VI. JOHN MARK, cousin to S. Barnabas and his Disciple, the son of a Christian woman whose name was Mary, who had a house in Jerusalem, where the Faithful and the Apostles generally met. There they were at prayers in the night, when S. Peter, who was delivered out of prison by an Angel, came and knocked at the door. In this house the celebrated Church of Sion was said afterwards to have been established.
Alex. apud Sur. 11. Junii. Acts xv. 36,37,&c. Acts xii. 15. xiii. 13.John Mark, whom some very improperly confound with the Evangelist S. Mark, adhered to S. Paul and S. Barnabas, and followed them in their return to Antioch; he continued in their company and service till they came to Perga in Pamphylia. But then seeing that they were undertaking a longer journey, he left them and returned to Jerusalem. This happened in the year 45 of the common Æra.
Some years after, that is to say, in the year 51, Paul and Barnabas preparing to return into Asia, in order to visit the Churches which they had founded there, Barnabas was of opinion, that John Mark should accompany them in this journey; but S. Paul would not consent to it: upon which occasion these two Apostles separated. Paul went to Asia, and Barnabas with John Mark to the isle of Cyprus. What John Mark did after this journey we do not know, till we find him at Rome Col. iv. 10.in the year 63, performing signal services for S. Paul during his imprisonment. The Apostle speaks advantageously of him in his Epistle to the Colossians: Marcus Sister’s son to Barnabas saluteth you; if he come unto you receive him. He makes mention of him again in his Epistle to PhilemonPhilem. 24.; written in the year 62, at which time he was with S. Paul at Rome. But in the year 65, he was with Timothy in Asia; and S. Paul writing to Timothy, desires him to 2 Tim. iv. 11.bring him to Rome, adding that he was useful to him for the ministry of the Gospel.
In the Greek and Latin Churches the festival of S. John Mark is kept on the 27th of September; some say he was bishop of Biblis in Phœnicia. The Greeks give him the title of Apostle, and say, that the sick were cured by his shadow only. It is very probable, that he died at Ephesus, Euseb. l. 3. c. 39. & l. 7. c. 25. Chry-sost. orat. 67. p. 504.where his tomb was very celebrated. The year of his death, and the particular kind of it, we are strangers to. He is sometimes called simply John or Mark. We shall not collect all that is said of him in apocryphal and uncertain Authors.