St. Mark, the evangelist

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St. Mark, the evangelistThe second Gospel was written by St. Mark, who, in the New Testament, is sometimes called John Mark. Both he and his mother, Mary, were highly esteemed in the early Church, and his mother's house in Jerusalem served as a meeting place for Christians there.


St. Mark was associated with St. Paul and St. Barnabas (who was Mark's cousin) on their missionary journey through the island of Cyprus. Later he accompanied St. Barnabas alone. We know also that he was in Rome with St. Peter and St. Paul. Tradition ascribes to him the founding of the Church in Alexandria.


St. Mark wrote the second Gospel, probably in Romesometime before the year 60 A.D.; he wrote it in Greek for the Gentile converts to Christianity. Tradition tells us that St. Mark was requested by the Romans to set down the teachings of St. Peter. This seems to be confirmed by the position whichSt. Peter has in this Gospel. In this way the second Gospel is a record of the life of Jesus as seen throuhh the eyes of the Prince of the Apostles. His feast day is April 25. He is the patron saint of notaries.

 


from Wikipedia

For Saint Mark the fourth-century Pope, see Pope Mark


Mark the Evangelist (Latin: Mārcus; Greek: Μᾶρκος;Coptic: Μαρκοϲ; Hebrew: מרקוס‎) is the traditional author of the Gospel of Mark. He is one of the Seventy Disciples, and the founder of the Church of Alexandria, one of the original four main episcopal sees of Christianity.


According to William Lane (1974), an "unbroken tradition" identifies Mark the Evangelist with John Mark,[3] and John Mark as the cousin of Barnabas.[4] An exception is found in Hippolytus of Rome, who in his work On the Seventy Apostles, distinguishes Mark the Evangelist (2 Tim 4:11), John Mark (Acts 12:12, 25; 13:5, 13; 15:37), and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (Col 4:10; Phlm 24).[5] According to Hippolytus, they all belonged to the "Seventy Disciples" who were sent out by Jesus to saturate Judeawith the gospel (Luke 10:1ff.). However, when Jesus explained that his flesh was "real food" and his blood was "real drink", many disciples left him (John 6:44-6:66), presumably including Mark. He was later restored to faith by the apostle Peter; he then became Peter’s interpreter, wrote the Gospel of Mark, founded the church of Africa, and became the bishop of Alexandria.

 

According to Eusebius of Caesarea (Eccl. Hist. 2.9.1-4), Herod Agrippa I in his first year of reign over the whole Judea (AD 41) killed James, son of Zebedee and arrested Peter, planning to kill him after thePassover. Peter was saved miraculously by angels, and escaped out of the realm of Herod (Acts 12:1-19). Peter went to Antioch, then through Asia Minor (visiting the churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,Asia, and Bithynia, as mentioned in 1 Pet 1:1), and arrived in Rome in the second year of Emperor Claudius (AD 42; Eusebius, Eccl, Hist. 2.14.6). Somewhere on the way, Peter picked up Mark and took him as travel companion and interpreter. Mark the Evangelist wrote down the sermons of Peter, thus composing the Gospel according to Mark (Eccl. Hist. 15-16), before he left for Alexandria in the third year of Claudius (43).[6]


In AD 49, about 19 years after the Ascension of Jesus, Mark traveled to Alexandria [cf. c. 49 [cf. Acts 15:36-41] and founded the Church of Alexandria, which today is part of the Coptic Orthodox Church.[7]Aspects of the Coptic liturgy can be traced back to Mark himself. He became the first bishop of Alexandria and he is honored as the founder of Christianity in Africa.[8]


According to Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. 2.24.1), Mark was succeeded by Annianus as the bishop of Alexandria in the eighth year of Nero (62/63), probably, but not definitely due to his coming death. Later Coptic tradition says that he was martyred in 68.[1][2][9][10][11] It is believed that on the night when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane Mark had followed him there and the Temple guards saw him, he ran away and dropped his loincloth.

