ON ST. MARK, MONK IN EGYPT,
AROUND THE YEAR 400.
Historical Synopsis.
Mark, Monk in Egypt (St.)
[1] The Greeks in the Great Menaea celebrate St. Mark the Monk on the fifth day of March with this eulogy: On the same day, of our holy Father Mark, the wonderworking monk. This man was most devoted to labor in all things, and at the same time gave himself entirely to the meditation of the divine Scriptures; St. Mark, a holy and learned man: by which studies he attained to the highest summit of virtue and the religious life. Both are attested by the books full of learning and utility written by him, and by the grace of miracles bestowed on him by Christ the Savior; from all of which it is necessary to bring forth one.
[2] When once the Saint was staying in his cell and attending to himself, a hyena approached, carrying her blind cub, said to have given sight to a blind hyena cub: and with a suppliant gesture asked the Saint to have pity on her and remove the blindness from her offspring. The Saint, having spat on the eyes afflicted with this malady, poured forth prayers and healed them. The hyena on the following day brought a large ram's skin as payment for the health conferred; the Saint refused to accept it until the beast promised never to prey upon the sheep of the poor. If he showed such affection toward brute animals, what kind of compassion must he be considered to have had toward human beings, to whom one and the same nature demands that mercy be shown as to his own kind?
[3] So great, moreover, was the purity of heart in this man that the Priest solemnly swore he receives the Eucharist from an Angel, that he had never given to Mark the Monk the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, but that when he approached him, it had been offered to him by an Angel, whose hand alone, extended beyond the elbow, he had seen holding the spoon by which the Saint was made a partaker of the sacred Eucharist.
[4] He withdrew from all the cares and troubles of this world when he was in his fortieth year of age, and after he had spent sixty years in the religious arena,
he departed to the Lord. He was small in bodily stature, and did not have much of a beard; but his head shone inwardly from the grace of the Holy Spirit. Thus far the Greek Menaea, which are also read in the manuscript Synaxarion of the Jesuit College of Clermont at Paris, offering it in a spoon: and in Maximus of Cythera ἐν βίοις ἁγίων. In all of these the Angel holds τὴν λαβίδα, the spoon, whose form and use is excellently explained by James Goar in his Euchologion of the Greeks, note 179, on the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. He is celebrated on the day before, that is, March 4, in the Menologion of Basil Porphyrogenitus, with a somewhat abbreviated eulogy.
[5] Sozomen, book 6 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 29, transmits the following concerning St. Mark: At the same time, the celebrated Mark and the youth Apollonius, he lived with Apollonius, St. Moses the Ethiopian, and St. Macarius the Priest: and Moses the Ethiopian lived in Scetis. They say that Mark, while still a youth, was remarkably gentle and temperate, and held the sacred scriptures in his memory; and was so dear to God that Macarius constantly affirmed that, while he himself was Priest of the Cellinians, he had never given him those mysteries which it is lawful for Priests to confer upon men consecrated to God at the sacred table; but that an Angel had given them to him, whose hand alone, extended to the juncture of the arm, he asserted he had seen. Thus Sozomen, and Nicephorus, book 5, Ecclesiastical History, chapter 35, has exactly the same.
[6] We gave the Life of St. Moses the Ethiopian on February 7, and on January 25 we treated of St. Apollo or Apollonius, Abbot in the Thebaid, in respect of whom the Apollonius cited above is called the younger, whose name we have not yet read in the sacred calendars. to this man is attributed by others the miracle of the illuminated cub: But we presented the deeds of St. Macarius at length on the 4th day before the Nones of January, to whom Palladius in chapter 20 of the Lausiac History attributes the miracle of the hyena cub's eyes being opened, related in number 2 above; and forty years before baptism are given to him, and sixty after receiving it; and he is said to have been of small bodily stature and to have had a sparse beard. In the Paradise of Heraclidis, the latter events are applied to St. Macarius, the former about the hyena cub's illumination to St. Mark, with the disciple Paphnutius introduced in both cases as the narrator. But concerning St. Mark, the following is related in Palladius at the end of chapter 20 and in chapter 21.
