Mark

The holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark was a disciple of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, one of the seventy apostles, and the author of the second Gospel. The Church honours him also as the first bishop of Alexandria and as a martyr. His feast is on 25 April.

Family and name

In the Acts of the Apostles he is called John, also named Mark: John was his Hebrew name, Mark the Roman name he bore and under which he is known. The Synaxarion makes him a nephew of the holy Apostle Barnabas (the epistle to the Colossians says "cousin"), and names his mother as Mary. Her house in Jerusalem, near the garden of Gethsemane, became after the Ascension a gathering place for the faithful and a lodging for some of the apostles. Tradition holds that the young man wrapped in a linen cloth, who fled naked when the Lord was seized, was Mark himself, for he alone among the evangelists tells of it.

Companion of the apostles

Mark followed Paul and Barnabas to Seleucia and to Cyprus, which they crossed from east to west. At Paphos he was present when Paul struck the sorcerer Elymas blind. He then returned to Jerusalem, and later went to Cyprus with Barnabas. After this he was again at Paul's side, who calls him useful for the ministry. As a close disciple of Saint Peter, he is called "my son" by him in his first epistle, sent from Babylon. When Paul came to Rome in chains, Mark went there with Saint Timothy.

The Gospel

Mark wrote his Gospel at Rome, about the years 62 or 63, according to the Synaxarion. According to Papias, quoted by Eusebius, he set down Peter's preaching about the deeds and words of the Lord. His is the shortest of the four Gospels, and it tells above all what the Saviour did, so as to show His divine power through the miracles. That is why icon painters give Mark a lion, a sign of the might and royal dignity of Christ.

In Egypt

Mark went from Rome to Egypt and founded the Church of Alexandria. He opened a Christian school there, from which came later Clement of Alexandria, Saint Dionysius of Alexandria and Saint Gregory the Wonderworker. He composed a Liturgy for the Christians of Alexandria and preached in Libya as far as Nektopolis.

The Coptic tradition, preserved in other sources too, relates that on entering Alexandria his sandal tore and he went to a cobbler, Anianus. The awl pierced the man's finger, and Mark healed the wound in the name of Jesus Christ. Anianus believed, was baptized with his household, and was later ordained bishop. The Byzantine Synaxarion tells only that Mark healed the hand of a dignitary, Ananias, who received Baptism, and that many of his neighbourhood did the same. Later Mark appointed Malchos, Sabinos and Kerdinos presbyters, so that the Church would have shepherds after he was gone.

Martyrdom

The pagans seized him while he was serving the Liturgy, beat him, dragged him through the streets and cast him into prison. There the Lord appeared to him and strengthened him. The next day the crowd dragged him again, and on the way Mark gave up his spirit with the words, "Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit." The pagans meant to burn his body, but darkness fell, thunder crashed and the earth shook, and they fled. The Christians laid the body in a stone tomb. The Byzantine Synaxarion gives 4 April 63 as the date of his death, and Coptic tradition gives the year 68, on a day when Pascha coincided with the pagan feast of Serapis.

Relics

A church was built over the tomb in 310. After the Arabs took Egypt, the relics were carried to Venice in the early ninth century (820 in the Synaxarion, 828 in Coptic tradition), where a great church was raised in his honour. The head remained in Alexandria. In 1968 Pope Paul VI returned a portion of the relics to the Coptic Church.

Besides 25 April, the Church commemorates Mark on 4 January in the Synaxis of the seventy apostles, on 27 September with Aristarchus and Zenas, and on 30 October with Tertius, Justus, Artemas and Cleopas.