25 April St Mark (died about 68 AD)
Details of his life are traditional, not historical. His Gospel is generally accepted
as the oldest. He may have been born in Cyrene, Libya, and not in Palestine.
He is not one of the 12 disciples, but one of the 72 sent out by Jesus. He is
often referred to as ‘St Peter’s Interpreter’, his Gospel records Peter’s
Sermons, it stresses the theology of the Cross which distinguishes Jesus from
other wandering preachers. He may have been a witness to the Passion,
possibly the young man fleeing naked after the arrest of Jesus (Mark 14:51)
and could have hosted the disciples in his house after Jesus’ death, where
Jesus appeared, and where the Holy Spirit descended.
There are references to a John Mark in Acts as a cousin of
Barnabas, and in the letter to the Colossians, generally
seen as St Mark.
He is the founder of the Church of Africa and became
bishop of Alexandria, one of the 3 main Episcopal sees of
Christianity, which is today part of the Coptic Orthodox
Church. He was martyred and buried there. His principal
cult developed in Venice, after Venetian merchants in 828
stole his relics and took them to Venice. In 2011 in a TV program ‘Mystery
Files’ the historian Andrew Chugg suggested that the merchants had in fact
stolen the bones of Alexander the Great and thought they were St Mark’s.
Some relics were also transferred to The Monastery at Reichenau, Lake
Constance in 890.
30 April St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
She was a ‘Tertiary’ of the Dominican Order and a Scholastic Philosopher.
Proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1970, she is one
of the Patron Saints of Italy. The house of her birth in
Siena still exists. She joined the Dominican Order, but
as a ‘Tertiary’ she lived at home. She dedicated her
life to helping the ill and poor. In 1366 she experienced
a vision “The Mystical Marriage with Jesus” and
received the Stigmata. Called to Florence by her
Order, she travelled widely in Italy and fi nally moved
to Rome to the Papal Court, where she died. Some
300 of her letters survived, one of the great works of
early Tuscan literature, mostly dictated, but she could
read and write. Catherine died at the age of 33. Her
extreme fasting had caused concern, she seemed to have suffered from
anorexia. She was buried in the Cemetery of St Maria sopra Minerva, her
bones later transferred to that Basilica, but her head was made into a Reliquary
Bust and taken to Siena. She is often depicted holding a rose. Canonised
1461, she was made one of Europe’s Patron Saints by Pope John Paul II.
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