MARCUS, DEACON, hagiographer. — Ever since Baronius inserted large portions of the *Life of Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza*, by M. into his *Annales Ecclesiastici*, this writer—unknown to a scholar like Photius in the East—aroused the greatest interest in the West. Yet doubts about the authenticity of the narrative had already been raised in the 17th century, mainly by N. de Tillemont.
These hesitations regarding the historical character of the *Life* in recent times have led to the discovery that the original work of the deacon M. was reworked by a later author. It was he, for example, who composed the introduction in imitation of the introduction to Theodore’s *Historia religiosa*; this reviser also sought to suppress the connections between Porphyry and the Origenists, etc. However, it is impossible to distinguish in the *Life* what belonged to the original work of M. and what must be attributed to the reworking. The most interesting account, which vividly describes the struggle against paganism in the city of Gaza, concerns a historical figure who lived in the time of Eudoxia and St. John Chrysostom. Porphyry, who was present at the Synod of Diospolis (415), died in 420. The destruction of the temple of Marnas, which stands at the center of the narrative, is a historical fact (cf. St. Jerome, *Epist. 107 ad Laetam* [CSEL, 4, p. 292]; id., *in Isaiam*, VII, 17; PL 24, 241 D).