Mark the Evangelist

The identification of the evangelist with John Mark of Acts (12:12, 25; 13:5, 13; 15:37–39) and with the Mark of Paul's letters (Colossians 4:10, Philemon 24, 2 Timothy 4:11) is traditional but widely accepted. John Mark's mother, Mary, owned the house in Jerusalem where the early Christians assembled (Acts 12:12)—possibly the location of the Last Supper and Pentecost.

Mark accompanied Barnabas and Paul on the first missionary journey but 'left them and returned to Jerusalem' (Acts 13:13)—a departure that Paul regarded as desertion, leading to a sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas recorded in Acts 15:37–39. Barnabas took Mark with him to Cyprus; Paul chose Silas instead. The breach was eventually healed—Paul later mentions Mark warmly (Colossians 4:10: 'Marcus, the cousin of Barnabas'; 2 Timothy 4:11: 'Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me').

The tradition connecting Mark to Peter is early and strong. Papias of Hierapolis (c. 130), quoted by Eusebius, calls Mark 'Peter's interpreter' (hermēneutēs) who 'wrote down accurately, though not in order, all that he remembered of what the Lord had said or done.' Irenaeus confirms that Mark wrote down Peter's preaching after Peter's death in Rome, and Clement of Alexandria elaborates that the Gospel was composed while Peter was alive but that Peter approved it. This testimony places the composition of the Gospel in the late 60s AD, probably in Rome, shortly before or after Peter's martyrdom under Nero (c. 64–67).

The Gospel itself bears the marks of this origin. It is fast-paced (the word 'immediately,' euthys, appears over forty times), vivid in sensory detail (the green grass at the feeding of the five thousand; the cushion on which Jesus slept in the boat; the Aramaic cries preserved untranslated: 'Talitha koum,' 'Abba,' 'Eloi Eloi lema sabachthani'), and unflinchingly honest about the disciples' failures. Its ending (Mark 16:8) is abrupt and troubling: the women at the tomb, having been told of the resurrection, flee in fear and 'said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.' Whether this was Mark's intended ending or the original ending was lost and replaced with later supplements (16:9–20) is one of the great puzzles of New Testament textual and literary criticism.

Traditionally, Mark was the evangelist of Egypt, specifically Alexandria, where he founded the Christian community and served as its first bishop. According to late traditions, Mark was martyred in Alexandria by being dragged through the streets with a rope around his neck. His relics were later stolen from Alexandria by Venetian merchants in 828 and brought to Venice, where the Basilica di San Marco was built to house them—making the winged lion (Mark's Evangelist symbol) the emblem of the Venetian Republic and the symbol of the Venetian state to this day.

A persistent tradition identifies the 'young man' who fled naked from Gethsemane (Mark 14:51–52)—a detail found only in Mark's Gospel—as Mark himself. This identification is unprovable but has a certain narrative and autobiographical logic.

Catherine Benincasa was born on March 25, 1347, in Siena, the daughter of a wool dyer and one of twenty-five children. From childhood, she reported mystical experiences and visions. Around age seven, she experienced a vision of Christ and resolved to dedicate herself to contemplative life. Against her family's wishes for marriage, she joined the Dominican Third Order (Tertiary Sisters of Penance) at age sixteen, committing to celibacy, prayer, and service. She lived as a tertiary in her father's house, not in a convent, observing strict ascetical practices (rather extreme fasting and extended vigils).

Beginning in 1370, she engaged in active mission work, serving plague victims in Siena's hospitals and prison, gaining a reputation for spiritual counsel and miraculous healings. During this period, she wrote 383 surviving letters to popes, cardinals, nobles, religious leaders, and spiritual seekers, addressing both personal spiritual direction and major ecclesiastical issues. Her letters are remarkable for their spiritual intensity, political insight, and unflinching criticism of church corruption. Between 1377 and 1378, she dictated or wrote her major theological work, *The Dialogue* (*Il Libro della Divina Dottrina*), a mystical dialogue between the Soul and God addressing sin, redemption, discretion, virtue, and the Christian life. One of the famous images within the book is Jesus as a bridge between heaven an earth through His wounds condescending to earth, "out of mercy you have washed us in his Blood, out of mercy you have wished to converse with creatures. O crazed with love! It did not suffice for you to take flesh, but you also wished to die!... O mercy! My heart drowns in thinking of you: for no matter where I turn to think, I find only mercy" (chapter 30).

