St.
Mark the Evangelist
Sunday,
November 19, 2006
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 30th 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.
May the blessings of this Saint be with us all.
Amen.
|
