Christian tradition says the body of Luke "the beloved physician" was moved from Thebes to Constantinople and Padua, and an emperor took the head to Prague

The Letter to the Colossians calls Luke "the beloved physician". Christian tradition says he died at 84 in Thebes, in Greece. In 338 his coffin was taken to Constantinople. It was later moved to Padua, where it was placed in the Basilica of Santa Giustina. In 1354 Emperor Charles IV removed the head and took it to Prague, where it rests in St Vitus Cathedral. The coffin was opened in 1562 and not again for over 400 years. In October 1992 the Orthodox Metropolitan of Thebes asked the bishop of Padua for part of the relics for Luke's empty tomb in Thebes. Bishop Antonio Mattiazzo ordered a scientific study. In 1998 the seals were removed. The lead coffin held a male skeleton without a skull. Its dimensions matched the tomb in Thebes. A tooth was radiocarbon dated to a death between AD 72 and 416, most likely about 300. Its mitochondrial DNA was closer to Syrian samples from Aleppo than to Greek ones. The Prague skull fitted the skeleton's neck bone, and a tooth from the coffin fitted the skull's jaw. Mattiazzo sent a rib to Metropolitan Hieronymus to be venerated in Luke's tomb at Thebes. The body is in Padua and the head in Prague.