ST MARK, BISHOP OF JERUSALEM, CONFESSOR - 22 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 22nd of October

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST MARK, BISHOP OF JERUSALEM, CONFESSOR

The Apostle Saint James and his brother St Simeon were the two first bishops of Jerusalem; thirteen bishops who succeeded them were of the Jewish nation; the last, called Judas, seems to have been crowned with martyrdom among the Christians whom Barchokebas massacred in 134. 

The Jews having received this Barchokebas as their king and messias, and broken into a second rebellion, the Emperor Adrian destroyed all the buildings that had been erected at Jerusalem since Titus, and raised a new city near it which he commanded to be called Ælia Capitolina, which, ever since the reign of Constantine the Great, has been honoured with the old name of Jerusalem. 

The Jews being forbidden by Adrian to come near the place, only Gentile Christians could dwell there, and Mark was the first bishop chosen from among the Gentiles to govern that church. He was a very learned and holy man, and after he had sat twenty years is said to have died a martyr in 156. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

➡️ Saint Mark's entry in the Roman Martyrology