Red-Letter Day
Evangelist
April 25 · d. 70
also known as Mark, John Mark, St. Mark, Mark the Evangelist
Mark, called by the early church the interpreter of Peter, wrote down the apostle's preaching at Rome and gave the church the Gospel that bears his name. Tradition sends him on from Rome to Alexandria, where he founded the church that the Coptic Orthodox still keep as their own, and where he died a martyr under Nero. His feast is kept on April 25.
The figure of Mark steps quietly into the New Testament from the edges. He is the cousin of Barnabas, the young companion of Paul on the first missionary journey who turned back at Perga and so divided Paul and Barnabas for a season, and later, in Peter's first letter, the apostle's "son" who sends greetings from Babylon, which the church has read from the beginning as a code for Rome.
What the church has remembered most about him, however, is what he did at Rome. Peter preached, and the Roman Christians, hearing him, were not satisfied with the spoken word and asked Mark to set it down. Mark, who had been with Peter and had listened with care, wrote what Peter remembered: the towns, the boats, the storms, the crowds pressing in, the demoniac among the tombs, the deaf man whose ears were opened with a sigh and a word, the cross. He wrote in a hurry. The Greek runs forward at the pace of a man with news he cannot keep. Mark opens his Gospel with the line that has stood ever since as the herald-call of the church's preaching: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."
From Rome, the tradition takes him south, across the Mediterranean to Alexandria, the great Greek-speaking city of Egypt. There he preached the Gospel he had written, and there he gathered a church. The patriarchate that traces its succession back to him, the See of Saint Mark, the Coptic Orthodox Church, is one of the oldest continuous Christian communities on earth. They have kept him as their founder for nineteen centuries.
The end, as the Coptic church has remembered it, came on the eve of Easter in the reign of Nero. The mob of the city laid hands on him at the altar, put a rope around his neck, and dragged him through the streets of Alexandria until he was dead. He was buried by his people in the place where, in time, they would build a church to his name.
The witnesses to Mark stand close to the apostolic generation. The earliest is Papias of Hierapolis, writing about 130 and preserved by Eusebius of Caesarea in the Ecclesiastical History 3.39, who reports a tradition he had received from John the Presbyter, a hearer of the apostles. Irenaeus of Lyons, writing about 180 in Against Heresies 3.1.1, gives the same picture independently. Clement of Alexandria, preserved by Eusebius at EH 2.15, adds the Roman setting: that Peter's hearers asked Mark to write. Eusebius himself, at EH 2.16, is the first narrative source for Mark's mission to Egypt. These four witnesses, in roughly that order, are the load-bearing patristic record.
In McGiffert's translation of Eusebius (Schaff's NPNF series), Papias preserves the foundational claim: "This also the presbyter said: Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately, though not in order, whatsoever he remembered of the things said or done by Christ." The word translated interpreter, in Papias's Greek, is hermeneutes: the one who carries another's words across into a second language and a second audience. Irenaeus, a generation later, uses the same word; as Irenaeus writes in Against Heresies 3.1.1, in the Roberts and Donaldson translation: "After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter."
The Roman setting comes from Clement, preserved by Eusebius. The Mark of the New Testament appears under several names: John, called Mark (Acts 12:12); Mark, the cousin of Barnabas (Colossians 4:10); the John who departs at Perga (Acts 13:13); the Mark Paul asks for at the end of his life as "profitable to me for the ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11); the Mark with Peter at "Babylon" in 1 Peter 5:13. The church has read these as a single life: the young man whose early failure became, in the end, the steady companionship of two apostles and the writing of a Gospel.
The Greek text of Mark is dated by patristic and modern witnesses alike to the late 60s, the years just before and after Peter's martyrdom at Rome; the apostolic-Petrine witness behind the Gospel is the church's reading and is not in serious dispute even in modern critical readings. For Mark's later movements, Eusebius gives the first narrative; in McGiffert's translation again: "And they say that this Mark was the first that was sent to Egypt, and that he proclaimed the Gospel which he had written, and first established churches in Alexandria." The fuller martyr-narrative belongs to the later Coptic , which the Alexandrian church has preserved as its own founding memory.
