|
|
 |
Although Kitto is sure Mark the author of the gospel and John Mark are different men, other scholars see them as the same. This is Donatello's sculpture of Mark the Evangelist as he imagined him.
NEW ON DVD
Reflection on Psalm 23 for People with Cancer. The most popular song in the entire history of the world has brought more comfort and courage to more people at more times at more places than any other words every written.
|
|
n the dispersion of the apostles for propagating the gospel is different
parts of the world, after our Lord’s ascension into heaven, St. Mark was
by Peter sent into Egypt, where he soon planted a church in Alexandria,
the metropolis; and such was his success, that he converted great multitudes
of people, both men and women, to the Christian religion.
St.
Mark did not confine himself to Alexandria and the Oriental parts of Egypt,
but removed westward to Lybia, passing through the countries of Marmarcia,
Pentapolis, and others adjacent, where, though the people were both barbarous
in their manners and idolatrous in their worship, yet by his preaching
and miracles he prevailed on them to embrace the tenets of the gospel;
nor did he leave them till he had confirmed them in the faith.
After this long tour he returned to Alexandria, where he preached with
the greatest freedom, ordered and disposed of the affairs of the church,
and wisely provided for a succession by constituting governors and pastors
of it. But the restless enemy of the souls of men would not suffer our
apostle to continue in peace and quietness; for while he was assiduously
laboring in the vineyard of his Master, the idolatrous inhabitants, about
the time of Easter, when they were celebrating the solemnities of Serapis,
tumultuously seized him, and, binding his feet with cords, dragged him
through the streets and over the most craggy places to the Bucelus, a
precipice near the sea, leaving him there in a lonesome prison for that
night; but his great and beloved Master appeared to him in a vision, comforting
and encouraging him under the ruins of his shattered body.
Early the next morning the tragedy began afresh; and they dragged him
about in the same cruel and barbarous manner till he expired. But their
malice did not end with his death, for they burned his mangles body after
they had so inhumanly deprived it of life; but the Christians gathered
up his bones and ashes, and decently interred them near the place where
he used to preach. His remains were afterward, with great pomp, removed
from Alexandria to Venice, where they were religiously honored, and he
was adopted the titular saint and patron of that state.
He suffered martyrdom on the 25th of April, but the year is not absolutely
known; the most probably opinion is that it happened about the end of
the reign of Nero.
His Gospel, the only writing he left behind him, was written at the
entreaty and earnest desire of the converts at Rome, who, not content
with having heard St. Peter preach, pressed St. Mark, his disciple, to
commit to writing an historical account of what he had delivered to them,
which he performed with equal faithfulness and approved by St. Peter,
it was commanded to be publicly read in the assemblies. It was frequently
styled St. Peter’s gospel, not because he dictated it to St. Mark, but
because the latter composed it from the accounts St. Peter usually delivered
in his discourse to the people. And this is probably the reason of what
St. Chrysostom observes, that in his style and manner of expression he
delights to imitate St. Peter, representing a great deal in a few words.
Resources: This story is adapted from John Kitto's 1870 History
of the Bible and represents the commonly accepted views about this
apostle among rank and file believers in the late 19th century.
|
|
