Saint Mark the Evangelist: An Anglican Perspective

Feast Day: April 25

The Anglican calendar is ordered by a hierarchy of holy days, each carrying a different weight of observance. At the top sit the seven Principal Feasts, the highest days of the liturgical year. Below them are the Holy Days traditionally called Red-Letter Days. The Feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist, observed on April 25, belongs to this second rank. The BCP 2019 includes the Feasts of the Evangelists among its Holy Days, lists Mark on April 25, appoints his Collect on page 628, and gives him proper readings in the Holy Day lectionary. 

Mark was not one of the Twelve Apostles, and the New Testament does not present him as one who accompanied Jesus throughout his earthly ministry. His place in the Church’s memory comes instead through his service within the apostolic mission and, above all, through the Gospel that bears his name. The ancient Church closely associated that Gospel with the preaching and eyewitness testimony of the Apostle Peter, and the BCP Collect receives Mark’s evangelistic work with striking simplicity: through the hand of Mark, God has given his Church “the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

That emphasis gives the feast continuing importance. The Church honors Mark not merely because an ancient Christian wrote an influential book but because through the written apostolic Gospel the Church continues to hear the truth concerning Jesus Christ. The Collect moves immediately from thanksgiving for Mark’s witness to a prayer that the Church may know the truth, resist every wind of false doctrine, and know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The gift of the Gospel and the preservation of the Church in truth belong together.

The Biblical Portrait

The Mark remembered by the Church is traditionally identified with John Mark of the New Testament. Acts 12:12 introduces “the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark,” where many Christians were gathered in prayer. After Peter’s miraculous release from prison, he goes directly to this house, placing Mark’s family within the life of the earliest Jerusalem church.

John Mark later accompanies Barnabas and Saul. Acts 13 records that he served with them as an assistant, but at Perga he left the mission and returned to Jerusalem: “John left them and returned to Jerusalem.” (Acts 13:13, ESV) Scripture does not tell us why. When Paul later proposed another missionary journey, Barnabas wanted to take Mark again, while Paul judged it unwise to bring someone who had withdrawn from the earlier work. Their disagreement became so sharp that Barnabas took Mark to Cyprus while Paul chose Silas. (Acts 15:36–40)

The story does not end there. Years later Paul names Mark among his fellow workers in Philemon and refers to him in Colossians. Near the end of 2 Timothy, Paul tells Timothy, “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:11, ESV) The man Paul once refused to take on another journey had become someone Paul specifically wanted beside him. Scripture gives us no detailed narrative of how that restoration occurred, but the arc itself is worth noticing. Failure did not have the final word in Mark’s usefulness to the Church.

Mark also appears in an especially important relationship with Peter. At the conclusion of 1 Peter, the Apostle sends greetings from “Mark, my son.” (1 Peter 5:13, ESV) The expression indicates a close spiritual relationship, and the early Church connected this Mark with the evangelist who preserved Peter’s preaching.

Mark and the Apostle Peter

The association between Mark and Peter is ancient, not a later medieval development. Papias of Hierapolis, whose testimony is preserved by Eusebius, reports the tradition that Mark became Peter’s interpreter and wrote down accurately what he remembered of the things said and done by Christ. Irenaeus likewise describes Mark as Peter’s disciple and interpreter and says that he handed down in writing what Peter had preached.

The precise meaning of interpreter and the mechanics of Mark’s literary relationship to Peter cannot be reconstructed in detail, but the early testimony itself is important. The ancient Church remembered Mark’s Gospel as standing in especially close relationship to Peter’s apostolic proclamation.

This does not mean that Mark functioned merely as a stenographer. The Gospel bears its own literary shape, theological emphases, arrangement, and characteristic urgency. Yet the early tradition helps explain why the Church received Mark’s Gospel as authoritative apostolic testimony even though Mark himself was not one of the Twelve.

For Christians, this connection matters pastorally as well as historically. The Gospel of Mark is not simply an anonymous religious reflection detached from the apostolic witnesses. From very early in the Church’s life, Mark’s Gospel was received in especially close connection with Peter’s apostolic preaching concerning Jesus Christ.

The Gospel Mark Gave the Church

Mark begins without a genealogy or infancy narrative. His first words announce his subject directly: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1, ESV) John the Baptist appears, Jesus comes to the Jordan, the Father speaks, the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness, and the public ministry begins with the proclamation, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15, ESV)

The Gospel moves with characteristic urgency. One of Mark’s recurring words is euthys (yoo-THEES), commonly translated “immediately” or “at once.” Jesus calls, teaches, heals, confronts demons, crosses the sea, and moves steadily toward Jerusalem and the Cross. The pace serves the theology. Mark presents the coming of Jesus as the decisive action of God’s Kingdom breaking into the world.

