St. Mark the Evangelist

The Great Martyr

(30 Baramouda – 8 May)

The Church celebrates the feast of the martyrdom of the Great Saint the beholder of The Lord St. Mark the Apostle and Evangelist on 30^th Baramouda.

          His Hebrew name is John. He is a descendent of the Jews who inhabited the Five Western Cities on the borders of the Northwest of Egypt. His father was called Aristopolos and his mother Mary. It is said that he is the cousin of St. Peter’s wife and his mother Mary is the sister of St. Barnabas, the Apostle.

          St. Mark’s parents migrated to Jerusalem while he was still a child, so he was there when The Lord Jesus Christ was teaching. He was one of the firsts who believed in The Lord and was chosen one of the seventy Apostles.

          His mother Mary owned a house in Jerusalem, which the first Christians used as a place for prayer. The Lord Jesus repeatedly visited this house. It was also there that The Lord established the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist          Some consider St. Mark as the youth who followed The Lord Jesus when arrested. After the Lord’s resurrection, He appeared to his Disciples in St. Mark’s mother’s house, where they used to meet. It was also there that The Holy Spirit descended on the Disciples at the Pentecost.

          It was through St. Mark that his father was converted to Christianity.

          St. Mark started his evangelical mission in Palestine and it’s surroundings. He accompanied his Uncle Barnabas and St. Paul, the Apostle, in their first journey to Antioch, about 45 AD. Then they went to Cyprus and some parts of Asia Minor. When they reached Pamphilia, St. Mark separated from them and returned to Jerusalem. He remained there till the first Ecumenical Council in 51 AD.

          When St. Peter wrote his first epistle, St. Mark was with him, then St. Mark joined St. Timothy in Ephesus. He also accompanied his Uncle Barnabas on an evangelical journey to Cyprus.          

About the year 52 AD, St. Mark returned to his birth place in North

Africa where he continued his evangelization in the Five Western Cities, then he went to Egypt. When he reached Pappilion, he stayed there for some time. It is said that during this period he wrote his Gospel in Greek then went to Alexandria in 61 AD. And there he continued his teachings about The Lord Jesus Christ.

          The first fruit of the Church founded by St. Mark in Alexandria was a cobbler called Anianus, it happened as St. Mark was walking and preaching in the streets of Alexandria that his sandal was torn. He went to a cobbler called Anianus to repair it, while he was repairing it the awl pierced his finger. He shouted in Greek saying “Eis Theos” which means “O, One God”. When St. Mark heard these words he found it suitable to talk to him about The One God. St. Mark took some clay, spat on it and put on Anianus finger, ”saying in The Name of The Lord Jesus Christ The Son of God”, and the wound healed immediately, as if nothing happened to it.

          Anianus was exceedingly amazed from the miracle that happened in The Name of The Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle asked him about who was the only God that he cried for when he was injured. Anianus replied “I heard about Him, but I do not know Him.” St. Mark started explaining to him from the beginning, of creation to the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord and His ascension and all about salvation.

          Anianus invited the Saint to his house where he was baptized and his entire household.

   St. Mark’s evangelical work in Alexandria enraged the pagans so he traveled to Ephesus. There, he met St.Timothy then continued to Rome, where he stayed with St. Paul till the latter’s martyrdom in 67 AD.