St. Luke, Beloved Physician (RLS 08; MedVers.)

Before he was an Evangelist, St. Luke was a physician—perhaps, a ship’s doctor. A Greek by birth, his was a legacy of medical training unrivaled in the ancient world. According to Greek myth, Asclepius, son of Apollo, was the first physician and, to this day, the Rod of Asclepius is a universal symbol for medicine. But, no figure, perhaps, looms larger in the history of early Greek medicine than Hippocrates. Known as the "Father of Modern Medicine", Hippocrates established a medical school on the island of Cos, documented (along with his students) numerous illnesses and their treatments in the Hippocratic Corpus, and developed the Hippocratic Oath for physicians, which is still in use today. + Our image of St. Luke as physician is a reworking of a 19th-century chromolithograph of St. Luke the Evangelist (our RLS 08). We have eliminated his attribute the winged bull, changed the colours of his garb, and added a few ‘medicinal’ touches. We have now clad St. Luke in a white robe or tunic and a green mantle with a red lining. White is still the colour of physicians’ lab coats. The green is a particular shade known as “Hospital Scrubs Green” (hex code #45AC8B) and, as such, is self-explanatory. And, although a reach, the red of the lining comes from the lining of WWI Red Cross nurses’ dark navy-blue capes. We have added a discrete gold Rod of Asclepius pin to St. Luke’s mantle and provided him with a brown leather satchel, several jars of unguents in pouches, and a wooden case of ancient Greek surgical instruments (not visible in all products). + St. Luke travelled extensively with St. Paul on his missionary journeys. They became fast friends. It was an imprisoned St. Paul passing along greetings from the Christians in Ephesus, who first referred to St. Luke as “the beloved physician" in his letter to the Colossians (4:14). + St. Luke is patron of physicians and surgeons. + Feast: October 18 + Image Credit (RLS 08; Medical Version.): Reworking of an antique image of St. Luke the Evangelist from the book Red Letter Saints; etc., printed by E. Kaufmann, Lahr, Baden, Germany, for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge / S.P.C.K. (London, 1911), p. 65. From the designer’s private library. + Other Image Credits: Rod of Asclepius, from WikiMedia Commons and leather pouch, by Johnny-automatic, both CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication; computer colourized 19th-century line drawing of ancient Greek surgical instruments in wooden case, PD-Art-100; satchel, by Saints_Aplenty.