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from a temple” was heard; he calls John a voice, he calls the leapings a cry, he names Elizabeth a city, he proclaims the cave a temple. “A voice of a cry” was heard, saying: “before she who was in labor gave birth, before the pain of labor came, she escaped and bore a male child.” And the mystery received all things at once: both speed and childbirth and virginity and wonder, for the infant was not from intercourse. “Before,” it says, “the pain of labor came”; for the holy Mary did not suffer the things of Eve. “For she escaped and bore a male child”; grace did not wait for the limits of nature; for the mystery of the economy is without a set time. “Rejoice, therefore, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you”; for our Lord Jesus Christ opened the bosoms of hospitality, he shelters apostles, he perfects evangelists, from whom he also appointed the blessed Luke as an orator and teacher of the church.

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This thrice-blessed evangelist Luke was a Syrian by birth, a physician by trade, and having become a disciple of the apostles, and later having followed Paul until his martyrdom, and after these things, serving the Lord without distraction, he preached the word. Adorned with all kinds of virtues and shining with divine gifts, having become eighty-four years old he fell asleep in Thebes, the metropolis of Boeotia, full of the Holy Spirit. This man wrote the gospel, making clear through the preface that others were written before him and that it was necessary for the faithful from among the Greeks to set forth an accurate account of the economy. And Saint Luke the evangelist rested on the eighteenth of the month of October, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power with the immortal Father and the all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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ἐκ ναοῦ» ἠκούσθη· φωνὴν τὸν Ἰωάννην καλεῖ, κραυγὴν τὰ σκιρτήματα λέγει, πόλιν τὴν Ἐλισάβετ ὀνομάζει, ναὸν τὸ σπήλαιον κηρύττει. «Φωνὴ κραυγῆς» ἠκούσθη λέγουσα· «πρὶν τὴν ὠδίνουσαν τεκεῖν, πρὶν ἐλθεῖν τὸν πόνον τῶν ὠδίνων, ἐξέφυγε καὶ ἔτεκεν ἄρ σεν.» Καὶ ἔλαβεν τοῦ μυστηρίου πάντα ὁμοῦ καὶ τάχος καὶ τόκον καὶ παρθενίαν καὶ θαῦμα, ὅτι γὰρ οὐκ ἐκ μίξεως τὸ βρέφος. «Πρίν», φησίν, «ἐλθεῖν τὸν πόνον τῶν ὠδίνων»· οὐκ ἔπαθε γὰρ τὰ τῆς Εὔας ἡ ἁγία Μαρία. «Ἐξέφυγε γὰρ καὶ ἔτεκεν ἄρσεν»· οὐκ ἀνέμεινε φύσεως ὅρους ἡ χάρις· ἀπρόθεσμον γὰρ τὸ τῆς οἰκονομίας μυστήριον. «Χαῖρε τοίνυν κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ»· ὁ γὰρ κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς τοὺς τῆς φιλοξενίας ἀνέῳξε κόλπους, ἀποστόλους θαλαμεύει, εὐαγγελιστὰς τελειοῖ, ἐξ ὧν καὶ τὸν μακάριον Λουκᾶν ῥήτορα καὶ διδάσκαλον τῆς ἐκκλησίας κατέστησεν.

10 Ἔστιν δὲ οὗτος ὁ τρισόλβιος εὐαγγελιστὴς Λουκᾶς Σύρος τὸ γένος, ἰατρὸς τὴν τέχνην, μαθητὴς δὲ τῶν ἀποστόλων γενόμενος, καὶ ὕστερον Παύλῳ παρακολουθήσας μέχρι τοῦ μαρτυρίου αὐτοῦ, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα δουλεύσας τῷ κυρίῳ ἀπερισπάστως ἐκήρυξεν τὸν λόγον. Ἀρεταῖς παντοίαις κοσμούμενος καὶ χαρίσμασιν θείοις διαλάμπων, ὀγδοήκοντα τεσσάρων ἐτῶν γενόμενος ἐκοιμήθη ἐν Θήβαις τῇ μητροπόλει τῆς Βοιωτίας, πλήρης Πνεύματος ἁγίου. Οὗτος ἔγραψε τὸ εὐαγγέλιον δηλῶν διὰ τοῦ προοιμίου τοῦτο ὅτι πρὸ αὐτοῦ ἄλλα ἐστὶ γεγραμμένα καὶ ὅτι ἀναγκαῖον ἦν τοῖς ἐξ Ἑλλήνων πιστοῖς τὴν ἀκριβῆ τῆς οἰκονομίας ἐκθέσθαι διήγησιν. Ἀνεπαύσατο δὲ ὁ ἅγιος Λουκᾶς ὁ εὐαγγελιστὴς μηνὶ ὀκτωβρίῳ ὀκτωκαιδεκάτῃ, χάριτι τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος σὺν τῷ ἀθανάτῳ Πατρὶ καὶ τῷ παναγίῳ καὶ ζωοποιῷ Πνεύματι, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.