Mark the Ascetic

Saint Mark the Ascetic (Mark the Hermit, Mark the Monk), a venerable father, was a monk and ascetic writer of the fourth and fifth centuries, whose name stands in the Philokalia. His feast is on 5 March (in some synaxaria, 20 May).

What is known of his life

Few facts about the circumstances of his life are known and scholars' opinions differ. Church tradition, following Palladius, Sozomen and the Menaia, ties him to the Egyptian desert. Palladius of Helenopolis, who saw him himself, says in the Lausiac History that he was of a very quiet and gentle nature, so that none could equal him in it, and that from youth he loved Holy Scripture and knew it by heart, Old and New Testaments (Sozomen says the same). Saint Macarius of Alexandria testifies to a special mercy of God toward him at Holy Communion, which shows the strength of his faith, the flame of his love for the Lord and his surpassing humility; according to the Serbian tradition he received Holy Communion from the hands of angels.

He is thought to have become a monk at forty and laboured sixty years in monastic life. The place of his struggles was the mountain of Nitria, in Lower Egypt, some tens of leagues south of Alexandria, near the Libyan desert. According to some (Serbian) sources he was tonsured by Saint John Chrysostom himself; according to other sources he would have struggled in the desert at the end of the fourth century. He lived over a hundred years and departed, it seems, in the early fifth century. It is said that he was very merciful and wept over the suffering of every creature of God; it is believed that once, weeping, he prayed to God for the blind cub of a hyena, and the cub received its sight. In gratitude, the mother hyena brought him a ram's skin, and the saint commanded her not to slaughter the sheep of the poor again.

The opinions of scholars

Scholars have advanced various theories about his time and works. According to J. Kunze, Mark the Hermit was superior of a laura at Ancyra, then, as an old man, left his monastery and became a hermit, probably in the desert east of Palestine, near Mar Saba. He was a contemporary of Nestorius and died after 430, but probably before the Council of Chalcedon (451). Nicephorus Callistus, of the fourteenth century, says he was a disciple of Saint John Chrysostom. Another view, supported by the Byzantine Menaia, identifies him with the Egyptian monk mentioned in Palladius, of the fourth century. The discovery and identification of a work of his against Nestorius by P. Kerameus makes his period certain, as defended by Kunze. Some records say he was the same person from Tarsus who corresponded with Severus of Antioch. Mark is rather an ascetic than a dogmatic writer; he is content to accept dogmas from the Church, and his interest is in the spiritual life as it should be led by monks. He is practical rather than mystic and belongs to the Antiochene school.

His writings

His works were written in Greek and are preserved in good manuscripts; most were translated into Syriac and circulated widely among members of the Church of the East; Babai the Great wrote a commentary on On the Spiritual Law; Arabic translations were made too. Traditionally ascribed to him are: On the Spiritual Law and To Those Who Think They Are Justified by Works (two ascetic treatises for monks), On Penitence, On Baptism, To Nicholas on Refraining from Anger and Lust, Disputation with a Scholar (against appearing before civil courts and on celibacy), Consultation of the Mind with Its Own Soul, On Fasting and Humility, On Melchisedek, Against the Nestorians. The first nine are described in the Myrobiblion of Photius, who praised them; one of them is now held spurious. Excerpts from his writings are in the Philokalia, which contains the Two Hundred Texts on the Spiritual Law and To Those Who Think They Are Justified by Works, 226 texts.