Description
SS Luke and Mark were both Apostles of Christ and Holy Evangelists of the Gospel. St. Luke was from Antioch in Syria, where he studied science, medicine, and many languages. He heard the Lord speak in Israel and left everything to join the disciples. He became one of the Seventy Apostles. The Lord appeared to him on the road to Emmaus on the day of His Resurrection. He preached in Egypt, Rome, Greece, and Lybia, and wrote his Gospel 15 years after Christ’s Ascension. He was the first icon painter. He died a martyr in Thebes of Boetia, Greece at the age of 80.
St. Mark worked for many years with the Holy Apostle Peter, and became a preacher of the Gospel, the first Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, and then wrote his Gospel first among the Evangelists. A great miracle-worker, he established the Church in Egypt, ordaining many priests and deacons. St. Mark was seized by the pagans and dragged over the cobblestones of the street until badly injured and bloody. Christ appeared to him that night in prison and healed him, but the next day St. Mark was again tortured until martyred and went to the Lord Whom he so greatly loved.