Luke
Saint Luke is the patron of physicians and surgeons because Scripture itself names his trade: Saint Paul calls him “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14), and his Gospel shows a doctor’s care in describing sickness and healing. He is the patron of painters and artists by a separate tradition: it was held from early centuries that he painted the first icon of the Virgin Mary from the life, so that guilds of painters across Europe took him as their head and named their academies after him. He is therefore invoked both in illness and for artistic inspiration.
Saint Luke the Evangelist was a physician and companion of Saint Paul, and the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. His Gospel contains unique accounts including the Annunciation, the Visitation, and the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son. Tradition holds that he was also a painter who created the first icon of the Virgin Mary.