His feast day is celebrated on April 25, and his symbol is the Winged lion.[12]


Biblical and traditional information

St. Mark, the evangelist
Illumination of St. Mark in the 11th century Trebizond Gospel (Russian State Museum, Saint Petersburg).


Evidence for Mark the Evangelist's authorship of the Gospel that bears his name originates with Papias.[13][14] According to D. A. Carson,Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, it is "almost certain" that Papias is referring to John Mark.[15] However, some have argued that identifying Mark the Evangelist with John Mark and Mark the Cousin of Barnabas has led to the downgrading of the character of Barnabas from truly a "Son of Comfort" to one who favored his blood relative over principles.[16]


The identification of Mark the Evangelist with John Mark led to identifying him as the man who carried water to the house where theLast Supper took place (Mark 14:13).;[17] or as the young man who ran away naked when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:51-52).[18]

St. Mark, the evangelist

The martyrdom of Saint Mark. Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (Musée Condé, Chantilly).


The Coptic Church holds the tradition of identifying Mark the Evangelist withJohn Mark, and holds that he was one of the Seventy Disciples sent out by Christ (Luke 10:1), as is confirmed by the list of Hippolytus.[19] It also believes that Mark the Evangelist is the one who hosted the disciples in his house after the death of Jesus, into whose house the resurrected Jesus Christ came (John 20), and into whose house the Holy Spiritdescended on the disciples at Pentecost.[19]

 

Mark is also believed to be one of the servants at the Marriage at Canawho poured out the water that Jesus turned to wine (John 2:1-11),[19]These traditions have no solid proof either from the New Testament or from Church history.

According to the Coptic church, Saint Mark was born in Cyrene, a city in the Pentapolis of North Africa (now Libya). This tradition adds that he returned to Pentapolis later in life, after being sent by Saint Paul toColossae (Colossians 4:10; Philemon 24; these actually refer to Mark the Cousin of Barnabas), and serving with him in Rome (2 Tim 4:11); from Pentapolis he made his way to Alexandria.[20][21] When Mark returned to Alexandria, the pagans of the city resented his efforts to turn the Alexandrians away from the worship of their traditionalgods.[citation needed] In AD 68 they placed a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets until he was dead.[22]


The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates his feast day on April 25.


Relics of St. Mark

St. Mark, the evangelist
In 828, relics believed to be the body of St. Mark were stolen fromAlexandria by Venetian merchants and taken to Venice,[23]. A mosaicin St Mark's Basilica, depicts sailors covering the relics with a layer ofpork and cabbage leaves. Since Muslims are not permitted to touch pork, this was done to prevent the guards from inspecting the ship's cargo too closely.[24] “History records no more shameless example of body snatching,...” as John Julius Norwich put it. The possession of a truly important relic could have serious political consequences. When the body of St Mark came to Venice, the previous patron saint of the city, St Theodore, was demoted. The Doge of the day began to build a splendid church to contain the relics next to his palace, the original San Marco. With an evangelist on its territory, Venice acquired a status almost equal to that of Rome itself.[25]

 

In 1063, during the construction of a new basilica in Venice, St. Mark's relics could not be found. However, according to tradition, in 1094 the saint himself revealed the location of his remains by extending an arm from a pillar.[26] The newfound remains were placed in a sarcophagus in the basilica.[23]


Copts believe that the head of St. Mark remains in a church named after him in Alexandria, and parts of his relics are in St. Mark's Cairo's Cathedral. The rest of his relics are in the San Marco Cathedral in Venice, Italy.[1] Every year, on the 30th day of the month of Paopi, theCoptic Orthodox Church celebrates the commemoration of the consecration of the church of St. Mark, and the appearance of the head of the saint in the city of Alexandria. This takes place inside St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria, where the saint's head is preserved.


In June 1968, Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria sent an official delegation to Rome to receive a relic of St. Mark from Pope Paul VI. The delegation consisted of ten metropolitans and bishops, seven of whom were Coptic and three Ethiopian, and three prominent Coptic lay leaders.


