7 OCTOBER – SAINT MARK (Pope and Confessor)

Mark, a native of  of January 336 AD. During his short pontificate of 8 months he founded the Basilica of San Marco Evangelista al Campidoglio (Titulus Pallacinae) at the Capitol, and dedicated it to his namesake, the Apostle and Evangelist, Saint Mark. He also founded the Basilica of Saint Balbina, erected over the cemetery of that saint. Pope Mark died on the 7th of October 336 and was buried in the Catacombs of Saint Balbina. Many centuries later his relics were translated to the Basilica of San Marco.

Dom Prosper Guéranger:

Mark, successor to Sylvester, the Pontiff of peace, has been honoured on this day from time immemorial. According to the testimony of Saint Damasus, his virtues no less than his name recalled Saint Mark the Evangelist. He occupied the supreme See only eight months but in that short time he followed up the recent triumph of the Church by wise organisations. He built two new sanctuaries in Rome. He gave the Pallium, of which this is the first mention in history, to the Bishop of Ostia, to enhance his high privilege of being the appointed consecrator of the Roman Pontiffs.

This Pontificate witnessed the awful death of Arius. Constantine had been deceived into ordering the re-instatement of this wicked man who taught that the Word Incarnate was a mere creature. The heresiarch, followed by his partisans, was proceeding in triumph through the streets of Constantinople intending to force open the doors of the Basilica where the faithful, with their Bishop St. Alexander, were beseeching God with fasting and tears, to avert the profanation. Suddenly, seized with an ignominious trembling, Arius was obliged to retire to a secret place, where his flatterers soon afterwards found him stretched on the floor with his bowels cast out. He had merited the death of a Judas for having delivered up the Son of God to the disputes of the people, to the mockeries of the proud, to the contradictions of the Praetorium.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

In the province of the Euphrates, the holy martyrs Sergius and Bacchus, noble Romans, in the time of the emperor Maximian. Bacchus, being scourged with rough whips until his body was completely mangled, breathed his last in the confession of Christ. Sergius had his feet forced into shoes full of sharp-pointed nails, and, remaining unshaken in the faith, he was sentenced to undergo capital punishment. The place where he reposes is called after him Sergiopolis, and, on account of the signal miracles wrought in it, is honoured by a great concourse of Christians.

At Rome, the holy martyrs Marcellus and Apuleius, who at first followed Simon Magus, but seeing the wonders which the Lord performed by the blessed Apostle St. Peter, abandoned Simon and embraced the apostolic doctrine. After the death of the Apostles, under the ex-consul Aurelian, they won the crown of martyrdom and were buried near the city.

Also in the province of the Euphrates, St. Julia, virgin, who endured martyrdom under the governor Marcian.

At Padua, St. Justina, virgin and martyr, who was baptised by the blessed Prosdocimus, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Peter. As she remained firm in the faith of Christ, she was put to the sword by order of the governor Maximus and thus went to God.

At Bourges, St. Augustus, priest and confessor.

In the diocese of Rheims, St. Helanus, priest.

In Sweden, the translation of the body of St. Bridget, widow.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.