Caldwell shows us St. Luke before he wrote the third Gospel of the New Testament. Lucanus was a Greek, grew up in the household of his stepfather, the Roman govenor of Antioch. He was a man of science, a great physician and healer, a man who loved, who knew bereavement, and traveled throughout the Mediterranean region healing the sick. Caldwell brings him to life in her stirring novel.     

Dear and Glorious Physician is a fully developed portrait of a complex and brilliant man. It is also a colorful re-creation of ancient Roman life as it contrasted in its decadence with the new world that Christianity was bringing into being. Caldwell's years of research and travels in the Holy Land make this a story that inspires, warms, and calls forth a renewal of faith and love.

“A portrait so moving and so eloquent I doubt it is paralleled elsewhere in literature. It is Caldwell’s greatest novel!” — Boston Herald

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“Alive with the bustle of ancient times . . . Movingly reconstructs St. Luke’s search for God.”  — The New York Times