Icon of SS Luke and Mark the Evangelists (Dionysiou) – S316

Description

SS Luke and Mark were both Apostles of Christ and  Holy Evangelists of the Gospel.  Saint 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.

Saint 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.  Saint 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 Saint Mark was again tortured until martyred and went to the Lord Whom he so greatly loved.