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Saint Marc
Pape (34 ème) en 336 (✝ 336)
Romain d'origine, il
ne fut évêque de Rome que durant huit mois. Il édifia deux petites basiliques
et la tradition lui prête la décision de réciter le symbole de Nicée après
l'Évangile.
À Rome, en 336, saint Marc, pape, qui construisit un titre
dans le quartier de Pallacine au cœur de la ville, et une basilique au
cimetière de Balbine sur la voie Ardéatine, où il fut inhumé.
Martyrologe
romain
Saint Marc
Pape (34e) en 336
Le Liber pontificalis en fait un Romain, fils de
Priscus. Marc ne participa pas aux disputes qui suivirent le Concile de Nicée.
Mais sous son règne, saint Athanase d'Alexandrie (296-373) était en exil à
Trêves ; Marcel d'Ancyre († 374) et d'autres chefs de file de l'orthodoxie nicéenne
étaient déposés. Arius était sur son lit de mort. On a de bonnes raisons de
croire que c'est sous son règne que débuta la compilation des listes anciennes
des évêques et des martyrs de Rome connues sous le nom de Depositio episcoporum et de Depositio martyrum.
Son court pontificat fut de dix mois. Il est vénéré par l'Église comme saint et
fêté le 7 octobre.
Saint Marc (336)
Son
pontificat ne dura que quelques mois.
Il
s’employa à lutter contre l’hérésie arienne.
Pope St. Mark
Date of birth unknown; consecrated 18 Jan., 336; d. 7 Oct., 336. After the death
of Pope Sylvester, Mark
was raised to the Roman episcopal
chair as his successor. The "Liber Pontificalis" says that he was a Roman,
and that his father's name was Priscus.
Constantine the Great's letter, which summoned a conference
of bishops for the investigation of the Donatist dispute, is directed to Pope Miltiades and one Mark
(Eusebius, Church History X.5). This Mark
was evidently a member of the Roman
clergy, either priest or first deacon, and is perhaps identical with the pope. The date
of Mark's election
(18 Jan., 336) is given in the Liberian
Catalogue of popes (Duchesne, "Liber Pontificalis", I, 9), and is historically certain;
so is the day of his death (7 Oct.), which is specified in the same way in the
"Depositio episcoporum" of Philocalus's "Chronography", the
first edition of which appeared also in 336. Concerning an interposition of the
pope in the Arian troubles, which were then so actively
affecting the Church in the East, nothing has been
handed down. An alleged letter of his to St. Athanasius is a later forgery. Two constitutions are attributed to Mark
by the author of the "Liber
Pontificalis"
(ed. Duchesne, I, 20). According to the one, he invested the Bishop of Ostia with the pallium, and ordained that this bishop was to consecrate the Bishop of Rome. It is certain that, towards the end of the fourth century,
the Bishop of Ostia did bestow the episcopal
consecration upon the newly-elected pope; Augustine
expressly bears witness to this
(Breviarium Collationis, III,
16). It is indeed possible that Mark
had confirmed this privilege
by a constitution, which does not preclude the fact that the Bishop of Ostia before this time
usually consecrated the new pope. As for the bestowal of the pallium, the account cannot be established from
sources of the fourth century, since the oldest memorials which show this
badge, belong to the fifth and sixth centuries, and the oldest written mention
of a pope bestowing the pallium dates from the sixth century (cf. Grisar,
"Das römische Pallium und die ältesten liturgischen Schärpen", in
"Festschrift des deutschen Campo
Santo in Rom", Freiburg
im Br., 1897, 83-114).
The "Liber Pontificalis" remarks further of Marcus:
"Et constitutum de omni ecclesia ordinavit"; but we do not know which constitution this refers to. The
building of two basilicas is attributed to this pope by the author of the "Liber Pontificalis". One of these was built within the
city in the region "juxta Pallacinis"; it is the present church
of San Marco, which however
received its present external shape by later alterations. It is mentioned in
the fifth century as a Roman
title church, so that its
foundation may without difficulty be attributed to St. Mark. The
other was outside the city; it was a cemetery
church, which the pope got built over the Catacomb of Balbina,
between the Via Appia and the Via Ardeatina (cf. de
Rossi, "Roma sotterranea", III, 8-13;
"Bullettino di arch. crist.", 1867, 1 sqq.; Wilpert,
"Topographische Studien uber die christlichen Monumente der Appia und der
Ardeatina", in "Rom. Quartalschrift", 1901, 32-49). The pope obtained from Emperor Constantine gifts
of land and liturgical furniture for both basilicas. Mark
was buried in the Catacomb of Balbina,
where he had built the cemetery church.
