medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (25. April) is the feast day of:
1) Mark the Evangelist (d. ca. 64, supposedly). The gospel that bears his name was already attributed to to M. early in the second century by Papias, who derived his information from John the Presbyter (Eusebius, _H.E._, 3. 39. 15; cf. 2. 15). Eusebius (_ibid_., 2. 16, 24) also knew a tradition, not vouched for by Clement of Alexandria, that M. founded the church of Alexandria in Egypt and was its first bishop. Jerome (_De viris illustribus_, 8) says that M. died there. Eusebius (_H. E._, 2. 24) in saying that St. An(n)ianus became M.'s first successor in the Alexandrian see in the eighth year of Nero (so 63/64) gives an approximate date for M.'s death. According to the legendary fourth- or fifth-century _Acts of Mark_ (_Martyrium Marci_), this occurred by martyrdom at Alexandria on a return visit two years after A. became his successor there.
By the end of the fourth century M. had a tomb at Alexandria that was the object of pilgrimage. By then too he had an important basilica at Constantinople, erected by Theodosius the Great. The emperor Romanus I restored it in the first half of the tenth century.
In the late eighth century the Friulans Paul the Deacon and Paulinus of Aquileia gave voice to the belief that M. had been the apostle of the upper Adriatic. In 829 the Venetian doge Giustiniano Particiaco left money in his will for the erection in his city a church to house M.'s remains (apparently not including M..'s head, which Alexandrians still claim to have). The narrative portion (BHL 5284) of the tenth-century Translation of St. Mark to Venice provides a nicely detailed story of how these remains got there from Alexandria. That early church (consecrated in 832) is long gone. Its late eleventh-century replacement was in the thirteenth century adorned with spolia from Constantinople, including perhaps pieces from M.'s Theodosian basilica there.
A few views of full-page depictions of M. from various gospel books:
Rossano Gospels (Byzantine; sixth-century; also known as the Codex Purpureus of Rossano), Rossano (CS), diocesan museum (this is said to be the oldest surviving portrait of an evangelist in the hittory of manuscript illumination):
http://tinyurl.com/3yd86d
Lindisfarne Gospels (Northumbria, late seventh- or early eighth-century), London, BL, Cotton MS Nero D. IV:
http://tinyurl.com/2cefdk
Lichfield Gospels (Gospels of St Chad; eighth-century), Lichfield, cathedral library:
http://tinyurl.com/2npljz
Soissons Gospels (early ninth-century), Paris, BN, ms. lat. 8850:
http://tinyurl.com/265r8s
http://tinyurl.com/2s4nqp
Landévennec Gospels (Brittany; ninth-century), Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. D. 2. 16:
http://tinyurl.com/3bqpjo
Greek Gospels (earlier eleventh-century), Athens, National Library of Greece, MS 2552 (this leaf at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore):
http://tinyurl.com/2qb3mc
Greek Gospels (Sicily or mainland southern Italy; twelfth-century), Glasgow University Library, Ms. Hunter 475 (V.7.2):
http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/apr2006.html
A few views of Donatello's statue of M. (1411-1413) for the church of Orsanmichele in Florence:
http://tinyurl.com/2dywee
http://tinyurl.com/yrjtam
http://tinyurl.com/26p2ub
Venice, Basilica di San Marco:
Exterior:
http://tinyurl.com/ypvakl
http://tinyurl.com/2gr4cf
http://relay.arglist.com/photos/20050524-035.jpg
http://relay.arglist.com/photos/20050524-034.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/yqb2t7
http://relay.arglist.com/photos/20050524-029.jpg
http://relay.arglist.com/photos/20050524-032.jpg
http://relay.arglist.com/photos/20050524-031.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/ysr4wg
Interior:
http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=20210&rendTypeId=4
http://tinyurl.com/2bbjzf
http://tinyurl.com/25r7zh
http://tinyurl.com/2fn6o6
Portraits of M. by Beato Angelico in the Museo Nazionale di San Marco in Florence:
The Martyrdom of St. Mark (ca. 1433):
http://tinyurl.com/28rn6a
Detail (St. Mark), Crucifixion and Saints (ca. 1441-42):
http://tinyurl.com/yop6jy
Same, entire composition:
http://tinyurl.com/23ud5n
2) An(n)ianus (d. 1st. cent., supposedly). A. is the fairly legendary first bishop of Alexandria after St. Mark, whom, according to Eusebius (see above), he succeeded in 63 or 64. The _Acts of Mark_ (_Martyrium Marci_) relate how M., freshly arrived at Alexandria, took to the cobbler A. his sandal whose strap had just broken. During the repair, A. accidentally injured his hand with an awl. M. caused the wound to heal forthwith, whereupon A. gave M. the hospitality of his own home. From there M. preached the gospel in Alexandria and there he converted A. and his family along with many others. M. later decided to move on to the Pentapolis but before he left Alexandria he established A. as its bishop.
Here's a view a relief (1478) by Pietro Lombardo, in the portal lunette of Venice's church of San Tomŕ (the cobblers' church), of M. healing A.:
http://tinyurl.com/2w6hor
Here's a view of a relief (1481) by Tullio Lombardo, in Venice's church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (San Zanipolo), of M. baptizing A.:
http://tinyurl.com/2r5bs3
Best,
John Dillon
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