Saint Mark the Evangelist
He is John, nicknamed Mark, whose name is frequently mentioned in the book of Acts and the epistles. He had two names: John, a Hebrew name meaning “Jehovah Hanan”, and Mark, a Roman name meaning “devoted to the god Mars”. He is the cousin of St. Barnabas, the martyr, as the Apostle Paul said about him.
St. Mark was born in Cyrene, one of the five western cities of Libya, in a town called Appriatulus, to Jewish parents from the tribe of Levi, his father's name was Aristobulus, and his mother was Mary, a pious woman who was considered among the first Christians in Jerusalem. He learned and mastered Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.
When some barbaric tribes attacked their property, they left Kairouan for Palestine, their original homeland, and lived in Jerusalem. He grew up in a pious family that was one of the earliest families to believe in and serve Christianity.
In 49 AD, Mark traveled to Alexandria, and on his way he passed through more than a year on his journey to five churches, and history tells us the story of Anianus accepting the Christian faith as the first Egyptian in Alexandria to accept Christianity.
Mark's shoes were worn out from walking, and when he went to the Alexandrian cobbler, Anianus, to repair them, the awl entered his hand and he cried out: “Mark healed him in the name of Jesus Christ and began to tell him about the one God. He and his household believed, and this family was the nucleus of the Church of Christ in Alexandria, and as the first missionary, the universal church considered him in its tradition the first patriarch of Alexandria.
It happened to be the same day as one of the pagan gods called “Serapis”, and the pagan forces opposed to the Christian presence in Egypt had learned of Mark's presence in Alexandria and his intention to offer the Easter Mass in a church that the believers had established by the sea in a place known as “Bokalia”, meaning the house of the cow.
It happened that when he was praying the Easter Mass, the pagans attacked the church, came behind him and tied him with ropes, then dragged him out of the church and tied the ropes to horses that dragged the saint while they beat him with sticks and whips.