About St. Mark the Evangelist...

Feast day in the West is April 25. Feast day in the East is September 23.
Feast of his relics to Venice is celebrated on January 31.

Among the younger figures of the New Testament is John Mark (Acts 12:25), mentioned several times in the New Testament. Of the four Gospels, his is the most vivid and informal because it was probably the first recorded (AD 60-70). In some ways it is the most descriptive Gospel, yet he writes as though it had to be done quickly. Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, Asia Minor, called him the interpreter of Peter, c. 130, and said that he preached the gospel in Alexandria. An ancient tradition had the Gospel written down in Rome for Gentile Christians. He recorded the story of Jesus as he heard it from the lips of Saint Peter. "For," according to Papias, "he had neither heard the Lord, nor ever been his disciple, but later had attended Peter, who composed his teachings to suit the needs of the moment, but did not profess to make a regular collection of the Lord's sayings. And so Mark made no mistakes; writing down the particulars just as he remembered them." Mark's Gospel is written in awkward Greek, full of Semitic turns of phrases, cumbersome participles, and a lack of transitions. Yet Mark's simple language, stripped of rhetorical flourishes, without oratorical periods, without concern for syntax, is perhaps the clearest language through which to see best the flesh and blood of Jesus. The miracles of Jesus must have deeply affected Mark because his Gospel recounts many of them. In order to demonstrate Jesus' divinity to the Romans, Mark skillfully shows Jesus as a worker of miracles rather than Jesus fulfilling prophecies that would be unknown to his intended readers. Mark's Gospel starkly sets out the demands of Jesus on his followers. Jesus had suffered, says Mark; His followers will suffer similarly. Indeed, Jesus had explicitly warned the disciples about this. But it is also clear that those who can endure such sufferings will be greatly rewarded, for what Mark claims to be bringing is 'good news,' 'the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,' as he states in the very first verse. Another early historian, Eusebius, reporting the words of Saint Clement of Alexandria says that Saint Mark, a follower of Saint Peter, was asked by Roman tradesmen to compose a permanent memorial of Saint Peter's sermons, and so came to write, from his memory of them, the Gospel which bears his name. Saint Ireneaus also tells us that Mark was Saint Peter's interpreter and mouthpiece. 

Saint Mark was a cousin of Barnabas (Col. 4:10). His mother, Mary, was evidently a person of some wealth and position in Jerusalem, for her home was a center of hospitality to which the leaders of the early Church naturally gravitated. When Saint Peter escaped from prison, he came "to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying," and it was a maid of the house, called Rhoda, who answered the door. Mark was probably a Levite, because we know that his kinsman Barnabas was one (Acts 4:36), and perhaps a minor minister in the synagogue. He accompanied Paul and Barnabas to Antioch is AD 44 (Acts 12:25), then to Salamis in Cyprus, and with Barnabas was on Paul's first missionary journey (Acts 13:5), but left Paul at Perga in Pamphylia and returned alone to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). For some reason he evidently offended Paul, who did not take him on his second missionary journey to Cilicia and Asia Minor, which was the occasion of the disagreement and separation of Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:36-40). Mark accompanied Barnabas to Cyprus (Acts 15:39) and then, evidently back in Paul's good graces, was with him in Rome during his first imprisonment (Col. 4:10), where he was apparently a disciple of Peter, who affectionately called him "my son, Mark" (1 Peter 5:13). During Paul's second Roman captivity, shortly before his martyrdom, he writes to Timothy, who was at Ephesus, to "take Mark and bring him with you, for he is profitable to me for the ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11).

