MARK THE HERMIT. - Ascetic and dogmatic writer. Photius (Bibl., cod. 200) knew nine writings by M., not to mention 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 St. John Chrysostom, a notice that is already found in the Chronicon of George Hamartolos (PG 110, 734 B); in that case M. would have lived in the first half of the 5th century. In any case he must not be confused with the Mark of the Historia Lausiaca, 20 ff.

The treatise De lege spirituali deals with the spiritual law according to Rom. 7, 14. Connected with this writing is the short work De Poenitentia, which preaches the necessity of Penance even for the perfect among monks. The De Baptismo contains a polemic against the errors of the Messalians regarding 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 affirmed the divinity of Melchizedek in the sense that he would have been a theophany of the Word not yet incarnate. Also by M. is a polemical work against the Nestorians. At the center of his interest stands the struggle against the Messalians (v. H. Dörries, Symeon v. Mesopotamien [Texte und Untersuchungen, 55, 1], Leipzig 1941, pp. 95, 444 ff.; E. Klostermann, Symeon und Macarius, Berlin 1943, p. 8, n. 1).

Bibliography9 works

BIBL.: A critical edition of his writings is lacking. The cod. Mosc. 178 contains a better text than the one published in PG 65. On the Syriac translation v. A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, Bonn 1922, p. 91 f. For M. in Arabic, v. G. Graf, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, I (Studi e testi, 118), Città del Vaticano 1944, p. 400 f. Studies: I. Kunze, M. Eremita, Leipzig 1895; id., s. v. in Realencykl. für Theologie und Kirche, XII, pp. 280-87; H. Dörries, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, XXVII, coll. 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. kath. Theologie, 61 (1937), p. 366 f.; C. Jussen, Dasein und Wesen der Erbsünde nach M. Eremita, ibid., 62 (1938), pp. 76-91; M. Viller-H. Rahner, Aszese und Mystik in der Väterzeit, Freiburg 1939, p. 175 f. On the Melchisedechians in M. v. H.-Stock, Die sogenannten Melchisedechianer, Leipzig 1928, p. 55 f.

Erik Peterson

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Mark the Hermit

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