Yet Mark’s urgency does not mean his portrait of Jesus is shallow. Again and again the Gospel presses the question of who Jesus truly is. Demons recognize him while human beings struggle to understand. The disciples witness mighty works but remain slow to grasp their meaning. Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, only to recoil when Jesus begins teaching about the Cross. At the Crucifixion, a Roman centurion confesses, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39, ESV)

Mark’s opening announcement that Jesus is the Son of God therefore unfolds through a Gospel in which his identity cannot be separated from his suffering, death, and Resurrection. The King reigns through the Cross, and the good news reaches its climax not in worldly triumph but in the victory of the crucified and risen Son.

The Appointed Gospel: The Risen Lord Sends His Church

The BCP 2019 appoints Mark 16:15–20 as the Gospel for Saint Mark’s feast. The other readings are Isaiah 52:7–10, Psalm 2, and Ephesians 4:7–8, 11–16. The selection makes the feast fundamentally evangelistic. Mark is remembered by hearing the risen Christ command his disciples, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”(Mark 16:15, ESV)

Mark 16:9–20 carries a familiar textual question because some of the earliest surviving Greek manuscripts end the Gospel at Mark 16:8, while the longer ending is found widely in the manuscript tradition and was received broadly in the Church. The existence of that textual question need not dominate the feast. The BCP 2019 deliberately appoints Mark 16:15–20, and its central proclamation of the risen Christ commissioning his Church stands in complete harmony with the missionary witness of Matthew 28, Luke 24, Acts 1, and the rest of the New Testament.

Its appointment is particularly fitting for an evangelist. Mark received the apostolic proclamation and handed it on in written form. The Church that gives thanks for his witness hears on his feast the Lord’s command that the Gospel continue to move outward. Mark’s vocation belongs within that continuing mission.

The Appointed Readings

Isaiah 52:7–10 gives the feast its prophetic language: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” (Isaiah 52:7, ESV) The language of good news makes the reading especially appropriate for an evangelist. Mark’s Gospel announces the saving reign of God in Jesus Christ.

The word gospel comes from the language of good news. The Greek euangelion (yoo-ang-GHEL-ee-on) means good news or glad tidings, and from the same word-family comes evangelist. Mark is remembered as an evangelist because he bears and records the good news whose content is not Mark himself but Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 4:7–8, 11–16 explains ministries of proclamation and teaching as gifts of the ascended Christ to his Church. Paul writes that Christ gave “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11–12, ESV) The evangelist does not exist to gather attention to himself. His ministry serves the maturity, unity, and stability of Christ’s Body.

The connection with the Collect becomes particularly clear when Paul warns against remaining children “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.” (Ephesians 4:14, ESV) The Collect deliberately echoes that language. The Gospel given through Mark belongs to the apostolic inheritance through which the Church hears the truth concerning Christ and is guarded against teachings that would draw her away from him.

Psalm 2 adds the theme of the Son’s universal kingship. The LORD declares concerning his Anointed, “You are my Son.”(Psalm 2:7, ESV) That royal language belongs to the scriptural world in which the New Testament announces Jesus as God’s Son and Messiah. The evangelist who opens his Gospel by naming Jesus Christ the Son of God is therefore commemorated with a Psalm proclaiming the dominion of God’s Anointed among the nations.

The BCP 2019 Collect and Proper Preface

The BCP appoints the Collect for Saint Mark on page 628:

“Almighty God, by the hand of Mark the evangelist you have given to your Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ: We thank you for his witness, and pray that you will give us grace to know the truth, and not to be carried about by every wind of false doctrine, that we may know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (BCP 2019, p. 628)

The order of the prayer matters. It begins not with what Christians must accomplish but with what God has already given. God gives the Gospel to his Church through Mark’s hand. The Church receives that gift with thanksgiving and then asks for grace to remain in the truth she has received.

The petition against “every wind of false doctrine” is therefore not a prayer for intellectual stubbornness or an excuse to resist genuine correction. It is a prayer for stability in the apostolic Gospel. Christianity has content. Jesus Christ is not endlessly reinvented by each generation, and the faith once delivered is not governed by whatever teaching happens to be culturally fashionable. The Church is called to know the truth because God has made himself known in Jesus Christ and has given the apostolic testimony through which that Gospel continues to be proclaimed.

The BCP appoints the Proper Preface of All Saints’ for Saint Mark’s feast. It gives thanks that God has surrounded his people with a great cloud of witnesses and directs the Church toward perseverance in the race set before her. Mark belongs to that fellowship of witnesses. He is remembered not as an alternative mediator beside Christ but as a servant whose witness continually directs the Church to Christ.

Mark in the Early Church

Christian tradition also associates Mark with Alexandria in Egypt. Eusebius records the tradition that Mark was the first to proclaim the Gospel there and to establish churches in Alexandria. The ancient Alexandrian Church consequently came to regard Mark as its apostolic founder, an identification that remains central to the Coptic Christian tradition.

