MARK, Pope, Saint. - He was Roman by birth and the son of Priscus; he governed the Roman Church for about nine months, from 18 January to 7 October 356. Little is known of his deeds; it seems that he took no part at all in the Arian controversy, since the correspondence with St. Athanasius attributed to him by Pseudo-Isidore is certainly spurious.

The Liber Pontificalis attributes to him the granting of the pallium and the prerogative of the bishop of Ostia to consecrate the new bishop of Rome. He built two basilicas: one in the city, the Titulus Marci, brought to light in recent excavations; the other on the Via Ardeatina, now vanished. His burial in the cemetery of Balbina on 7 October is indicated in the Depositio episcoporum; on the same date the Martyrology and the Roman Breviary commemorate him.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Lib. Pont., I, pp. 80 ff., 202-4; the spurious correspondence, in Jaffé-Wattenbach, I, p. 30 and PL 8, col. 854; Acta SS. Octobris, III, Antwerp 1770, pp. 886-903; J. P. Kirsch, Die römischen Titelkirchen im Altertum, Paderborn 1918, pp. 87-90; V. Monachino, La cura pastorale a Milano, Cartagine e Roma nel sec. IV, Rome 1947, pp. 280, 300; for the recent excavations, A. Ferrua, La basilica di papa M., in Civ. Catt., 99 (1948), III, pp. 503-13.

Vincenzo Monachino

@incollection{ec8_marco_papa_santo, author = {Monachino, Vincenzo}, title = {Marco, papa, santo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {50}, 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-papa-santo} }

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Mark, Pope, Saint

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