The Alexandrian Mission
The tradition of Mark’s mission to Egypt — his preaching in the great cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, the conversion of Anianus the cobbler as his first Egyptian convert, the gathering of a church, and the ordination of clergy — is preserved in part by Eusebius and more fully in the later Acts of Mark and the Coptic and Arabic traditions. This file sets out the narrative of the mission, carefully distinguishing the early attested core (Eusebius) from the fuller hagiographic detail of the later sources.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle and Evangelist)
The Attested Core: Eusebius
The earliest evidence for Mark’s Egyptian mission is the brief notice of Eusebius already cited for the foundation of the see (see The See of St. Mark): “they say that this Mark was the first that was sent to Egypt, and that he proclaimed the gospel which he had written, and first established churches in Alexandria” (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.16.1; trans. McGiffert, NPNF II/1). Eusebius adds that the converts there were so numerous and lived so rigorous a life that they drew the admiration of observers, and he records — at 2.24 — that Anianus succeeded Mark as bishop “in the eighth year of Nero” (Eusebius, HE 2.24.1). This is the firm core: Mark preached in Egypt, founded the Alexandrian church, and was succeeded by Anianus. Eusebius narrates no detailed mission and no martyrdom; the fuller story comes from later tradition.
The Fuller Narrative: The Acts of Mark and the Coptic Tradition
The detailed account of the Alexandrian mission is preserved in the Greek Acts of Mark (Martyrium Marci / Acta Marci), a hagiographic work usually dated to the fourth or fifth century, and in the Coptic and Arabic traditions of the Egyptian church, above all the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria (Severus of Al’Ashmunein, tenth century, drawing on earlier sources) and the Coptic Synaxarion. These sources are later than the events they narrate and belong to the genre of hagiography; following METHODOLOGY §3.5, they are reported here as the tradition’s own account, pinned to their attestation, not certified as bare historical fact [Disputed: the detailed narrative of Mark's Alexandrian mission and the Anianus story is preserved only in late sources — the Greek *Acts of Mark* (4th–5th c.) and the Coptic/Arabic traditions (the *History of the Patriarchs*, the Synaxarion) — which are several centuries removed from the first century; Eusebius (early 4th c.) attests the foundation and the succession of Anianus but narrates no detail. The narrative below is the received tradition of the Egyptian church, not independently verifiable first-century history].
The Conversion of Anianus
The best-known episode is the conversion of Anianus, the man Eusebius names as Mark’s successor. According to the Acts of Mark and the Coptic tradition, when Mark entered Alexandria his sandal-strap broke, and he gave the shoe to a cobbler named Anianus (Greek Annianos) to mend. As Anianus worked, the awl pierced his hand, and he cried out in pain, “Heis ho Theos!” — “God is One!” Mark, hearing the cry, healed the wound by anointing it and invoking the name of Jesus, and used the occasion to preach the gospel to the astonished cobbler. Anianus believed, was baptized with his household, and became Mark’s first convert in Egypt; he is the Anianus whom Eusebius records as succeeding Mark in the see (Eusebius, HE 2.24; the conversion narrative in the Acts of Mark and the Coptic Synaxarion, entry for 30 Baramudah). The story is etiological as well as devotional: it explains how the second bishop of Alexandria, the link between the apostolic founder and the later succession, came to the faith. As hagiography it is pinned to its late attestation; as tradition it is held dear in the Coptic and Orthodox churches alike.
The Planting of the Church
The fuller tradition continues that Mark, having won Anianus and his household, gathered a community of believers, preached widely in the city, and — to secure the church before his departure on further travels — ordained Anianus a bishop and appointed presbyters and deacons. The sources have Mark leave Alexandria for a time (to Cyrene and the Pentapolis in some accounts, or back to Rome to Peter and Paul in others), then return to find the church grown, the believers more numerous and bolder, which provoked the hostility of the pagan population that would lead to his martyrdom (the Acts of Mark; the History of the Patriarchs, trans. Evetts, PO 1; see The Martyrdom). The detail of these journeys varies among the sources and harmonizes the Alexandrian mission with Mark’s New Testament associations with Peter and Paul (see Companion of the Apostles); the variations are themselves a sign that the narrative is the work of tradition gathering and ordering received memories.
The Significance of the Mission
For all the lateness of its detailed sources, the Alexandrian mission carries a significance that does not depend on settling every particular. The Orthodox and Coptic Churches receive Mark as the apostle of Egypt, the one who carried the gospel to the second city of the Roman Empire and planted there a church that would become a patriarchate and a fountain of theology (see The Catechetical School). The conversion of Anianus — a humble cobbler, won by a healing and a confession of the one God — fittingly inaugurates a church that would be at once intellectually grand and rooted in the ordinary people of Egypt. The mission also completes the New Testament portrait of Mark: the young man who once turned back from the mission at Perga (Acts 13:13; see Companion of the Apostles) is remembered as ending his life as a founding apostle and martyr in Egypt — the deserter become the planter of a great church. The tradition thus reads Mark’s life as an arc from failure to faithfulness, crowned at Alexandria. Where the early evidence ends and the later tradition begins has been marked above; what the whole Church confesses is that the Evangelist Mark gave Egypt its faith.
See Also
- The Martyrdom — the death that crowned the mission
- The See of St. Mark — the church and succession the mission founded
- The Catechetical School — what the Alexandrian church became
- Companion of the Apostles — Mark’s New Testament journeys and his bond with Peter and Paul
- Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem — the patriarchate Mark is said to have founded
References
- Eusebius of Caesarea. Ecclesiastical History 2.16, 2.24. Trans. Arthur C. McGiffert, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1. 1890.
- The Martyrdom of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark (Acta Marci / Martyrium Marci). Greek text in Acta Sanctorum, April III; English in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8.
- The History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria (Severus of Al’Ashmunein). Ed. and trans. B. Evetts, Patrologia Orientalis 1.
- The Coptic Synaxarion (entry for 30 Baramudah / Paremoude, the conversion of Anianus and the mission of Mark).
- Davis, Stephen J. The Early Coptic Papacy. Cairo: AUC Press, 2004.