St. Mark the Evangelist

Saint Mark died a martyr’s death in Alexandria Egypt. In the West his feast day is celebrated April 25th, and he is the accepted author of the second synoptic gospel. Information on his life is fragmentary. The only certain reliable information is found in Philemon.

Here he is mentioned as one of St. Paul’s fellow missionaries who sends greetings from Rome to the Christians of Colossae. There are indications that he is the cousin of St. Barnabas. Except for being referred to as John in Acts, chapters 12, 13, and 15, he is consistently called by his Latin surname Mark.

According to Acts, his mother’s house in Jerusalem was a center of Christian life and he accompanied Barnabas and Paul to Antioch where he became their assistant on a missionary journey. When they arrived at Perga, he left them and returned to Jerusalem. His departure caused Barnabas and Paul to separate because Paul declined Barnabas’ insistence on giving Mark another chance. Subsequently Mark sailed to Cyprus with Barnabas never to be mentioned again in Acts. The dependability of the Acts account is questionable because its author Luke is particularly interested in explaining the breach between Paul and Barnabas, probably introducing Mark for this reason.

In Timothy 4:11, Paul requests Timothy to bring Mark, “for he is very useful in serving me.” A close relationship between Mark and St. Peter is suggested by Peter’s greetings from “my son Mark” in 1 Peter 5:13.

Later tradition assumes that Mark was one of 72 disciples appointed by Jesus in Chapter 10 of Luke and identifies him as the young man fleeing naked from Jesus’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Egyptian church claims Mark as its founder and from the fourth century AD, the See of Alexandria has been called cathedra Marci, (“the chair of Mark”). Other places attributing their origin to Mark are the Italian cities of Aquileia and Venice, of which he is the patron saint. His symbol is the lion.

The fresco of St. Mark the Evangelist in church Chiesa di Santa Maria in Aquiro by Cesare Mariani from 1826 - 1901 in neo-mannerist style.

The shortest of the New Testament Gospels is likely to have been the first written. It often tells of Jesus’ ministry in more detail than either Matthew or Luke, for example the stories of the miracles He performed. It recounts Jesus ministry in a vivid style with one incident following directly upon the next. Mark stresses Jesus message about the Kingdom of God and Jesus himself as the good news of God. In Saint Mark’s Gospel, Jesus is portrayed as immensely popular with the people in Galilee during His ministry. He appoints twelve disciples to help preach and drive out demons.

Tradition has it that the author of Mark was a confidant of St. Peter, and he recorded what Peter preached in Rome. As mentioned, Mark is identified as John Mark in the Acts of the Apostles. Because of the reference to the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD most biblical scholars believe that Mark’s gospel was written sometime between 66-74.