In 1376, at age twenty-nine Catherine turned much of her attention toward political activism, particularly lending her voice to restoring the Papacy to Rome from its political exile in Avignon, France. 71 years earlier, King Phillip IV of France and Boniface VIII struggled over the control of the French clergy and church revenue. Philip sought to control both, and Boniface issued *Unam Sanctam* in 1302, asserting that submission to the pope was necessary for salvation in response, a definitive "no" under threat of damnation. In response, Philip's soldiers assaulted Boniface VIII in 1303, and Boniface died from the resulting trauma. Boniface died a few weeks later, and in that climate of political violence, his successor, Clement V, was enthroned in Lyon, France and eventually settled the court in Avignon.

Into this drama of the 14th century, Catherine traveled to Avignon to attempt to help unravel the political machinations that had brought the Papacy to Avignon, where Pope Gregory XI was then pope. She urged him to return to Rome, her arguments were less political and framed theologically and morally. She urged Gregory to keep a vow he purportedly made to return the papacy to Rome, argued for Rome as the designed place for Peter's chair, insistence on the Pope leading clerical reform in Rome itself, and that cowardice in the face of political pressure was a sin. She expressed surprisingly directly that she saw Gregory as failing through fear of men rather than his fear of God, essentially accusing him of spiritual effeminacy when she desires to see him become a "manly man, free from any fear or fleshly love toward yourself, or toward any creature related to you in the flesh." If he would not exercise his authority, she suggested that he should resign saying, "you should use your virtue and power: and if you are not willing to use it, it would be better for you to resign what you have assumed; more honor to God and health to your soul would it be." Pope Benedict XVI [described her](https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20101124.html) as a woman who "impels us to walk courageously toward holiness to be ever more fully disciples of the Lord."

Her spiritual authority, boldness, and moral conviction—unusual for anyone, and in that era particularly unusual for a woman without formal theological training—impressed the pope, and Gregory XI departed Avignon in late 1376. He arrived in Rome in January 1377. Catherine's intervention and encouragement was celebrated as a major spiritual and political achievement in helping end the politically motivated "Babylonian Captivity of the Church" in Southern France. However, after Gregory's untimely death in March 1378, rival papal claimants arose creating a new crisis. Catherine supported Urban VI, the Roman pope, against the Avignon anti-popes who desired to return the seat of the papal court to Avignon. She spent her final years writing letters and negotiating on behalf of the unified papacy. She died on April 29, 1380, in Rome, aged thirty-three, reportedly from extreme ascetical exhaustion. Catherine was canonized by Pope Pius II on June 29, 1461, and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Paul VI alongside Saint Theresa of Avila on October 4, 1970—the first women to receive this honor.

Catherine is celebrated in tradition for her mystical marriage to Christ, a mystical experience she recounted during her life. She also reported feeling the wounds of invisible stigmata during life, wounds that became visible after her death. She adopted several ascetical practices— reportedly consuming only the Eucharist and water, for extended periods. Raymond of Capua was her confessor and spiritual director. After her death, he wrote about her emphasizing her mystical intimacy with Christ and His role as a bridge between earth and heaven. The Western tradition sees in her a model of contemplative action: her deep prayer life informed and motivated her medical mercy ministry and prolific political engagement. She is revered as a reformer who, though she never held ecclesiastical office, exercised spiritual authority first through prayer, then through the force of her sanctity, clarity of conscience, and persistent communication even to the rebuke and encouragement of popes. Her influential letters survive to this day, displaying first hand her courageous and extraordinarily candid messages to many influential figures of her day. Traditionally she bore invisible stigmata in her body, bearing Jesus' wounds from the cross in her own body. The stigmata tradition was common in medieval stories about saints, (hers were a bit unique and symbolic of her humility, invisible during life, only manifesting after death) reflecting medieval mystical theology wherein the soul invisibly bears Christ's wounds spiritually.