18 October St Luke (1 st Century)
We know very little about this man, but the name Lucanus/Lucius was given
to the author of the 3 rd Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He writes in
classical Greek, may have died in Boeotia. Tradition has it, that he was
unmarried, a doctor, who travelled with St Paul at least twice, he may have
been one of the men on the road to Emmaus. Gospel and Acts were written
between 70 and 85 AD, which makes it strange that he didn’t mention Paul’s
death (64).
He writes for a Non-Jewish audience, his narrative of the birth of Jesus led
to believe he got his story from Mary. Central to his Gospel is Jerusalem,
from where the evangelisation of the world started, so there is a long
account of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, of Pentecost and the Church’s
beginning and mission.
He stresses Jesus’ concern for women, for sinners and outcasts; he isn’t ‘a
feminist’, but women may have been the source of his story. He is the patron
saint of doctors, also of painters (allegedly, he painted the Virgin) and
butchers (his emblem is an ox, possibly because he mentions temple
sacrifices). His supposed relics were taken from Thebes to Constantinople in
the 4 th century.
21 October Saint Ursula
She was said to have been a British Christian who met her death at
Cologne, in the company of a group of holy virgins. But her legend is
unhistorical. According to this, she was a Romano British princess, daughter
of King Donaut of Dumnonia (SW England), and set out to join her husband
Conan, a pagan governor of Brittany in Gaul. It is unclear how many
maidens accompanied her, the figure of 11.000 was first mentioned in the 9 th
century, but maybe a writing error.
On a pan- European pilgrimage before her marriage she was killed, with her
maidens, in Cologne (AD 303, the date is unconfirmed) by the Huns, who
then besieged the city.
The legend is based on an 4 th /5 th century inscription in the ancient basilica
of St Ursula in Cologne, which was probably founded on the spot of their
martyrdom. The church contains an incredible number of relics, some
enclosed in valuable reliquaries, but they are probably from a forgotten burial
ground and not the bones of the virgins. There was indeed a tradition of
virgin martyrs in Cologne by the 5 th century, so some parts of the legend
may be historical.
Brigitte Williams
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