Mark's feast is kept on April 25 in the Western and Greek Orthodox calendars; the Coptic Orthodox keep him also on Pashons 30 (May 8) for his martyrdom. The liturgical color is red, the color of an evangelist and martyr. He is patron of Venice, of Alexandria and the Coptic Orthodox Church, and of Egypt.
Of the four living creatures of Ezekiel and Revelation, Mark is the winged lion, because his Gospel opens with the voice crying in the wilderness; the winged lion became the civic emblem of Venice and remains the symbol of the city. His relics, by the Venetian tradition, were translated from Alexandria to Venice in 828 and rest in the Basilica di San Marco; in 1968 Pope Paul VI returned a relic fragment to the Coptic Pope Cyril VI for the new Cathedral of Saint Mark in Cairo.
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The Gospel according to Mark(Greek (Koine), c. AD 65-70)
Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels and the one that runs fastest; it is meant to be read at a single sitting. The King James is recommended for its cadence and its place in the prayer-book tradition; any sober modern translation will serve.
Other translations: English Standard Version, Revised Standard Version (Catholic Edition)
Public domain: King James Version (Wikisource)
Ecclesiastical History 3.39 (the Papias fragment on Mark)(Greek, Eusebius c. 325; Papias material c. 130)
The earliest external witness to Markan authorship: Papias, citing John the Presbyter, names Mark as Peter's interpreter who wrote down Peter's preaching accurately though not in order. The load-bearing patristic testimony for Mark's relation to Peter.
Public domain: CCEL (McGiffert / NPNF)
Ecclesiastical History 2.15 (Mark composes the Gospel at Rome)(Greek, Eusebius c. 325; Clementine material c. 200)
Eusebius preserves Clement of Alexandria's account of the composition setting: Peter's Roman hearers entreated Mark to leave them a written record of the preaching, and Peter sanctioned the work for use in the churches.
Public domain: CCEL (McGiffert / NPNF)
Ecclesiastical History 2.16 (Mark in Egypt and Alexandria)(Greek, c. 325)
The earliest narrative source for Mark as founder of the Alexandrian church, the patriarchal tradition that Coptic Christianity preserves to this day.
Public domain: CCEL (McGiffert / NPNF)
Against Heresies 3.1.1(Greek (surviving in Latin), c. 180)
Irenaeus, writing about 180, gives independent second-century confirmation that Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, wrote down what Peter had preached.
Public domain: CCEL (Roberts and Donaldson / ANF)
Mark: The Gospel of Passion (Biblical Imagination Series)(English, 2012)
The lay-accessible entry point. Michael Card has spent decades praying the Gospels into song, and his volume on Mark reads the second Gospel as the Gospel of Petrine eyewitness urgency. The book to put first in a thoughtful parishioner's hand who wants to pray Mark slowly.
The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary)(English, 2002)
The deeper scholarly-believing pick. James R. Edwards's volume in the Pillar series is the standard believing-register academic commentary on Mark, accessible to a parish priest or a seminarian without seminary Greek. Edwards takes the apostolic-Petrine witness behind the Gospel seriously and reads the Greek with care. For the reader who has finished Card and wants exegetical depth.
Primary text. The Gospel of Mark itself, in the ESV or another sober modern translation; the King James preserves the cadence that has shaped centuries of English reading and rewards a second sitting. The Gospel is short enough to be read at a single sitting, and was meant to be.
Patristic witnesses. Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History 2.15, 2.16, and 3.39 are the load-bearing patristic record, freely available in McGiffert's translation in Schaff's Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, hosted by CCEL. Irenaeus's Against Heresies 3.1.1, in the Roberts and Donaldson translation in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, gives the same picture independently.
Modern scholarship. Michael Card's Mark: The Gospel of Passion (IVP, 2012) is the lay-accessible entry point, a devotional companion that reads Mark as the Gospel of Petrine eyewitness urgency in a register a thoughtful parishioner can pray with. James R. Edwards's Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary, Eerdmans, 2002) is the deeper scholarly-believing pick for the reader who wants exegetical apparatus past Card's devotional length; accessible to a parish priest or a seminarian without seminary Greek.
