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Mark of Apollonias

The Holy Apostle Mark of the Seventy, the Cousin of Barnabas, Bishop of Apollonias

Apostle of the Seventy · Apostle · Bishop

Commemorated 4 January — Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles, 16 June — Greek Menaion usage, 30 October — With the apostles Tertius, Justus and Artemas of the Seventy

Mark of Apollonias — the apostle of the Seventy whom the New Testament names as "the cousin of Barnabas" (Colossians 4:10) — is counted by the Byzantine tradition among the Seventy and made bishop of Apollonias. He is commemorated on October 30 together with the apostles Tertius, Justus and Artemas of the Seventy, and with all the Seventy on January 4. He is one of the three apostles named Mark whom the synaxaria carefully distinguish — Mark the Evangelist (April 25), Mark "also called John," bishop of Byblos (September 27), and this Mark, bishop of Apollonias — while much of the source tradition, and modern scholarship, tangles the three together.

The whole of what the calendar transmits of this Mark rests on a single scriptural verse and the tradition of the Seventy. In the Epistle to the Colossians the imprisoned Paul sends greetings from "Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas" (Colossians 4:10) — the one clear New Testament reference to a Mark defined by kinship to Barnabas. The Byzantine synaxaria take this Mark to be a distinct apostle of the Seventy, sent out among the Seventy of Luke 10, and record that he was appointed bishop of Apollonias, one of several cities of that name in Asia Minor and the Balkans. Nothing further of his episcopate or of the manner of his death is transmitted, and the calendars do not style him a martyr.

Feast and commemoration

October 30 (church date; Old Calendar civil November 12), jointly with the apostles Tertius, Justus and Artemas of the Seventy, whose synaxarion notice he shares; the day's sanctoral service belongs to the martyrs Zenobius and Zenobia, the apostles receiving synaxarion notice. Mark is commemorated again with all the Seventy at their synaxis on January 4.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 3

Holy apostles, intercede with the merciful God, that he may grant our souls forgiveness of offences.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

Mark of Apollonias is painted as an apostle of the Seventy and a bishop: a bearded hierarch in tunic and himation, or vested in the omophorion, holding the Gospel book or the scroll of his preaching. He has no widely reproduced individual icon; in the Russian synodal Lives of the Saints (1903–1911) he appears as the second of the four apostles of the day, standing with Tertius, Justus and Artemas — the image stored with their joint entry.

Disputed questions

  • The three-Marks question. The Byzantine synaxaria distinguish three apostles named Mark among the Seventy: Mark the Evangelist, disciple of Peter and first bishop of Alexandria (April 25); Mark "also called John," bishop of Byblos, the John Mark of the Acts of the Apostles (September 27, john-mark-of-the-seventy); and this Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, bishop of Apollonias (October 30). The scheme does not divide cleanly along the New Testament data. The John Mark of Acts is himself called the cousin of Barnabas (Acts 12:12, 25; 15:37–39; and the very verse Colossians 4:10 on which this commemoration rests), so that the figure assigned to September 27 and the figure assigned to October 30 are, in the scriptural record, one man; and much modern scholarship further identifies both with the Evangelist. The Church's calendar nonetheless keeps three distinct commemorations, and this corpus follows the calendar while recording the question.
  • The OCA's conflation. The OCA's own October 30 notice describes this Mark as "also called John (Acts 12:12), a nephew of Saint Barnabas, and Bishop of Apollonia (Col. 4:10)... in the house of his mother Maria" — that is, it attaches to the October 30 Mark the whole biography (the name John, the house of Mary, the Acts narrative) which it also gives, under the see of Byblos, to the Mark of September 27. The received English calendars thus split one scriptural John Mark across two feast days while distinguishing him from the Evangelist. The divergence is recorded here, not resolved.
  • Not a fourth Mark. The Mark commemorated on October 30 within the group "the apostles Tertius, Mark, Justus and Artemas of the Seventy" is this same Mark of Apollonias, not an additional namesake: the group notice and the standalone commemoration are one and the same apostle. (See tertius-mark-justus-and-artemas-of-the-seventy.)

Sources

  1. Colossians 4:10 — "Mark, the cousin of Barnabas," the sole New Testament verse assigned to this commemoration.
  2. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, October 30 (consulted live) — the identification as cousin of Barnabas and bishop of Apollonia, and the conflation with the John Mark of September 27.
  3. Synaxarion of Constantinople and Greek Menaion, October 30 (consulted live) — the joint synaxarion notice of the apostles Tertius, Mark, Justus and Artemas of the Seventy.
  4. The September 27 entry (john-mark-of-the-seventy) and April 25 (Mark the Evangelist, a future entry), against which the three-Marks question is stated.