This tradition deserves to be received as ancient Christian memory while still distinguishing it from the more direct New Testament evidence concerning Mark’s relationships with Peter, Paul, and Barnabas. Eusebius himself introduces the Alexandrian account as received tradition rather than as an event narrated in Scripture. That is no reason to discard it, but it is reason to state it responsibly.

Later tradition also remembers Mark as a martyr in Alexandria. The details of his death are less securely attested than the early testimony connecting him with Peter and the Gospel. We therefore need not build the feast upon uncertain stories about his martyrdom. His enduring importance is already clear from Scripture, the Gospel that bears his name, and the ancient testimony concerning his apostolic ministry.

The Western Church has observed Mark’s feast on April 25 for many centuries, and that date remains in the Anglican calendar. His feast thus joins biblical testimony, early Christian memory, and the continuing presence of the Gospel that bears his name.

Saint Mark and Easter

Saint Mark’s feast always falls within the Great Fifty Days of Easter. Easter Day can fall as late as April 25, so Mark’s date is either Easter Day itself or one of the days that follow during Eastertide.

That placement is especially fitting. The Church is celebrating the Resurrection, and Mark’s appointed Gospel presents the risen Christ sending his disciples to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world. Easter joy turns outward into mission.

The feast also illustrates an important calendar rule. The BCP allows Holy Days falling on Sunday to replace that Sunday or to be transferred to the nearest following weekday only when the Sunday falls outside Advent, Lent, and Easter. Since April 25 always falls within the Easter season, Saint Mark does not displace a Sunday of Easter. The Prayer Book also provides that no Holy Day may replace the fixed propers of Easter Week. If April 25 falls during Easter Week, those propers therefore retain their place; if it falls on Easter Day itself, Easter Day, as a Principal Feast, takes precedence.

Mark’s Gospel belongs naturally within this Easter setting. It moves relentlessly toward the Cross and the empty tomb. The evangelist whose opening words announce “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” gives the Church a narrative in which the Son’s identity is revealed through suffering, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. His feast within Easter therefore directs the Church back toward the events that make apostolic proclamation good news for the nations.

Mark also embodies something of the restoring grace of God in his own ministry. The missionary who once turned back later became the coworker Paul called “very useful to me for ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:11, ESV) We should not invent a detailed conversion narrative Scripture does not give us, but neither should we miss the grace visible in the facts we do possess. Failure need not have the final word. God can restore servants and make them useful again.

Observing This Feast

Saint Mark’s calendar date is April 25. The BCP provides his Collect on page 628 and appoints Isaiah 52:7–10, Psalm 2, Ephesians 4:7–8, 11–16, and Mark 16:15–20 as the proper readings. Where April 25 encounters the protected propers of a Sunday of Easter or Easter Week, the Prayer Book’s rules of precedence govern the observance.

Pray the Collect slowly and notice its movement from gift to thanksgiving to petition. God gives the Gospel. The Church gives thanks. Then she asks for grace to remain in the truth and not to be carried away by false teaching.

Read Isaiah 52 and notice what makes the feet of the messenger beautiful. It is not the messenger’s personality, novelty, or cleverness. It is the good news he carries: “Your God reigns.” Read Ephesians 4 and pray for a Church mature enough in apostolic truth not to be blown about by every doctrinal fashion.

Read Mark 16:15–20 as the appointed Gospel and hear the risen Christ send his disciples into the world. Then return to Mark 1:1–15. The two passages belong naturally together even though only the former is appointed for the feast. The Gospel begins with “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” and ends by turning proclamation outward toward the world.

Finally, give thanks for the written Gospel itself. Christians can easily take the Scriptures for granted. Saint Mark’s feast reminds the Church that God has preserved the apostolic testimony in written form so that generations who never walked the roads of Galilee with Peter may nevertheless hear Jesus Christ proclaimed as Lord and Savior.

Conclusion

The Feast of Saint Mark honors a servant whose importance lies finally in the Gospel he handed on. He was not one of the Twelve. He participated in the earliest apostolic mission, turned back during one missionary journey, and later became a trusted coworker whom Paul specifically desired beside him. Peter calls him his son, and the ancient Church consistently remembered him as closely connected with Peter’s preaching.

Yet the feast is not finally about Mark’s literary skill, perseverance, or rehabilitation. The Collect keeps the emphasis where it belongs: “by the hand of Mark the evangelist you have given to your Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Mark’s hand serves Christ’s Gospel.

That gift remains urgently needed. The Church still lives amid competing claims about Jesus, shifting moral fashions, attractive errors, and teachings that promise novelty while drawing Christians away from the historic, apostolic faith once delivered. Saint Mark’s feast therefore gives the Church a remarkably contemporary prayer: that by God’s grace we may know the truth, not be carried about by every wind of false doctrine, and know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

The risen Christ sends his Church with the words appointed for Mark’s feast: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” (Mark 16:15, ESV) Mark served that mission in the vocation God gave him. He received the apostolic proclamation, handed it on, and left the Church a Gospel that still announces Jesus Christ, the Son of God.