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Mark is as much to say as high to commandment, certain, declined, and bitter. He was high of commandment by reason of perfection in his life, for he kept not only the commandments common, but also the high as be counsels. He was certain in the doctrine of the gospel, like as he had received of S. Peter his master, he was declined by reason of perfect and great humility, for because of great meekness he cut off his thumb, to the end that he should not be chosen to be a priest. He was bitter by reason of right sharp and bitter pain, for he was drawn through the city, and among those torments he gave up his spirit. Or Mark is said of a great mallet or beetle, which with one stroke makes plain iron and engenders melody, and confirms it. For S. Mark by his only doctrine quenches the unsteadfastness of the heretics, he engendered the great melody of the praising of God, and confirmed the church.
Of S. Mark the Evangelist.
Mark the Evangelist was of the kindred of the Levites, and was a priest. And when he was christened he was godson of S. Peter the apostle, and therefore he went with him to Rome. When S. Peter preached there the gospel, the good people of Rome prayed S. Mark that he would put the gospel in writing, like as S. Peter had preached. Then he at their request wrote and showed it to his master S. Peter to examine; and when S. Peter had examined it, and saw that it contained the very truth, he approved it and commanded that it should be read at Rome. And then S. Peter seeing S. Mark constant in the faith, he sent him into Aquilegia for to preach the faith of Jesu Christ, where he preached the word of God, and did many miracles, and converted innumerable multitudes of people to the faith of Christ. And wrote also to them the gospel, like as he did to them of Rome, which is in to this day kept in the church of Aquilegia, and with great devotion kept.
After this it happed that S. Mark led with him to Rome a burgess of that same city whom he had converted to the faith, named Ermagoras, brought him to S. Peter, and prayed him that he would sacre him bishop of Aquilegia, and so he did. Then this Ermagoras, when he was bishop, he governed much holily the church, and at the last the paynims martyred him. Then S. Peter sent S. Mark into Alexandria, whereas he preached first the word of God, and as soon as he was entered a great multitude of people assembled for to come against him. There was he of so great perfection that by his predication and by his good example, the people mounted in so holy conversation and in so great devotion that, at his instance they led their life like monks.
He was of so great humility that he did cut off his thumb because he would be no priest, for he judged himself not worthy thereto; but the ordinance of God and of S. Peter came against his will, for S. Peter made and sacred him bishop of Alexandria. And anon, as he came into Alexandria, his shoes were broken and torn; when he saw that he said: Verily I see that my journey is sped, ne the devil may not let me sith that God has assoiled me of my sins. Then went S. Mark to a shoemaker for to amend his shoes, and as he would work he pricked and sore hurted his left hand with his awl, and when he felt him hurt he cried on high: One God! when S. Mark heard that he said to him: Now know I well that God has made my journey prosperous. Then he took a little clay and spittle and meddled them together and laid it on the wound, and anon he was whole. When the shoemaker saw this miracle he brought him into his house and demanded him what he was, and from whence he came. Then said S. Mark that he was the servant of Jesu Christ, and he said: I would fain see him. Then said S. Mark. I shall show him to you. Then he began to preach to him the faith of Jesu Christ, and after baptized him and all his meiny. When the men of the town heard say that there was a man come from Galilee, that despised and defended the sacrifices of idols, they began await how they might deliver him to death. When S. Mark espied that, he made his shoemaker, which was named Anian, bishop of Alexandria, and he himself went to Pentapolin whereas he was two years, and after, came again to Alexandria and found then there the town full of christian men, and the bishops of the idols awaited for to take him.
