Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark

Mark, the author of the second Gospel, was a Jew of the tribe of Levi, called John in Hebrew, and a cousin or nephew of Barnabas. Tradition counts him among the Seventy and names him as the 'John Mark' of Acts, who accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first journey and later worked with Peter in Rome and with Paul.

According to the Church's tradition, Peter sent him to found churches at Aquileia and in Egypt. In Alexandria he healed a cobbler named Ananias, who became its second bishop, and he is said to have composed an order of the liturgy used there. Dragged by ropes through the streets on Easter day when a pagan festival of Serapis fell on the same day, he was imprisoned and died there. His relics were moved to Venice in the ninth century.