St. Mark

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Mark. A lot of the information we know about St. Mark comes from the New Testament and some early Christian festivals and traditions.

St. Mark is the author of the Second Gospel which can be found in the New Testament. St. Mark is known as Mark the Evangelist and is also known as 'John Mark', he is referred to as John Mark in the Acts of the Apostles. The story of Jesus and the history of the early Church is found in the Canon of the New Testament.

St. Mark’s mother was Mary of Jerusalem and St. Mark’s house was used as a meeting place for the apostles. He is also has a cousin named St. Barnabas, who was a Levite and a Cypriot.

St. Mark decided to join St. Paul and St. Barnabas during their first missionary mission to Antioch during the year 44 A.D. When the group had reached Cyprus, Christians believe that St. Mark decided to leave them and returned back to Jerusalem, possibly because he was missing his home.

This specific incident probably made St. Paul question whether St. Mark could be a reliable missionary. This decision created a lot of tension between St. Paul and St. Barnabas and led to St. Paul refusing St. Mark's accompaniment on their second mission to the churches of Cilicia and the rest of Asia Minor.

However, it is believed that all the troubles between St. Paul and St. Mark did not last that long, because when St. Paul was first imprisoned, St. Mark who was visiting Rome at the time with the plans of visiting Asia Minor, decided to visit St. Paul.

St. Mark's hopes to visit Asia Minor were most likely carried out, due to the fact that during St. Paul's second time being captured and right before his martyrdom. St. Paul decided to write to Timothy at Ephesus and he told him to "take Mark and bring him with you [to Rome], for he is profitable to me for the ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11).

Many early and current Christians traditions believe that, St. Mark had a very close relationship with St. Peter. It is reported that St. Peter would refer to St. Mark as 'his son' in his letter addressed to a number of churches in Asia Minor.

St. Mark spent some of his life living in Alexandria, where he died as a martyr while he was dragged through the streets.

St. Mark's Gospel was most likely written between the years 60 and 70 A.D., and it is based on the teachings of St. Peter.

St. Mark is believed to have been one of the first bishop of Alexandria, Egypt and he was the founder of the Church of Alexandria.

During the year 828, St. Mark’s relics were stolen from Alexandria and they were taken to Venice, Italy. The relics were later enshrined in a beautiful cathedral dedicated to St. Mark.

St. Mark's symbol is a winged lion. This symbols represents him because it is believed to be derived from his description of St. John the Baptist, as "a voice of one crying out in the desert" (Mark 1:3). The wings come from Ezekiel's vision of four winged creatures as the evangelists.

St. Mark is often illustrated writing or holding his Gospel. St. Mark sometimes is shown as a bishop on a throne.

St. Mark’s feast day is celebrated on April 25 and he is the patron saint of Venice, Italy and physicians.

Prayer to St. Mark:

St. Mark help us to gain the strength and wisdom we need to learn more about Christ and take the time to read and spread your Gospel. Help us to be able to strengthen our devotion and relationship to Christ so that we may guide others to him

We ask this through Christ Our Lord and Mary Our Mother in Heaven

Amen

St. Mark pray for us

St. Joseph pray for us

May we continue to strengthen our journey to sainthood and keep others in our prayers.

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Works cited:

Information (read from, not taken):

Catholic Online. “St. Mark. ”St. Mark - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online. Accessed 25 April 2021.