SAINT MARK

SAINT MARK – The Second Gospel is attributed to this Apostle, who some say was the young man who fled away naked at the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane ^{(Mark 14:51-52)}. In the Acts, he is called John Mark ^{(Acts 12:12; 15:37)}, the son of Mary, at whose house in Jerusalem the early Christians stayed ^{(Acts 12:12)}, and he was a cousin of the Apostle Barnabas ^{(Col. 4:10)}. He figures several times in the Acts, at one point being the source of a temporary rift between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:36-40), but later he was with Paul during his first imprisonment at Rome ^{(Col. 4:10)}. In his 1st Epistle, St. Peter mentions Mark as being with him, styling him my son ^{(1 Pet. 5:13)}. According to Church tradition, St. Mark wrote his Gospel at the request of the brethren in Rome, who asked him to relate what he had learned from St. Peter. He is said to have preached the Gospel at Alexandria, Egypt, and was its first Bishop, being martyred there during the reign of the Emperor Trajan. His Feast Day is April 25.