08 — Relics and Veneration
The afterlife of the saint in the Church’s memory: the relics of St. Mark — kept at Alexandria after his martyrdom, carried off to Venice by Venetian merchants in 828 (where they became the patron and treasure of the city and its basilica), and in part returned to Cairo in 1968 by Pope Paul VI to Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria — and his veneration: the feast of April 25, his commemoration among the Seventy on January 4, and the lion of the four living creatures that became his evangelist symbol.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle and Evangelist)
Mark’s body became one of the most storied relics in Christendom. The Alexandrian church guarded it at the site of his martyrdom until, in 828, Venetian merchants removed it to Venice, where it was enshrined in what became the Basilica of San Marco and where Mark replaced Theodore as the city’s patron; the winged lion of St. Mark became the emblem of the Venetian Republic. In 1968 a portion of the relics was returned by the Roman Pope Paul VI to the Coptic Pope Cyril VI, coinciding with the consecration of the new Cathedral of St. Mark in Cairo. These files set out the history of the relics and translations and then the veneration — feast, symbol, and iconography — of the apostle, evangelist, and martyr.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Relics and Venice | The relics of St. Mark: their keeping at Alexandria; the translatio to Venice in 828 and the rise of San Marco; Mark as patron of Venice and the winged lion as the Republic’s emblem; and the 1968 return of a portion of the relics to Cairo (Paul VI to Cyril VI). |
| Veneration and the Lion | The veneration of St. Mark: the feast of April 25 and the commemoration among the Seventy on January 4; the four living creatures (Ezek. 1; Rev. 4:7) and the patristic assignment of the lion to Mark (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.11.8; Jerome); and the iconography of the evangelist. |
See Also
- The Martyrdom — the death whose relics these files follow
- The See of St. Mark — the see whose founder is venerated
- Great Feasts — the liturgical calendar in which his feast stands
- The Church Fathers — Irenaeus and Jerome on the four-creatures symbolism
References
- Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies 3.11.8. Trans. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1.
- Jerome. Commentary on Matthew, prologue; Homilies on Ezekiel. On the four living creatures.
- The Translatio of St. Mark (the Translatio Sancti Marci, ninth-century Venetian account).
- Geary, Patrick J. Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages. Rev. ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.