>On Sun, 18 Oct 1998 CA Muessig <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>Today, 18 October, is the feast of ...
>
>Luke, evangelist: Mentions 6 miracles and 18 parables not referred to
in
>the other gospels - patron of physicians, surgeons and painters of
>pictures.
Yesterday, this appeared in _The Times_:
October 17 1998 EUROPE
'Bones of St Luke found in Padua'
BY RICHARD OWEN
THE long lost remains of St Luke the Evangelist are reported to have
turned up - not in Antioch, his home town, nor Istanbul (formerly
Constantinople), where they were thought to have been laid to rest, but
in the Italian city of Padua.
The city, near Venice, is normally associated with St Anthony, the
miracle working Franciscan friar who died near Padua in 1231 and was
canonised the following year.
The Basilica of Sant Antonio, in the heart of the old city of Padua, has
been a centre of pilgrimage since the Middle Ages.
St Anthony's tomb was opened up in 1981, and examination of the relics
showed that he died aged 40 and had a long thin face with deep set eyes
and long-fingered delicate hands.
But there has long been a tradition that Padua was also the final
resting place of the bones of St Luke, who died a thousand years
earlier.
Yesterday, church authorities in the city said that they had been
"astonished" to receive a message from the Metropolitan of Ephesus in
Turkey, asking them "to send us some of the holy relics of St Luke,
which we believe are at Padua, so that we can re-consecrate them in the
land of his birth".
According to local legend, a sarcophagus in the left transept of the
16th century basilica of Santa Giustina - which has fourth century
origins - once contained St Luke's bones.
It is now empty. But members of a 14-man commission of scientists and
historians set up by the Archbishop of Padua to look into the affair,
said that in hunting through the basilica's storerooms they had
discovered a lead casket with the inscription "S.L.Evang" on the lid.
Inside were human bones, which are now being analysed to see if they are
two thousand years old.
"The first results are positive," said Maria Antonia Capitanio, an
anthropologist on the commission.
St Luke, a Greek physician, was a disciple of St Paul, and accompanied
him on some of his journeys after the death of Christ.
He is believed to be the author not only of the Gospel which bears his
name, but also of the Acts of the Apostles. St Luke's Gospel is said by
scholars to be the most accurate, and to be clearly based on his desire
- derived from his medical training - to establish the known facts of
Jesus's life as systematically as possible by checking with
contemporaries.
Many of the best known New Testament stories come from Luke, including
the Annunciation, the Shepherds in the Fields, the Good Samaritan and
the Ascension.Some accounts suggest that he was an artist as well as a
doctor.
Church officials in Padua said the newly discovered skeleton lacked a
skull, which is believed to rest in the Cathedral of St Vitus, in
Prague.
They said there was also an old tradition that the bones of St Matthew
ended up in Padua - which will come as a surprise to the church
authorities in Salerno, near Naples, where the 11th-century cathedral is
dedicated to St Matthew and contains his supposed relics.
The remains are said to have been taken there by Robert Guiscard, the
Crusader Knight.
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