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See of St. Mark
The Coptic Church or the Church
of Alexandria is called "See of
St. Mark" on of the earliest
sees: Jerusalem, Antioch,
Alexandria and Rome.
How Was Christianity Introduced
to Egypt?
St. Mark is considered the
founder of the Coptic Church.
However, evidence indicates that
Christianity was introduced into
Egypt before St. Mark, though
undoubtedly, it must have been on
a very small scale. The following
are some interesting points on
this subject:
-
The Book of Acts refers to the
Jews of Egypt who were present at
the Pentecost (Acts 2:10). Upon
their return home, they must have
conveyed what they saw and heard
about Christ and their relatives.
-
The same book mentions an
"Alexandrine Jew named Apollos"
who arrived at Ephesus… He was
described as an eloquent man with
sound knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures. He preached with
great spiritual earnestness and
was able to demonstrate from the
Scriptures that Jesus was the
expected Christ (Acts 18:24028).
It is quite possible that Apollos
was a member of a small Christian
group of Jewish origin who lived
in Alexandria.
-
St. Luke addresses his Gospel
to "His excellency Theopilus," a
Christian believer from
Alexandria.
-
The Coptic book of Sinxarum
(the day of 15 Bashance) records
the preaching of Simon the
Zealous in areas of south Egypt
and Nubia.
St. Mark The Founder
The Copts are proud of the
apostolicity of their church,
whose founder is St. Mark; one of
the seventy Apostles (Mark
10:10), and one of the four
Evangelists. He is regarded by
the Coptic hierarchy as the first
of their unbroken 117 patriarchs,
and also the first of a stream of
Egyptian martyrs.
This apostolicity was not only
furnished on grounds of its
foundation but rather by the
persistence of the church in
observing the same faith received
by the Apostle and his
successors, the Holy Fathers.
St. Mark's Bibliography
St. Mark was an African native of
Jewish parents who belonged to
the Levites' tribe. His family
lived in Cyrenaica until they
were attacked by some barbarians,
and lost their property.
Consequently, they moved to
Jerusalem with their child John
Mark (Acts 12:12; 25; 15:37).
Apparently, he was given a good
education and became conversant
in both Greek and Latin in
addition to Hebrew. His family
was highly religious and in close
relationship with the Lord Jesus.
His cousin was St. Barnabas and
his father's cousin was St.
Peter. His mother, Mary, played
an important part in the early
days of the church in Jerusalem.
Her upper-room became the first
Christian church in the world
where the Lord himself instituted
the Holy Eucharist (Mark
14:12-26). There also, the Lord
appeared to the disciples after
His resurrection and His Holy
Spirit came upon them.
Young Mark was always associated
with the Lord, who chose him as
one of the seventy. He is
mentioned in the Scriptures in a
number of events related with the
Lord: He was present at the
wedding of Cana of Galilee, and
was the man who had been carrying
the jar when the two disciples
went to prepare a place of the
celebration of the Pasch (Mark
14:13-14 ; Luke 22:11). [He was
also the same man who fled naked
before the Crucifixion (Mark
14:51, 52)]. Accordingly, the
church insists on calling St.
Mark "Theorimos," i.e. the
beholder of the Lord, in order to
prevent counterfeits of some
historians.
St. Mark And the Lion
The lion is the symbol of St.
Mark for two reasons:
-
He begins his Gospel
describing John the Baptist as a
lion roaring in the desert (Mark
1:3).
-
His famous story with the
lion, as related to us by Severus
Ebn-El-Mokafa: Once a lion and a
lioness appeared to John Mark and
his father Arostalis while they
were traveling in Jordan. The
father was very frightened and
begged his son to escape, while
he awaited his fate. John Mark
assured his father that Jesus
Christ would save them, and began
to pray. The two beasts fell dead
and as a result of this miracle,
the father believed in Christ,
and died shortly thereafter.
Preaching With The Apostles
At first, St. mark accompanied
St. Peter on his missionary
journeys inside Jerusalem and
Judea. Then he accompanied St.
Paul and St. Barnabas on their
first missionary journey to
Antioch, Cyprus and Asia Minor,
but for some reason or another he
left them and turned home (Acts
13:13). On their second trip, St.
Paul refused to take him along
because he left them on the
previous mission, for this reason
St. Barnabas was separated from
St. Paul and went to Cyprus with
his cousin Mark (Acts 15:36-41).
There, he departed in the Lord
and St. Mark buried him.
