s medical background throughout his gospel. For example, when the other two synoptic evangelists recorded Christ’s warning that a rich man will have no more ease passing through the gates of heaven than would a camel passing through the eye of a needle, they used the household term for a woman’s sewing needle. On the other hand, Saint Luke uses the Greek word for a surgeon’s suturing needle. 

At another point, in telling the story of the woman who suffered from hemorrhage, Saint Luke – keenly aware of the mercenary pitfalls of our profession — adds the sardonic observation that the woman had already spent all of her money seeking the advice of many physicians, and yet had been helped by not one of them (Luke 8:43-48 vs Matthew 9:20-22) 

Luke alone of the evangelists recounts Christ’s stunning allegory of compassion and selflessness in the context of providing healing care for the helpless, the injured and afflicted — the Parable of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:29-37)