Saint Mark
Evangelist
- Feast Day
- April 25
- Life
- d. 68
- Born
- Cyrene (traditional) or Jerusalem
Mark, also called John Mark, is identified in the New Testament as a companion of Saints Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey (Acts 12:25; 13:5) and as the cousin of Barnabas (Colossians 4:10). His mother Mary kept a house in Jerusalem to which Saint Peter went after his miraculous release from prison (Acts 12:12). Saint Peter calls him my son in 1 Peter 5:13, where he sends greetings from Babylon, traditionally identified with Rome.
The earliest tradition, attested by Papias of Hierapolis (early second century, preserved in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History 3.39), identifies Mark as the interpreter of Peter who set down the apostle's preaching in writing as the Gospel that bears his name. This tradition is confirmed by Saint Irenaeus (Against Heresies 3.1.1) and forms the consistent witness of the early Church concerning the second Gospel.
Mark is associated by ancient tradition with the founding of the Church of Alexandria, where he is said to have been martyred under Nero around 68 by being dragged through the streets with a rope around his neck. The Coptic Patriarchate of Alexandria, both Catholic and Orthodox, traces its succession to him. In 828 his relics were taken from Alexandria to Venice, where the Basilica of San Marco was built to receive them, and he became the patron of the Venetian Republic.
Saint Mark is the Evangelist who, through the preaching of Peter, gave the Church the second Gospel. His symbol, the winged lion, is drawn from the four living creatures of Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 4, applied to the Evangelists by Saint Irenaeus and elaborated by Saint Jerome. The Gospel of Mark, the shortest of the four, is generally regarded as the earliest, and its terse narrative of the public ministry, Passion, and Resurrection has shaped the Church's understanding of the kerygma from apostolic times.
Patronages
Venice · Egypt · notaries · Alexandria
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Mark
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Mark's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St Mark’s Catholic Church — Mabopane
- Newmarket & Taur Parish — Newmarket
- Pfarrheim St. Markus — Ransbach-Baumbach
- St. Mark the Evangelist Parish — Alos, PANGASINAN
- St. Mark the Evangelist Parish — Prescott, ON
- Sveti Marko — Sudbury, ON
- St. Mark the Evangelist Parish — Cabugao, ILOCOS SUR
- St. Mark the Evangelist — Cabarroguis, QUIRINO
- Our Lady and Saint Gregory, Market Bosworth — Nuneaton, ENG
- Saint Marks Roman Catholic Church — Venice, IL
- Our Lady & St. Mark's (Alexandria) — Alexandria, SCT
- St Anthony's & St Mark's Catholic Church — Rutherglen, SCT
- Our Lady of Victories, Market Harborough — Market Harborough, ENG
- Holy Rood, Market Rasen — Market Rasen, ENG
- St. Mark — Au Gres, MI
- St. Mark's Church (St. Mark's Parish) — Quispamsis, NB
- Saint Mark Catholic Church — Emporium, PA
- crkva svetog Marka evanđelista
- St. Mark Catholic Church — Prince Albert, SK
- St. Mark's Catholic Church (Mission) — Burton, PE
Sources