Saint Marcus Eremita | |
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| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodoxy |
Marcus Eremita, Mark the Ascetic or Marcus the Ascetic [n 1] was a Christian theologian, saint, and ascetic writer of the fifth century AD.
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. [1]
Various theories about his period and works have been advanced. According to J. 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 Mar Saba. He was a contemporary of Nestorius and died after 430 but probably before the Council of Chalcedon (451). [2]
Nicephorus Callistus (fourteenth century) says he was a disciple of John Chrysostom ("Hist. Eccl." in Patrologia Graeca , CXLVI, XlV, 30). Cardinal Bellarmine (De Script. eccl. (1631), p. 273) 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. [1]
Another view supported by the Byzantine Menaia [3] identifies him with the Egyptian monk mentioned in Palladius, [4] who lived in the fourth century. The discovery and identification of a work by him against Nestorius by P. Kerameus [5] makes his period certain, as defended by Kunze. [1]
According to a brief entry in the "Great Synaxaristes" of the Eastern Orthodox Church, his feast day is observed on 20 May. [6]
Mark's works are traditionally the following:
All the above works are named and described in the "Myrobiblion" [7] 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. [8]
Excerpts of his writings are also included in the Philokalia . [9]
Anthony the Great was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is distinguished from other saints named Anthony, such as Anthony of Padua, by various epithets: Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, Anthony the Hermit, and Anthony of Thebes. For his importance among the Desert Fathers and to all later Christian monasticism, he is also known as the Father of All Monks. His feast day is celebrated on 17 January among the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches and on Tobi 22 in the Coptic calendar.
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A patristic anthology, commonly called a florilegium, is a systematic collections of excerpts from the works of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers of the early period, compiled with a view to serve dogmatic or ethical purposes. These encyclopedic compilations are a characteristic product of the later Byzantine theological school, and form a very considerable branch of the extensive literature of the Greek Catenæ. They frequently embody the only remains of some patristic writings.
John Moschus, was a Byzantine monk and ascetical writer.
Leontius of Byzantium was a Byzantine Christian monk and the author of an influential series of theological writings on sixth-century Christological controversies. Though the details of his life are scarce, he is considered by some a groundbreaking innovator in Christian theological reflection for having introduced Aristotelian definitions into theology.
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Marcus Diadochus was a Christian writer of the fourth century.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Marcus Eremita". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.
