Mark the Hermit (MARCO L'EREMITA) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VIII, p. 50

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

MARCO L'EREMITA. – Ascetic and dogmatic writer. Photius (Bibl., cod. 200) knew of M. nine writings, without discussing his person. Nicephorus Callistus mentions him in his Hist. eccl., 14, 30, 53, 54 (PG 146), alongside Nilus and Isidore of Pelusium, as a disciple of s. Chrysostom, a piece of information already found in the Chronicon of George Hamartolos (PG 110, 734 B); M. would therefore have lived in the first half of the 5th century. In any case, he should not be confused with the Marco of the Historia Lausiaca, 20 ff.

The treatise De lege spirituali deals with the spiritual law according to Rom. 7:14. Connected with this work is the little treatise De Poenitentia, which proclaims the necessity of Penance even for the perfect among the monks. The De Baptismo contains a polemic against the errors of the Messalians concerning this Sacrament. Other writings are Praecepta salutaria ad Nicolaum monachum; Disputatio cum quodam considicio; Consultatio intellectus cum sua ipsius anima; De ieiunio; In Melchisedek, a polemic against a heresy that asserted the divinity of Melchisedek, in the sense that he would have been a theophany of the Word not yet incarnate. M. also wrote a polemical work against the Nestorians. At the center of his interest is the struggle against the Messalians (v. H. Dörries, Symeon V. Mesopotamien [Texte und Untersuchungen, 55, 1], Lipsia 1941, pp. 95, 444 ff; E. Klostermann, Symeon und Macarius, Berlino 1943, p. 8, n. 1).

BIBL.: A critical edition of his writings is lacking. Cod. Mosc. 178 contains a better text than that published in PG 65. On the translation into the Syriac language V. A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, Bonn 1922, p. 91 ff. For M. in the Arabic language, V. Graf, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, I (Studi e testi, 118), Città del Vaticano 1944, p. 400 ff. Studies: I. Kunze, M. Eremita, Lipsia 1895; id., s. V. in Realencykl. für Theologie und Kirche, XII, pp. 280–87; H. Dörries, s. V. in Pauly-Wissowa, XXVII, cols. 1867–69; I. Opitz, ibid., Suppl. VI, col. 281; E. Peterson, Die Schrift des Eremiten M. über die Taufe und die Messalianer, in Zeitschr. f. Neutest. Wissenschaft, 31 (1932), pp. 273–88; I. Hausherr, L'erreur fondamentale de la logique du messalianisme, in Orientalia Christiana periodica,

1 (1935), pp. 328–60; H. Rahner, Ein messalianisches Fragment über die Taufe, in Zeitschr. f. hath. Theologie, 61 (1937), p. 366 ff.; C. Jussen, Dasein und Wesen der Erbsünde nach M. Eremita, ibid., 62 (1938), pp. 76–91; M. Viller-H. Rahner, Aussee und Mystik in der Väterzeit, Friburgo 1939, p. 175 ff. On the Melchisedekians among M.

V. H

Stock, Die sogenannten Melchischechianer, Lipsia 1928, p. 55 ff. Erik Peterson