Afterwards, St. Paul needed St.
mark with him and they both
preached in Colosy (4:11), Rome
(Phil. 24; 2 Tim. 4:11) and
perhaps at Venice.
In Africa
St. Mark's real labor lays in
Africa. He left Rome to
Pentapolis, where he was born.
After planting the seeds of faith
and performing many miracles he
traveled to Egypt, through the
Oasis, the desert of Libya, Upper
Egypt, and then entered
Alexandria from its eastern gate
on 61 A.D.
On his arrival, the strap of his
sandal was out loose. He went to
a cobbler to mend it. When the
cobbler – Ananias – took an awl
to work on it, he accidentally
pierced his hand and cried aloud
"O one God." At this utterance,
St. mark rejoiced and after
miraculously healing the man's
wound, took courage. The spark
was ignited and Ananias took the
Apostle home with him. He and his
family were baptized, and many
others followed.
The spread of Christianity must
have been quite remarkable
because pagans were furious and
sought St. Mark everywhere.
Smelling the danger, the Apostle
ordained a bishop (Ananias),
three priests and seven deacons
to look after the congregation if
anything befell them. He left
Alexandria to Berce, then to
Rome, where he met St. Peter and
St. Paul and remained there until
their martyrdom in 64 A.D.
Upon returning to Alexandria (65
A.D.), St. Mark found his people
firm in faith and thus decided to
visit Pentapolis. There, he spent
two years preaching and
performing miracles, ordaining
bishops and priests, and winning
more converts.
Finally he returned to Alexandria
and was overjoyed to find that
Christians has multiplied so much
that they were able to build a
considerable church in the
suburban district of Baucalis.
His Martyrdom
In the year 68 A.D., Easter fell
on the same day as the Serapis
feast. The furious heathen mob
had gathered in the Serapis
temple at Alexandria and then
descended on the Christians who
were celebrating Easter
(Christian Pasch) at Baucalis.
St. Mark was seized, dragged with
a rope through the main streets
of the city. Crowds were shouting
"The ox must be led to Baucalis,"
a precipitous place full of rocks
where they fed the oxen that were
used in the sacrifices to idols.
At nightfall the saint was thrown
into prison, where he was cheered
by the vision of an angel,
strengthening him saying, "Now
your hour has come O Mark, the
good minister, to receive your
recompense. Be encouraged, for
your name has been written in the
book of life…" When the angel
disappeared, St. Mark thanked God
for sending His angel to him.
Suddenly, the Savior himself
appeared and said to him "Peace
be to you, mark, my disciple and
evangelist!" St. Mark started to
shout "O My Lord Jesus" but the
vision disappeared.
On the following morning probably
during the triumphal procession
of Serapis he was again dragged
around the city till death. His
bloody flesh was torn, and it was
their intention to cremate his
remains, but the wind blew and
the rain fell in torrents and the
populace dispersed. Christians
stole his body and secretly
buried him in a grave which they
had engraved in a rock under the
altar of the church.
His Relics
During the schism which burst
between the Copts and the
Melkites, the first kept the head
while the body remained with the
latter. On 644 A.D., a soldier
sneaked into the church where the
head was buried. He took it away
to his ship under the impression
that it was a treasure. Later,
when Amro-Ebn-El-Aas (leader of
the Arab troops) ordered the
ships to sail off Alexandria,
that particular ship could not
move. Eventually the soldier had
to confess and Amro handed it
back to Pope Benjamin.
The saint's body did not remain
in Egypt, for it was stolen and
taken to Venice by some Italian
merchants. They built a huge
cathedral in St. Mark's name,
believing that St. mark was their
patron Saint. In 1968, part of
his relics which is now kept in
the new Cathedral in Cairo, was
offered to the Egyptian Pope
Cyril (Kyrillos VI) from Pope
Paul VI).
His Apostolic Acts
St. Mark was a broad-minded
Apostle. His ministry was quite
productive and covered large
fields of activities. These
included:
-
Preaching in Egypt, Pentapolis,
Judea, Asia Minor, and Italy,
during which time he ordained
bishops, priests, and deacons.
-
Establishing the "School of
Alexandria" which defended
Christianity against the
philosophical school of
Alexandria and conceived a large
number of great Fathers.
-
Writing the Liturgy of the Holy
Eucharist, which was modified
later by St. Cyril to the liturgy
known today as the Liturgy of St.
Cyril.
-
Writing the Gospel according to
St. Mark.
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