Mark the Athenian
Our Venerable Father Mark the Athenian, of the Mountain of Thrace
Venerable · d. c. 400
Commemorated 5 April — Commemoration of the anchorite of the desert mountain
Mark, called "the Athenian" from his native city, is honoured as one of the most extreme of the desert solitaries: the tradition tells that he lived ninety-five years utterly alone on a wild mountain beyond the deserts of Egypt (the "Mountain of Thrace" or of Ethiopia), never in all that time seeing the face of a man, until at the very end of his life the monk Serapion was led to him by God to witness his repose. His story, like that of Onuphrius or Paul of Thebes, celebrates the hidden saints known to God alone.
Mark was born at Athens and, coming to the knowledge of Christ, forsook the world and its learning for the desert. Seeking the most absolute solitude, he crossed beyond the settled deserts of Egypt to a lonely mountain in the farthest wilderness (the sources call it the mountain "of Thrace" or place it beyond Ethiopia), and there he lived as an anchorite for — the account says — ninety-five years, from about the age of thirty, without seeing any human face, without bread or shelter, clothed at last only in his own grown hair, and sustained by the grace of God. The first thirty years, he confessed, were a torment of hunger, cold and the assaults of demons; but afterward an angel fed and clothed him, and the wild beasts served him.
At the end of his long course, the monk Serapion, an ascetic of the Egyptian desert, was moved by God to seek him out, and after a hard journey found the aged solitary at the point of death. Mark, who had long prayed to see a servant of God before he died, welcomed him, spoke with him of the spiritual life and of the power of true faith (the tradition sets on his lips the saying that faith can indeed move mountains, and a mountain is said to have stirred at his word), received from Serapion's hand — by a wonder — the Holy Communion brought by an angel, and so gave up his spirit. Serapion beheld the soul of Mark borne up by angels, buried the body with the help of two lions that came and dug the grave, and carried back to the brethren the account of the hidden saint. Whatever the marvels the tradition has gathered about him, Mark stands in the calendar as a figure of the utmost renunciation and of the God who crowns His unseen servants.
Feast and commemoration
April 5 (church date; Old Calendar civil April 18), within Great Lent.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable ascetic)
By a flood of tears thou didst make the barren desert fruitful, and thy longing for God brought forth fruit a hundredfold; thou becamest a shining lamp, illumining the whole world by thy miracles, O Mark our father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Mark is shown as a very aged hermit covered only by his long hair and beard, in the manner of Onuphrius and Mary of Egypt, sometimes receiving communion from Serapion, or with the lions at his grave. No pre-1900 icon of him alone has been identified for this repository.
Disputed questions
- Not to be confused with Mark the Ascetic (Mar 5), the Philokalic writer, nor with Mark of Ephesus (Jan 19); the OCA and Greek notices sometimes transfer to one Mark details belonging to another. His own mark is the ninety-five years of utter solitude and the visit of Serapion.