St. Mark

St. Mark, author of the second Gospel, is generally identified with the John Mark of the New Testament, whose mother's house in Jerusalem was a gathering place for the first Christians (Acts 12:12). A cousin of St. Barnabas, he accompanied Barnabas and St. Paul on their first missionary journey, but turned back at Perga — a departure that later caused a sharp disagreement between the two apostles. The rift healed with time: Paul, imprisoned in Rome, would write, "Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is helpful to me in the ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11). Mark's closest association, however, was with St. Peter, who calls him "my son Mark" (1 Peter 5:13). The early Church writer Papias, in the second century, described Mark as Peter's interpreter, who wrote down accurately the preaching of the apostle. His Gospel — the shortest of the four and, in the judgment of most scholars, the earliest — moves with vivid urgency, presenting Jesus as the suffering Son of God and calling the reader to the same road of discipleship. A strong and ancient tradition holds that Mark brought the Gospel to Egypt and founded the Church of Alexandria, one of the great sees of early Christianity, and that he was martyred there, traditionally around the year 68. While these accounts cannot be verified historically, the Coptic Church to this day honors Mark as its founder and first patriarch. In 828, Venetian merchants carried relics believed to be Mark's from Alexandria to Venice, where the magnificent Basilica of St. Mark was raised to enshrine them; the evangelist's winged lion became the emblem of the city itself. His feast is celebrated on April 25, and he is honored as patron of Venice and of notaries.