MARCO L’EREMITA - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. VIII, p. 50

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

MARCO THE HERMIT – Ascetic and dogmatic writer. Photius (Bibl., cod. 200) knew nine works by M., without speaking of the man himself. 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 already found in George Hamartolus’s *Chronicon* (PG 110, 734 B); M. would thus 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* treats of 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. *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 causidico*; *Consultatio intellectus cum sua ipsius anima*; *De iuimino*; *In Melchisedek*, a polemic against a heresy that affirmed 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 centre of his interest stands the struggle against the Messalians (v. H. Dörries, *Symeon V. Mesopotamien* [Texte und Untersuchungen, 55, I], Leipzig 1941, pp. 95, 444 ff; E. Klostermann, *Symeon und Macarius*, Berlin 1943, p. 8, n. 1).

BIBL.: There is no critical edition of his writings. Cod. Mosq. 178 contains a better text than that published in PG 65. On the Syriac translation V. A. Baumstark, *Geschichte der syrischen Literatur*, Bonn 1922, p. 91 ff. For M. in Arabic V. Graf, *Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur*, I (Studi e testi, 118), Città del Vaticano 1944, p. 400 ff. 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, cols. 1867-69; I. Opitz, *ibid.*, Suppl. VI, col. 281; E. Peterson, *Die Schrift des Eremiten M. über die Taufe und die Messaliner*, in *Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Theologie*, 31 (1932), pp. 273-88; I. Hausherr, *L’erreur fondamentale de la logique du messalinianisme*, in *Orientalia Christiana periodica*, 1 (1935), pp. 328-60; H. Rahner, *Ein messianisches Fragment über die Taufe*, in *Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche*, 61 (1937), p. 266 sq.; C. Jüssen, *Dasein und Wesen der Erbsünde nach M. Eremita*, ibid., 62 (1938), pp. 76-91; M. Villier-H. Rahner, *Assez und Mystik in der Väterzeit*, Freiburg 1939, p. 175 sq. On the Melchisedekians in M.

V. H

Stock, *Die sogenannten Melchisedekianer*, Leipzig 1928, p. 55 ff. Erik Peterson

Article illustration — (courtesy of Fr G. Crisostomo da Cittadella, O.F.M. Cap.) Marco d'Aviano – Portrait by an unknown hand executed shortly after his death (1699) – Padua, Convent of the Capuchins.
For twenty years counsellor to Leopold I, by the prestige of his holiness and by remarkable insights he exercised a beneficent influence on the