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St. Mark of Jerusalem

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Saints and feasts

St. Mark of Jerusalem

Bishop of Jerusalem, Confessor

Mark governed the church of Jerusalem after the city was rebuilt as Aelia Capitolina. Butler remembers him as its first bishop drawn from the Gentile Christians.

Sources

The life below remains the existing Butler-based reading, with its edition citation. The profile preserves the feast date and source title already listed in the library. Additional personal dates and historical details are shown only when separately documented.

Church served: Jerusalem, then called Aelia Capitolina
Butler identifies Mark as the first bishop there chosen from among the Gentile Christians.

Butler sourceAlban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume X (October), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; October 22, “St Mark, Bishop of Jerusalem, Confessor,” pp. 577-578.

Butler’s Lives of the Saints (1846)Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume X (October), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; October 22, “St Mark, Bishop of Jerusalem, Confessor,” pp. 577-578.

The reading

ⓘ Butler source

Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume X (October), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; October 22, “St Mark, Bishop of Jerusalem, Confessor,” pp. 577-578.

Mark belongs to the early succession of bishops of Jerusalem. Butler places his ministry after the rebuilding of the city as Aelia Capitolina under the emperor Hadrian. The restrictions imposed after the revolt had changed the circumstances in which the Christian community lived.

The earlier bishops had come from the Jewish people. Mark was the first bishop chosen from among the Gentile Christians to govern that church. Butler describes him as a man of learning and holiness.

The short notice, which cites Eusebius and Sulpicius Severus, reports that he governed for twenty years and is said to have died a martyr in 156. Those details are retained as the report of the older account. This Mark is distinct from the evangelist and from later bishops of the same name.

Historical note

An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited 1846 edition of Alban Butler. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.

The length of the episcopate and reported martyrdom date follow Butler’s qualified account. This is Mark of Jerusalem, not Mark the Evangelist.

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