The Feast Day of St. Luke the Evangelist, known as La Festa di San Luca, is celebrated every year on this day in Padua and across Italy.
On 18th October, la Festa di San Luca is celebrated in Italy, and particularly in Padua where some of his remains are enshrined.
St. Luke is traditionally considered one of the four Gospel writers in the New Testament, credited with both the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Believed to have been a physician, Luke was also a disciple of St. Paul and is mentioned in some of Paul’s epistles. While one account suggests he was martyred by being hanged from an olive tree, other sources claim he lived until the age of 84, continuing his work as a doctor.
St. Luke is the patron saint of various groups, including artists, physicians, surgeons, students, and butchers. It is widely believed that his remains lie in the Basilica of Santa Giustina in Padua’s Prato della Valle, apart from his skull, which is kept elsewhere.
Travels of Luke’s remains
Luke is thought to have been a Greek physician from Antioch in ancient Syria. He is believed to have accompanied St. Paul in Rome during Paul’s final days. Following his death, Luke’s remains were reportedly buried in Thebes before being transferred to Constantinople. Eventually, a Serbian trader is said to have sold the relics to the Venetian Republic, which buried them in Padua in 1172, encased in a lead coffin inside a marble sarcophagus.
In 1992, the Greek Orthodox Church requested the return of a significant fragment of St. Luke’s remains for his tomb in Thebes. This prompted a scientific investigation into the relics housed in Padua. Inside the lead coffin, scientists found the skeleton of a man aged 70 to 84, of Syrian descent, who lived between 416 BC and AD 72. The remains, notably missing a skull, matched a skull kept in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, which is also believed to be St. Luke’s.
In response to the Greek Orthodox Church’s request, the Bishop of Padua sent a rib closest to St. Luke’s heart to Greece for his tomb in Thebes. While his skull remains in Prague, the rest of St. Luke’s body continues to rest in the Basilica of Santa Giustina in Padua, where pilgrims and visitors come to honour his legacy.