[7] This Macarius narrated to us (for he was a Priest) that he had observed at the time of the Communion of the Sacraments of Christ that he had never given the offering to Mark the ascetic, but that an Angel had given it to him from the altar; and he had seen only the finger of the hand of the one who was giving. St. Mark knew the Old and New Testament: When this Mark was younger, he used to say he knew the Old and New Testament by heart, and he was remarkably gentle and supremely temperate.
[8] One day, therefore, when I had sufficient leisure in my cell, in his extreme old age I came to him and sat at the door of his cell. I, as one who was still a novice, supposed him to be above human, as indeed he was; and I listened to hear what he might say or do. He, alone inside, at a hundred years old, he argues with himself and the devil. having already passed a hundred years and lost his teeth, fought with himself and with the devil, and said: "What do you still want, κακόγηρε, that is, wicked old man? Behold, you have already drunk wine and tasted oil. What do you still want, πολιόφαγε, that is, glutton in old age, and κοιλιόδουλε, that is, slave to the belly?" — reproaching and insulting himself. And to the devil he said: "Depart from me, devil; you have grown old with me in dissensions. You have inflicted bodily weakness upon me, you have made me drink wine and take oil, rendering me self-indulgent. Do you still have any claim on me? You find nothing in me that you may seize. Depart from me henceforth, enemy of mankind." And as if provoking and goading himself, he spoke to himself, saying: "Come now, you jester, glutton in old age, and gourmand in senility. How long shall I be with you?" Thus far that source.
[9] Another Mark lived among the Egyptian anchorites, a disciple of the Abbot Silvanus, who, foreseeing his death, obtained that the other should not depart elsewhere for three days, and in the meantime died, as is related in book 5 of the Lives of the Fathers, translated by Pelagius, booklet 18, number 15. This Mark, supremely obedient, left a letter unfinished, Another Mark, an anchorite and with closed eyes greeted his mother, as is reported in the same Pelagius, booklet 14, chapters 5 and 6, and Rufinus, book 3 of the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 143. He was a scribe, indeed he is called an antiquarian scribe; so that his literary efforts could rather be considered the writings that circulate under the name of Mark the Hermit, and a scribe. unless they belong to another Mark, younger than both already mentioned, who is connected with St. Nilus and Theodoret in Nicephorus, book 14, chapter 54, where some of his writings are enumerated. are the works cited those of a third Mark? Some exist in volume 4 of the Library of the Fathers, but whether they are genuine and not interpolated or corrupted must be investigated elsewhere.
[10] Peter de Natalibus, book 9 of the Catalogue, when in chapter 33 he had treated of Pope St. Mark, who died on the day before the Nones of October, and in chapter 34 had added Mark the Second Pope, treats in chapter 35 of St. Mark the Writer and Confessor, with this eulogy added: Veneration of St. Mark on October 7. Mark, a dweller in the desert, surnamed the Writer, was so called because he wrote down the deeds of very many holy Anchorites living in the desert of Egypt. When he approached for Communion, an Angel presented the Sacraments to him, and he saw only the hand up to the juncture of the arm. When asked by his mother to come visit her, wearing garments made from a sack that had been cut and resewn, and with his face smeared with soot, he entered with his eyes closed, seen by her but not seeing her himself, and immediately went out. Thus Heraclidis. Thus far Peter de Natalibus, who errs in attributing all of this to Heraclidis, in whose Paradise, chapter 6, only the miracle of the Eucharist conferred on St. Mark by angelic hands is attributed from those cited. The rest, as we said above, are related in Rufinus and Pelagius concerning Mark, the disciple of the Abbot Silvanus and an antiquarian scribe, about whom the following is read in certain manuscript Additions to Usuard for October 7: Likewise of Mark the Writer, whether of the disciple of Silvanus, of whom in the Lives of the Fathers and Heraclidis, a man of wonderful obedience, who was a disciple of the Abbot Silvanus, whom the elder loved above all his other disciples on account of his obedience. Ferrarius on the same day: In Egypt, of St. Mark the Anchorite; Maurolycus and Canisius add: who wrote the Lives of the Anchorites. But on October 18, in the Martyrology of Bellinus printed at Paris in the year 1521, the following is found: and October 18, but of a Doctor. February 2 of this one. On the same day, of Bl. Mark, a most distinguished Doctor. But concerning St. Mark who is venerated today, Ferrarius treats more certainly on the 4th day before the Nones of February with these words: At Scetis, of SS. Macarius and Mark, Anchorites.