St. Mark, Bishop of Jerusalem, Confessor


THE APOSTLE St. 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. See Eus. Hist. l. 4, c. 6; Sulpit. Sever. l. 2; Le Quien, Or. Chr. t. 3, p. 146; also Usuard and the Roman Martyrology.	1