Now it happened on Easter day, when S. Mark sang mass, they assembled all and put a cord about his neck, and after, drew him throughout the city, and said: Let us draw the bubale to the place of bucale. And the blood ran upon the stones, and his flesh was torn piecemeal that it lay upon the pavement all bebled. After this they put him in prison, where an angel came and comforted him, and after came our Lord for to visit and comfort him, saying: Pax tibi Marce evangelista meus. Peace be to you Mark, mine Evangelist! be not in doubt, for I am with you and shall deliver you. And on the morn they put the cord about his neck and drew him like as they had done tofore and cried: Draw the bubale, and when they had drawn he thanked God and said: Into your hands Lord, I commend my spirit, and he thus saying died. Then the paynims would have burnt his body, but the air began suddenly to change and to hail, lighten and thunder, in such wise that every man enforced him to flee, and left there the holy body alone. Then came the christian men and bare it away, and buried it in the church, with great joy, honour, and reverence. This was in the year of our Lord fifty-seven, in the time that Nero was emperor.
And it happed in the year of grace four hundred and sixty-six in the time of Leo the emperor, that the Venetians translated the body of S. Mark from Alexandria to Venice in this manner. There were two merchants of Venice did so much, what by prayer and by their gifts, to two priests that kept the body of S. Mark, that they suffered it to be borne secretly and privily unto their ship. And as they took it out of the tomb, there was so sweet an odour throughout all the city of Alexandria that all the people marvelled, ne knew not from whence it came. Then the merchants brought it to the ship, and after, hasted the mariners and let the other ships have knowledge thereof. Then there was one man in another ship that japed, and said: Ween you to carry away the body of S. Mark? Nay, you lead with you an Egyptian. Then anon, after this word, the ship wherein the holy body was, turned lightly after him, and so rudely boarded the ship of him that had said that word, that he brake one of the sides of the ship, and would never leave it in peace till they had confessed that the body of S. Mark was in the ship, that done, she held her still.
Thus as they sailed fast they took none heed, and the air began to wax dark and thick, that they knew not where they were. Then appeared S. Mark unto a monk, to whom the body of S. Mark was delivered to keep, and bade him anon to strike their sails for they were nigh land, and he did so, and anon they found land in an isle. And by all the rivages whereas they passed, it was said to them that they were well happy that they led so noble a treasure as the body of S. Mark, and prayed them that they would let them worship it. Yet there was a mariner that might not believe that it was the body of S. Mark, but the devil entered into him, and tormented him so long that he could not be delivered till he was brought to the holy body; and as soon as he confessed that it was the body of S. Mark, he was delivered of the wicked spirit, and ever after he had great devotion to S. Mark.
It happed after, that the body of S. Mark was closed in a pillar of marble, and right few people knew thereof because it should be secretly kept. Then it happed that they that knew thereof died, and there was none that knew where this great treasure might be, wherefore the clerks and the lay people were greatly discomforted and wept for sorrow, and doubted much that it had been stolen away. Then made they solemn processions and litanies, and the people began to fast and be in prayers, and all suddenly the stones opened and showed to all the people the place and stead where the holy body rested. Then rendered they thankings to God of this, that he had relieved them of their sorrow and anguish, and ordained that on that day they shall hold feast alway for this devout revelation.
A young man on a time had a cancer in his breast, and worms ate it which were come of rotting, and as he was thus tormented he prayed with good heart to S. Mark, and required him of help and aid, and after, he slept. And that same time appeared to him S. Mark in form of a pilgrim, tucked and made ready for to go hastily over sea; and when he demanded him what he was, he answered that he was S. Mark, which went hastily for to succour a ship which is in peril; then he stretched and laid his hand on him, and anon as he awoke he found himself all whole. Anon after, this ship came unto the port of Venice, and the mariners told the peril where they had been in, and how S. Mark had holpen them, then for that one miracle and for that other the people rendered thankings to our Lord.
The merchants of Venice went on a time by the sea in a ship of Saracens towards Alexandria; and when they saw them in peril, they hewed the cords of the ship, and anon the ship began to break by the force of the sea. And all the Saracens that were therein fell in the sea, and died that one after the other. Then one of the Saracens made his avow to S. Mark and promised him that if he delivered him from this peril he would be baptized. Anon a man all shining appeared to him, which took him out of the water and remitted him again into the ship, and anon the tempest ceased. When he was come into Alexandria he remembered no thing S. Mark, which had delivered him from peril, he went not to visit him, ne he did him not do be baptized. Then appeared to him S. Mark, and said to him that he remembered evil the bounty that he did to him when he delivered him from the peril of the sea, and anon the Saracen came again to his conscience, and he went to Venice, and was there baptized and named Mark, and believed perfectly in God, and ended his life in good works.
