MARK, Deacon, Hagiographer. - After Baronius inserted large portions of the Life of Porphyry, bishop of Gaza, by M. into his Annales Ecclesiastici, this writer — who had remained unknown in the East even to a scholar like Photius — aroused the greatest interest in the West. However, doubts regarding the authenticity of the account had already been raised in the 17th century, formulated principally by N. de Tillemont.
These hesitations regarding the historical character of the Life led in recent times to the discovery that the original work of the deacon M. was reworked by a later author. It was he, for example, who wrote the introduction in imitation of the introduction to the Historia religiosa of Theodoret; this reviser also sought to suppress the relations between Porphyry and the Origenists, etc. However, it is not possible to distinguish in the Life what formed part of M.'s original work and what must be attributed to the reworking. The highly interesting writing, which vividly describes the struggle against paganism in the city of Gaza, deals with a historical person who lived in the times of Eudoxia and of 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 account, is a historical fact (v. St. Jerome, Epist. 107 ad Laetam [CSEL, 4, p. 292]; id., in Isaiam, VII, 17: PL 24, 241 D).
Bibliographycritical edition: Marc le diacre, Vie de Porphyre, ed. H. Grégoire et M. A. Kugener, Paris 1930 (with rich commentary). On the Georgian tran
BIBL.: critical edition: Marc le diacre, Vie de Porphyre, ed. H. Grégoire et M. A. Kugener, Paris 1930 (with rich commentary). On the Georgian translation, v. P. Peeters, in Analecta Bollandiana, 59 (1941), p. 65 ff. On the life of M., v. Abel, in Conférences de St-Etienne, Paris 1910, p. 226 ff.
Peterson, Erik. “Marco, diacono, agiografo.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VIII, col. 40. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952. https://azioneromana.com/article/marco-diacono-agiografo.
MLA
Peterson, Erik. “Marco, diacono, agiografo.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VIII, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952, col. 40. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/marco-diacono-agiografo.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec8_marco_diacono_agiografo,
author = {Peterson, Erik},
title = {Marco, diacono, agiografo},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VIII},
pages = {40},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1952},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/marco-diacono-agiografo}
}
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