The relic was said to be a small piece of bone that had been given to the Roman pope by Giovanni Cardinal Urbani, Patriarch of Venice. Pope Paul, in an address to the delegation, said that the rest of the relics of the saint remained in Venice.


St. Mark by Donatello(Orsanmichele, Florence).


The delegation received the relic on June 22, 1968. The next day, the delegation celebrated a pontifical liturgy in the Church of Saint Athanasius the Apostolic in Rome. The metropolitans, bishops, and priests of the delegation all served in the liturgy. Members of the Roman papal delegation, Copts who lived in Rome, newspaper and news agency reporters, and many foreign dignitaries attended the liturgy.


Source: catholic.org

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General

 

  • "The Apostle and Evangelist Mark (40–62)". Official web site of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa. Retrieved 2011-02-07.

 

Specific

 

  1. ^ a b c "St. Mark The Apostle, Evangelist". Coptic Orthodox Church Network. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Mark". Retrieved 1 March 2013.
  3. ^ Lane, William L. (1974). "The Author of the Gospel". The Gospel According to Mark. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. pp. 21–3.ISBN 978-0-8028-2502-5.
  4. ^ Mark: Images of an Apostolic Interpreter p55 C. Clifton Black - 2001 -".. infrequent occurrence in the Septuagint (Num 36:11; Tob 7:2) to its presence in Josephus (JW 1.662; Ant 1.290, 15.250) and Philo (On the Embassy to Gaius 67), anepsios consistently carries the connotation of "cousin," though ..."
  5. ^ Hippolytus. "The same Hippolytus on the Seventy Apostles". Ante-Nicene Fathers.
  6. ^ Finegan, Jack (1998). Handbook of Biblical Chronology. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson. p. 374. ISBN 978-1-56563-143-4.
  7. ^ "Egypt". Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Retrieved 2011-12-14. See drop-down essay on "Islamic Conquest and the Ottoman Empire"
  8. ^ Bunson, Matthew; Bunson, Margaret; Bunson, Stephen (1998). Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division. p. 401. ISBN 0-87973-588-0.
  9. ^ Acts of the Apostles 15:36-40
  10. ^ 2 Timothy 4:11
  11. ^ Philemon 24
  12. ^ Senior, Donald P. (1998), "Mark", in Ferguson, Everett, Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (2nd ed.), New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., p. 720, ISBN 0-8153-3319-6
  13. ^ Papias, Exposition of the Oracles of the Lord, VI. Newadvent.org][1]
  14. ^ Harrington, Daniel J. (1990), "The Gospel According to Mark", in Brown, Raymond E.;Fitzmyer, Joseph A.; Murphy, Roland E., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, p. 596, ISBN 0-13-614934-0
  15. ^ D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament (Apollos, 1992), 93.
  16. ^ University of Navarre (1992), The Navarre Bible: Saint Mark's Gospel (2nd ed.), Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 55–56, ISBN 1-85182-092-2
  17. ^ University of Navarre (1992), The Navarre Bible: Saint Mark’s Gospel (2nd ed.), Dublin: Four Court’s Press, p. 172, ISBN 1-85182-092-2
  18. ^ University of Navarre (1992), The Navarre Bible: Saint Mark’s Gospel (2nd ed.), Dublin: Four Court’s Press, p. 179, ISBN 1-85182-092-2
  19. ^ a b c H.H. Pope Shenouda III, The Beholder of God Mark the Evangelist Saint and Martyr, Chapter One. Tasbeha.org
  20. ^ "About the Diocese". Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States.
  21. ^ "Saint Mark". Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  22. ^ H.H. Pope Shenouda III. The Beholder of God Mark the Evangelist Saint and Martyr, Chapter Seven. Tasbeha.org
  23. ^ a b "Section dedicated to the recovery of St. Mark's body". Basilicasanmarco.it. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  24. ^ "St. Marks Basilica". Avventure Bellissime – Italy Tours. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  25. ^ Gayford, Martin, "Treasures of Heaven, Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe, British Museum",The Telegraph, June 11, 2011
  26. ^ Okey, Thomas (1904), Venice and Its Story,