The Rev. Paolo Ferrazzo wrote to the Catalog of the Good Deeds, “Our old glass reliquary was broken during a hurricane. I’d like to have a reliquary that the Evangelist deserves.” He also ordered a smaller reliquary for a small particle of relics.
Our Non-Ferrous Metals Workshop set out to work and soon enough, they finished both reliquaries. God willing, the reliquaries will soon arrive in Venice, in the parish of Holy Apostle James, son of Zebedee. The honorable relics of the great Apostle and Evangelist Luke, the “beloved doctor” (cf. Colossians 4:14), will be preserved in the magnificent reliquary made by our craftspeople.
Father Ferrazzo had ordered a painted icon of Christ the Pantocrator from us in the past. He knows that there is an Icon Painting Studio in St. Elisabeth Convent for more than a decade now. That is why, on behalf of his parish and with the blessing of his diocesan bishop, he decided to endow our Convent with a particle of the relics of Holy Apostle Luke who, according to the Church tradition, painted the first icon of the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary and is therefore remembered as the heavenly patron of all icon painters.
That was how, relishing the opportunity to venerate the holy apostle by making a reliquary for his holy relics—which is already a great honor for us—we unexpectedly received this sacred object as a gift. May the Apostolic blessing of Evangelist Luke, the tireless companion of Holy Apostle Paul, reside upon our Convent! May his holy relics and his prayerful intercession inspire our icon painters in their hard but blessed and God-pleasing work of creating amazingly profound Orthodox icons, revealing the celestial beauty to the world, and calling everyone into the Kingdom of Christ!