There was a man gone up in the steeple of S. Mark at Venice; and as he intended for to do a work, he was troubled in such wise that he fell, and was like to have been all to-broken in his members, nevertheless in his falling he cried: S. Mark! and anon he rested upon a branch that sprang out, whereof he took none heed, and after, one raught and let him down a cord, by which he avaled down and was saved.
There was a gentleman of Provence which had a servant that would fain go on pilgrimage to S. Mark, but he could get no licence of his lord. At last he doubted not to anger his lord, but went thither much devoutly. And when his lord knew it he bare it much grievously, and as soon as he was come again his lord commanded that his eyes should be put out; and the other servants that were ready to do the lord's will made ready sharp brochets of iron, and enforced them with all their power and might not do it. Then commanded the lord to hew off his thighs with axes, but anon the iron was as soft as molten lead. Then commanded he to break his teeth with iron hammers, but the iron thereof was so soft that they could do him no harm. Then when the lord saw the virtue of God so openly by the miracles of S. Mark, he demanded pardon and went to Venice, to S. Mark, with his servant.
There was a knight on a time so hurt in battle that his hand hung on the arm in such wise that his friends and surgeons counselled him to cut it off, but he, that was accustomed to be whole, was ashamed to be maimed, and made it to be bound in his place, and after he called much devoutly to S. Mark, and anon his hand was as whole as it had been tofore, and in the witness of this miracle a sign of the cutting abode still.
Another time there was a knight armed which ran upon a bridge, and his horse and he fell in a deep water, and when he saw he might not escape he cried on S. Mark, and anon he raught him a spear by which he was saved, and for this cause he came anon in pilgrimage to Venice and told this miracle.
There was a man taken, by envy of them that hated him, and was put in prison, and when he had been there forty days, and was much grieved, he cried on S. Mark. And when S. Mark had appeared thrice he supposed that it had been a fantasy. At the last he felt his irons broken, as it had been a rotten thread, and passed by the keepers of the prison openly by day, he seeing them all, but none of them saw him, and after, came to the church of S. Mark and thanked God devoutly.
It happed in Apulia was great famine, and the land was barren that nothing might grow thereon. Then was it showed by revelation to a holy man that it was because that they hallowed not the feast of S. Mark; and when they knew this, anon they hallowed the feast of S. Mark, and anon began to grow great plenty of goods throughout all the country.
It happed at Papia, in the convent of the friars preachers, in the year of our Lord one thousand two hundred and forty-one, that a friar, a much religious man, was sick unto the death, named Julianus, which sent for his prior for to demand him in what state he was in, and he told him that he was in peril of death, and that it approached fast, and anon his face was all bright and joyful, and with gladness be began to say: fair brethren, my soul shall depart anon, make room and place, for my soul joys in my body for the good tidings that I have heard. And lift up his eyes unto heaven and said: Lord God, take away my soul out of this prison; and after he said: Alas! who shall deliver me from this corrupt and mortal body? Among these words he fell in a light sleep, and saw S. Mark come to him and standing by his bedside, and he heard a voice saying to him: O Mark, what makest thou here? He answered that he was come to visit this friar because he should die. Then he demanded him wherefore he came more than another saint; he answered because he had a special devotion to me, and because he has oft devoutly visited my church, and therefore am I come to visit him in the hour of his death. Then entered into that place great plenty of people all white, to whom S. Mark demanded wherefore they were come. And they said and answered that they were come for to present the soul of this brother tofore God. And when the friar was waked he sent for the prior and told to him advisedly all this vision, and after, anon, in the presence of the prior, he died with great joy. And all this the prior recounted to him that wrote this book named Legenda aurea.
Almighty God, by the hand of Mark the evangelist you have given to your Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ: We thank you for his witness, and pray that you will give us grace to know the truth, and not to be carried about by every wind of false doctrine, that we may know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Isaiah 52:7–10Psalm 2Ephesians 4:7–8, 11–16Mark 16:15–20