Events for Thursday 18th October 2018

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St. Luke was born to a pagan family and was converted to the faith by a fellow worker of the Apostle Paul. He was a painter and, by trade, a physician, and lived in the city of Antioch. Though not an eye-witness of our Lord's life, the Evangelist diligently gathered information from the lips of the Apostles, and from the preaching of Paul, and wrote, as he tells us, all things in order.

He wrote The Gospel according to Luke. Also, he is the author of Acts of Apostles which tells of the beginning of the Church up to the time St. Paul first travelled to Rome.

He sailed with St. Paul and Silas from Troas to Macedonia; stayed behind apparently for seven years at Philippi, and, lastly, shared the shipwreck and perils of the memorable voyage to Rome. Here his own narrative ends, but from St. Paul's Epistles we learn that St. Luke was his faithful companion to the end.

He and St. Paul evangelised Greece and Rome. He suffered martyrdom toward the end of the 1st century in Achaia. St. Luke is given the symbol of an ox (one of the four living creatures in the vision of Ezekiel), because he begins his Gospel with the history of Zechariah, the priest, offering sacrifice to God, and emphasises the universal priesthood of Christ. St. Luke is the Patron Saint of Artists, Doctors, Painters, Physicians, Sculptors and Surgeons.

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Pope St. Martin I was born in Todo, Italy. He was the last pope to die a martyr. St. Martin called the Council at the Lateran Basilica in his first year and condemned Heraclius and Monothelitism, going against a decree by the Byzantine Emperor who commanded there be no discussion of the issue.