An early uncertain tradition, recorded by Eusebius, renders Mark the first bishop of Alexandria, but neither Papias nor Clement of Alexandria mentions it. The tradition says that upon his arrival in Alexandria, like Paul arriving in Damascus, Mark found lodging with an inhabitant, in this case with a shoemaker. The shoemaker was also to become a saint, whose feast is celebrated today-- Anianus. Tradition continues that Mark was martyred during the reign of Emperor Trajan or the "eighth year of Nero," and the shoemaker Anianus succeeded him as bishop.One Easter Sunday, the uncertain tradition continues, April 24, 68, Mark was arrested. The long path of Jesus, from Gethsemani up to the palace of Anna, which Mark had not had the courage to pursue in Jerusalem, had been reserved for him, with a rope around his neck, from Alexandria up to the little port
of Bucoles. He fell several times along the way. Finally, after having carried his rope all day and then for a night, and feeling it sink into his flesh, in the end he no longer desired that it be removed. He wanted to find this collar to his measure, this light yoke--and died strangled. In the East, John Mark is believed to be a separate person who became bishop of Biblios and whose feast is celebrated on September 27. Regardless of Papias's remarks that Mark never knew our Lord, there is
speculation that he would have been acquainted with Jesus. He may have been the unnamed youth (mentioned only in Saint Mark's Gospel 14:51-52) who appeared at the time of the Betrayal, wrapped in a sheet, as if he had come straight from his bed, and who, when caught, escaped into the night (this has always been curious to me). It is likely enough that Saint Mark, as a boy, had been drawn to the scene, but it is only a conjecture. Other Scripture scholars note that the Last Supper may have occurred in the room reserved in Mark's mother's house for pilgrims, and that the Garden of Gethsamane belonged to the family. It would have been common enough for one of the family members or servants to sleep in the garden as a protection against thieves, which would explain the boy sleeping in the open (Attwater,Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill, Walsh, White).

In art, Saint Mark is an evangelist with a book or scroll and a winged lion. At times he may be shown (1) with palm and book (sometimes pax tibi Marce is written on his book); (2) as a bishop with his throne decorated with  lions;(3) coming to the aid of Venetian sailors; or (4) rescuing Christian slaves from the Saracens (Roeder). The winged lion is used as Saint Mark's emblem. This is one of the four winged creatures of Ezekiel 1:10; 10:14 that were first applied by Jewish scholars to the four archangels (Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel) with reference to and later used in reference to the four major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel). By the 2nd century after Christ, Christians transferred the emblem to the
four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in written allusions. These became visual symbols in the 5th century. Traditionally, it is explained that the winged lion is chosen for Mark because his gospel speaks of the royal dignity of Christ, and because he begins his account of Saint John the Baptist with the "voice crying is the desert" (Appleton). Saint Mark is the patron of Venice, to where his relics were reputedly brought in the 9th century from Alexandria. Although the original church of St. Mark in Venice was destroyed in 976, the rebuilt basilica contains both the relics and a magnificent series of mosaics on Mark's life, death, and translation. These date from the 12th-13th centuries and form a unique record (Farmer). He is also the patron of Egypt, glaziers, notaries, secretaries, and Spanish cattle breeders (for which there is no obvious explanation). He is invoked by captives (Roeder, White).

Source: www.catholic.com

Reflection...
To be Catholic is to be like St. Mark --  an evangelist not only in word, but in action. And while we make time for Mass, for confession, and even for private prayers -- we hardly invest any time or effort in spreading the Word to others. Jesus challenges us -- like he did his Apostles after his resurrection -- to go out into the world and spread the Word of God. So many early Christians risked and even sacrificed their earthly lives doing just this. We can strive to be evangelists in the way we live our lives -- not standing on a street corner and preaching the gospel, but -- setting an example to others by affirming and proclaiming our own faith. In this way, we become "Messengers of God".

Lessons from St. Mark the Evangelist...

Jesus once said, "Whoever sets his hand to the plow but keeps looking back is unfit for the Kingdom" (Luke 9:62)
But the Lord also gives a second chance to those who fail. We are reminded that St. Mark abandoned Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey, but later succeeded in his efforts to share the Good News.

Mark's Gospel is blunt in describing the weaknesses and failures of the Apostles; being a Christian requires a commitment to the truth - even when it is painful or upsetting.

Source: www.catholicexchange.com