St. Mark the Apostle was given many nicknames as the Preacher of the Egyptian Homes, the Evangelist, the Apostle, the Martyr and many others. He was the first to preach Christianity in Egypt. Today the Copts of Egypt celebrate his martyrdom.
Profiles of his life
Mark was born in Kairouan, one of the five western cities.He learnt Greek, Latin and Hebrew besides that he studied the books of Law and Prophets. Mark returned to Jerusalem with his family during the time of the appearance of Christ, who chose him to be one of the seventy apostles. Furthermore; He witnessed many events, miracles and teachings.
Moreover, Mark accompanied the apostles at the time of their preaching, he served with ‘Peter the apostle’ and each of ‘Paul and Barnabas the apostles’. However his main vocation was in Africa in the five Western cities and in Alexandria as well as the Egyptian regions, where he founded the See of Alexandria which extended to Nubia, Sudan and Ethiopia after his martyrdom.
And with the multiplicity of nicknames of St. Mark the Apostle, I want to refer to his role today in some countries of Africa especially in Egypt against Paganism, that’s why he was nicknamed ‘pagan dispersion’. At these times; those countries didn’t know any other religion but paganism.
He preached the faith of God until many people believed and converted to Christianity. The pagan religion was shaken, became very weak and diminished.
Alexandria and the challenge
The story of St. Mark started in Alexandria, which was founded by Alexander the Great in the form of the Greek cities, to become a new center for the Eastern and Western trade and a meeting point between them. But it became a center and a global beacon of culture, science and knowledge in the third century BC. It also became the cultural capital of Egypt and of the whole world!
The School of Alexandria which was the center of science and philosophy was famous and gained a great international status until it became a destination for scientists, philosophers and scholars from all over the world. In addition to its famous library that contained thousands of manuscripts in all aspects of life.
As for the religious situation, Alexandria included a large number of pagan religions such as ancient Pharaohs religions with their Gods.
For instance “Amoun” the King of Gods, “Ra” the God of the Sun, and “Bakht” the Goddess of War, in addition to other domestic Gods as “Ptah” the God of the city of Memphis and many others with foreign gods that Egyptians worshiped through their contact with neighboring civilizations, such as the worship of the gods “Didun, Baal, Anat and Astarte”.
As well as the worship of the Greek Gods headed by Zeus the king of Gods also was widespread. Egyptian and Greek cults got mixed up and presented new Gods as Serapis. Moreover the Romans brought their Gods under the leadership of Jupiter to Egypt. In addition to all of these the Jewish religion also spread during the rule of the Ptolemaic.
There was a cultural challenge side by side, as the inhabitants of Alexandria were almost half a million people. In some estimations three quarters of a million people from Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, Romans, Abyssinians, Nubians, Persians and many other races. There was a cultural diversity and Alexandria became a great cultural and religious challenge to any missionary. And that’s why Mar Markos had to deal with diverse religions and cults, different culture and philosophies.
Mar Markos in Alexandria
He entered the city of Alexandria exhausted after a long walk until his shoes were torn out. He went to a cobbler named Anianus to fix his shoes and he preached him with Christianity and the worship of one God, and so he and his family believed. Then Mar Markos took a tour in the land of Egypt offering the Christian message to Egyptians. Many of them believed and rejected idolatry.
Thus faith in God was widespread throughout Egypt promptly. In the face of philosophic and intellectual challenges, St. Mark founded the Theological School of Alexandria, which studied religious sciences, the sciences of philosophy, logic, medicine, engineering, music and many other sciences; in order to face pagan thoughts at that time.
St. Mark cared to visit his faithful congregation and he didn’t stop touring in the Egyptian country to preach and teach until the pagan religion was shaken. When Pagans was ascertaining of the great danger on their religion; they decided to get rid of St. Mark.
He martyred on their hands in 68 AD after Paganism bases were shaken. In the course of days Pagan religion diminished until it ended completely from Egypt.
That was the fruit that St.Mark gave to Egypt until he deserved to be nicknamed ‘Pagan Dispersion”. Stories about beautiful Egypt never end!
General Bishop,
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
