Marcus Eremita

Marcus Eremita^[1] was a Christian theologian and ascetic writer of some importance in the fifth century.

Mark is rather an ascetic than a dogmatic writer. He is content to accept dogmas from the Church; his interest is in the spiritual life as it should be led by monks. He is practical rather than mystic, belongs to the Antiochene School and shows himself to be a disciple of John Chrysostom.

Contents 1 Identification 2 Works 3 References 4 Notes 5 External links

Identification

Various theories about his period and works have been advanced. According to Johannes Kunze, Mark the Hermit was superior of a laura at Ancyra; he then as an old man left his monastery and became a hermit, probably in the desert east of Palestine, near St. Sabas. He was a contemporary of Nestorius and died probably before the Council of Chalcedon (451).

Nicephorus Callistus (fourteenth century) says he was a disciple of John Chrysostom.^[2] Cardinal Bellarmine^[3] thought that this Mark was the monk who prophesied ten more years of life to the Emperor Leo VI in 900. He is refuted by Tillemont.^[4]

Another view supported by the Byzantine Menaia^[5] identifies him with the Egyptian monk mentioned in Palladius,^[6] who lived in the fourth century. The discovery and identification of a work by him against Nestorius by P. Kerameus^[7] makes his period certain, as defended by Kunze.

According to a brief entry in the "Great Synaxaristes" of the Orthodox Church, his feast day is observed on May 20.^[8]

Works

Mark's works are traditionally the following:

• (1) of the spiritual law,
• (2) Concerning those who think to be justified through works (both ascetic treatises for monks);
• (3) of penitence;
• (4) of baptism;
• (5) To Nicholas on refraining from anger and lust;
• (6) Disputation against a scholar (against appearing to civil courts and on celibacy);
• (7) Consultation of the mind with its own soul (reproaches that he makes Adam, Satan, and other men responsible for his sins instead of himself);
• (8) on fasting and humility;
• (9) on Melchisedek (against people who think that Melchisedek was an apparition of the Word of God).

All the above works are named and described in the "Myrobiblion"^[9] and are published in Gallandi's collection. To them must be added:

• (10) Against the Nestorians (a treatise against that heresy arranged without order).

Of these (8) is now considered spurious.^[10]

References

• Andrea Gallandi, Bibliotheca veterum Patrum, VIII (Venice, 1788), 1-104, reprinted with Gallandi's prolegomena in Patrologia Graeca, LXV, 893-1140;
• J. A. Fabricius-G. C. Harles, Bibliotheca graeca, IX (Hamburg, 1804), 267-269;
• Bernard Jungmann-Josef Fessler, Institutiones Patrologiae, II, (Innsbruck, 1892), 143-146;
• Kunze, Marcus Eremita, ein neuer Zeuge fur das altkirchliche Taufbekenntnis (Leipzig, 1896).
• Georges-Matthieu de Durand (1999), Marc le Moine, Traités (two volumes)

Notes

1. ^ Markos Eremites; Greek Markos ho eremites, or monachos, or asketes; Marcus the Hermit, Mark the Hermit, Mark the Monk, Mark the Ascetic.
2. ^ "Hist. Eccl." in Patrologia Graeca, CXLVI, XlV, 30.
3. ^ De Script. eccl. (1631), p. 273.
4. ^ Memoires (1705), X, 456 sq.
5. ^ Acta Sanct. March 1.
6. ^ Historia Lausiaca, XX (P.G., XXXII.
7. ^ In his Analekta ierosol. stachyologias (St. Petersburg, 1891), I, pp. 89-113
8. ^ (Greek) Ὁ Ὅσιος Μάρκος ὁ Ἐρημίτης. 20 Μαΐου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ.
9. ^ P.G., CIII, 668 sq.
10. ^ Marcus Plested, The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian (2004), p. 75.

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia article

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.