Mark, who is also identified with the John Mark of
the New Testament, was, according to Christian tradition, the author
of the Second Gospel. (He is not the same person as the man who fled
naked when Jesus was arrested [Mark 14:51-52].) According to the
Acts, his mother, Mary, owned a house in Jerusalem in which the
earliest Christian community gathered (12:12). After visiting
Jerusalem, Paul [January 25; June 29] and Barnabas [June 11] took
Mark back with them to Antioch (12:25). Mark assisted them in the
proclamation of the gospel in Cyprus (13:1-12), but upon their
arrival by ship in Perga, he left them and returned to Jerusalem
(13:13). Later, after returning to Antioch, Paul and Barnabas had an
argument over Mark. Barnabas wanted to take Mark on their next
journey, but Paul objected on the grounds that Mark had not
persevered on the previous journey. Accordingly, Barnabas took Mark
back to Cyprus, and Paul set out for Syria and Cilicia with Silas
(15:36-41).
In the Letter to Philemon, Mark is mentioned among
Paul’s fellow workers (v.24). When Paul was held captive in Rome,
Mark was with him, giving him “comfort” (Col.4:10). In the same
verse, Mark is mentioned as the cousin of Barnabas, and the
Christians at Colossae are urged to receive Mark hospitably, if he
should come there. Elsewhere Timothy [January 26] is asked to bring
Mark to Paul, since he is useful for the apostle’s ministry (2 Tim.
4:11). The first letter attributed to Peter [June 29], written in
all likelihood from Rome, mentions Mark as the “son” of Peter, a
tern either of simple affection or an indication that Peter was
Mark’s father in the faith. Mark’s presence in Rome with Peter would
be consistent with the tradition that Mark took notes that recorded
Peter’s memories of Jesus’ teachings and deeds. This tradition was
written down by Papias of Hierapolis, according to the historian
Eusebius, who also said that Mark was Peter’s “interpreter.” Mark
probably wrote his Gospel there in Rome, but another tradition
suggests that it was written in Alexandria.
Eusebius also recorded the tradition that Mark was
the first to bring the Christian faith to Egypt, that he had made
known there the Gospel that he had written, and that he had
established churches in Alexandria. Eusebius also indicates that
Mark was the first bishop of Alexandria. He is said to have been
martyred there in the eighth year of Nero’s reign. Mark was
venerated as a martyr in both East and West since the fourth
century.
Early in the ninth century his body was brought by
merchants to Venice to save it from desecration by the Arabs. The
original church of St. Mark was destroyed by fire in 976, but the
rebuilt cathedral contains both the relics from Alexandria and the
twelfth-to-thirteenth-century mosaics of his life and death and of
the transfer of his remains to Venice. Depicted as a winged lion,
Mark is patron saint of Venice, Egypt, notaries, basket weavers,
glass workers, opticians, and cattle breeders. His feast is on the
general Roman Calendar and is also celebrated on this day by all the
major Christian liturgical traditions. |