His grave is expressly mentioned there by the itineraries
of the seventh century (de Rossi, "Roma sotterranea", I, 180-1). The feast of the deceased pope was given on 7 Oct. in the old Roman
calendar of feasts,
which was inserted in the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum"; it is still
kept on the same date. In an ancient manuscript a laudatory poem is preserved (unfortunately
in a mutilated text), which Pope Damasus had composed on a Saint
Marcus (de Rossi,
"Inscriptiones christ.
urbis Romae.", II, 108; Ihm,
"Damasi epigrammata", Leipzig, 1895, 17, no. 11). De Rossi refers this to Pope Mark, but
Duchesne (loc. cit., 204), is unable to accept this view. Since the contents of
the poem are of an entirely general nature,
without any particularly characteristic feature from the life
of Pope Mark, the question is not of great importance.
Sources
Liber Pontif., ed. DUCHESNE, I, 202-4; URBAIN, Ein
Martyrologium der christl. Gemeinde zu Rom am Anfang des V. Jahrh. (Leipzig,
1901), 198; LANGEN, Gesch. der rom. Kirche, I, 423.
Kirsch, Johann Peter.
"Pope St. Mark." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 7 Oct. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09674a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Mark A. Banach. Dedicated to my wife, Margaret D. Banach; and my children, Andrew
and Ashley.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New
York.
October 7
St. Mark, Pope and Confessor
See the Pontifical published by Anastasius ap. Muratori inter Italiarum
Rerum Scriptores, t. 3, p. 112; also Baron. ad an. 336; Bosius and Aringhi, l.
2, c. 15.
A.D. 336
ST. MARK was by birth a Roman, and served God with such fervour among
the clergy of that church, that, advancing continually in sincere humility and
the knowledge and sense of his own weakness and imperfections, he strove every
day to surpass himself in the fervour of his charity and zeal, and in the
exercise of all virtues. The persecution ceased in the West, upon the
abdication of Dioclesian and Maximian, in the beginning of the year 305; but
was revived for a short time by Maxentius in 312. St. Mark abated nothing of
his watchfulness, but endeavoured rather to redouble his zeal during the peace
of the church; knowing that if men sometimes cease openly to persecute the
faithful, the devil never allows them any truce, and his snares are generally
most to be feared in the time of a calm. The saint contributed very much to
advance the service of God during the pontificate of St. Sylvester; after whose
demise he was himself placed in the apostolic chair on the 18th of January,
336. He held that dignity only eight months and twenty days, dying on the 7th
of October following. According to the Pontifical published by Anastasius, he
built two churches, one on the Ardeatine Way, where he was afterwards buried;
another within the walls, near the capitol. He was interred in the Ardeatine
Way, in the cemetery of Balbina, a holy martyr buried there. It was originally
called of Prætextatus, probably from some illustrious person of that name, and
was situate without the Ardeatine gate, not far from the cemetery of Calixtus,
on the Appian Way. St. Mark had very much beautified and adorned this
burial-place, out of respect to the martyrs there interred; and he being buried
there, it from that time bore his name. Pope Damasus, in his epitaph, extols
his extraordinary disinterestedness and contempt of all earthly things, and his
remarkable spirit of prayer, by which he drew down on the people abundant
spiritual blessings. His name occurs in the Liberian Calendar, compiled soon
after his death, and in all other Martyrologies of the Western church. A church
bore his name in Rome in the fifth century. His remains were translated into it
by the order of Gregory VII. The pontificals mention that the church was
repaired by Adrian I., Gregory IV., and Paul II. This last pope built near it a
palace which was the summer residence of the popes till Sixtus V. preferred the
Quirinal hill, or Monte Cavallo.
It was by constant watchfulness over themselves, by assiduous self
denial, and humble prayer, that all the saints triumphed over their spiritual
enemies. They never laid down their arms. A Christian ought to be afraid of no
enemy more than himself, whom he carries always about with him, and whom he is
not able to flee from. He therefore never ceases to cry out to God: Who will
preserve me from falling through myself! Not my own strength. Unless thou, O
Lord, art my light and support, I watch in vain.
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume X: October. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
Also known as
- Marcus
Profile
Son of Priscus.
Chosen 34th pope;
he reigned less than a year. Believed to have built the basilica
of San Marco in Rome,
Italy
and the Juxta Pallacinis basilica
just outside the city. Issued a constitution confirming the power of the bishop
of Ostia to consecrate newly elected popes.
Little else is known of his life or reign.
Born
Papal
Ascension
- 7
October 336
at Rome, Italy
of natural causes
- buried in the catacomb
of Balbina, where he had built the cemetery church
