Happy Feast of Saint Mark
news: 25 April 2025
Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Mark. Who was he?
On the 25 April, the church celebrates St Mark the Evangelist, who wrote the first Gospel. Though not one of the twelve Apostles, he was a disciple of Jesus who was at the centre of the events which surrounded Jesus. It was Mark who first put into writing the eye witness accounts of the life and times of Jesus. His writing about Jesus was so good that the majority of his text is reused by Matthew and over half by the Gospel of Luke.
His writing has been dated as the soonest after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, between AD60 and AD70AD.
In the earliest Christian art, the four Gospel writers (Mark, Matthew, Luke and John) are represented using the symbolism recorded in Revelation (4:7) of winged creatures. St Mark is a lion, St Matthew is a creature with a face like a human face, St Luke is an ox, and St John is a flying eagle. Mark begins his gospel with the mission of John the Baptist "crying out in the wilderness." His voice is said to have sounded like that of a roaring lion.
Saint Mark, pray for us.
Image © Wikipedia
