A little over 40 years after the birth of Christ, the Jews plundered the property of the Jerusalem Christians, so that they were forced to endure a severe famine. On this occasion, the Apostle Paul, together with Barnabas, came to Jerusalem for the second time to deliver assistance from the Christians of Antioch to the Christians there. Having fulfilled this commission for the Church of the believers in Antioch, Barnabas and Paul, returning to Antioch, took Mark with them ( Acts 12:25 ), in order to include him in their labors. When, in the same year, Paul and Barnabas undertook the first apostolic journey from Antioch to preach the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles, Mark also went with them as their assistant ( Acts 13:5 ). He was with them in the coastal city of Seleucia, on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea; From here he sailed to the island of Cyprus, traversing it from east to west, from Salamis to Paphos. In the latter place, he witnessed the miraculous striking of the sorcerer Bar-Jesus with blindness at the word of the Apostle Paul. Arriving then in Asia Minor, in the Pamphylian city of Perga, Mark, much to the chagrin of the Apostle Paul, for some reason left him with Barnabas and returned to Jerusalem, to his mother's house ( Acts 12:4-13 ).
In Jerusalem, Mark joined the Apostle Peter and, together with him, soon embarked on a journey to preach the Gospel to the then capital of the world—Rome. At that time, there were already believers in Christ there. Confessors of the Gospel came to Rome, as the capital of the world, from all over for various civic and everyday matters, and they increased the number of believers in Christ there. Through his preaching and miracles, with the assistance of Mark, the Apostle Peter further expanded and strengthened the Church of Christ in Rome, converting many to Christ—both Jews and pagans. Zealous Roman Christians, not content with the apostles' oral preaching about Jesus Christ, earnestly urged Peter's companion, Mark, to leave a written record of the teachings he had orally imparted. Mark fulfilled this good wish and wrote a Gospel for them, drawing on what he had heard about Christ at various times from the Apostle Peter. The Holy Apostle Peter, by his testimony, confirmed the truth of the Gospel written by Mark and approved it for reading in churches. This Gospel is the second book of the New Testament written in time and therefore occupies second place among them. Since St. Mark intended his Gospel for Roman Christians who had converted to faith in Christ, some from among the Jews, but mainly from among the Gentiles, he therefore intended to reveal in the Gospel that Jesus Christ, in whom they had believed, is truly the Son of God and God . This intention is clearly justified by the very first words of the book of the Evangelist Mark: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" ( Mark 1:1 ). In accordance with this intention, St. In his Gospel, St. Mark does not so much expound the teachings of Jesus Christ as he depicts His miraculous divine actions, clearly proving Him to be the Lord of all creation, visible and invisible, the Almighty God, which must have been especially convincing for pagan Christians. Mark begins his Gospel narrative with the appearance of John the Baptist, who, with his preaching, resounded throughout the Judean desert, was "a voice crying in the wilderness," and in this respect, was likened to a lion living and prowling in the desert. Therefore, in icons, St. Mark the Evangelist is usually depicted with a lion .
After his apostolic labors in Rome, Mark was sent by the Apostle Peter to preach the word of God to Aquileia, a wealthy city on the northern shore of the Adriatic Sea, renowned for being a favorite residence of Roman emperors and therefore called the "second Rome." Having founded a church in Aquileia and several other places on the Adriatic coast, Mark, at the direction of the Apostle Peter, set out for Egypt. This pagan land, adjacent to the land of Judea, where the Jewish people once languished in harsh slavery, had long been home to many Jews. Here they populated entire cities, had their own prayer halls, their own supreme court, and even a temple modeled on the Jerusalem temple, complete with priests and Levites, according to the Law of Moses. A translation of the Old Testament books of the Holy Scriptures, once completed here by order of one of the Egyptian kings, was also published. He translated the Scriptures from Hebrew into the Greek language, which was in use there, made Divine Revelation accessible to the pagans themselves, and prepared those living there to accept Christian teaching. All this promised success for St. Mark's preaching in Egypt. Indeed, when he arrived in Egypt and was the first of the apostles to preach the Gospel, proclaiming freedom from the devil's bondage, just as Moses had once proclaimed deliverance from the heavy yoke of Pharaoh to the children of Israel, a great multitude of men and women came to believe in Christ at the very beginning of his preaching. In Alexandria itself, the capital of Egypt, St. Mark founded the Christian Church.
Several years later, Mark was in Antioch. At that time, Saints Paul and Barnabas were preparing to undertake a second apostolic journey from there. Mark wanted to accompany them again, as his uncle, the Apostle Barnabas , particularly desired ; but the Apostle Paul hesitated to take Mark with him. Then Barnabas separated from Paul and, together with his nephew, set off for his homeland, Cyprus, while Paul, along with other coworkers, continued on their planned journey ( Acts 15:36–40 ). Divine Providence turned this circumstance to the benefit of Christ's Church: the preachers of the Gospel went in different directions and thereby brought more people to Christ. Then Saint Mark set off for Egypt a second time, where, a little later, Saint Peter also arrived. While preaching the Gospel in various countries of Egypt, the apostles, among other things, laid the foundation of the Church of Christ in the city of Babylon and its neighboring places, from where Peter wrote his first general epistle to the Christians of Asia Minor ( 1 Pet. 5:13 ).
Later, Mark again joined the Apostle Paul. During the Apostle Paul's imprisonment in Rome, Mark, along with several others, shared in the Apostle's evangelistic labors. This is especially evident from the Epistle to the Colossians written by Paul at that time, in which the Apostle calls Mark one of his few co-workers for the Kingdom of God, who were a comfort to him at that time ( Col. 4:10, 11 ; Phil. 23 ). From the same epistle, it is evident that, at the Apostle Paul's request, Mark left Rome for Asia Minor, namely, to the Phrygian city of Colossae ( Col. 4:10 ), probably to counteract the false teachers who were deceiving the Colossian Christians ( Col. 2:8, 18 ). When the holy Apostle Paul was then imprisoned in Rome for the second time, shortly before his death, he summoned St. Mark, along with the Apostle Timothy, traveled from Asia Minor to Rome to help them. "Take Mark and bring him with you," wrote St. Paul to Timothy, "for I need him for ministry" ( 2 Timothy 4:11 ). If Mark had succeeded in fulfilling the apostle's wish, then he could have witnessed the martyrdoms in Rome of both of his teachers, the great Apostles Peter and Paul, who suffered for Christ in Rome at approximately the same time.
After this, St. Mark again set out for Egypt to establish the Church he had founded. The Egyptian capital, Alexandria, with its famous library, was a center of Greek learning. Even the Jews who lived in large numbers in Alexandria were captivated by pagan learning. To strengthen the faith and counteract the learned pagans and Jews, St. Mark founded a Christian school in Alexandria, which became famous in the subsequent history of the Christian Church for educating renowned teachers and Church Fathers. Concerned with the organization of church services, St. Mark transmitted to the Church of Alexandria the liturgy he had composed, which was long preserved in that Church. From Alexandria, the apostle traveled to preach the Gospel in the interior lands of Africa—Libya, Marmorica, Ammonica, and Pentapolis. His preaching in Egypt was very successful and had a very beneficial influence on the lives of Christians there.
Saint Mark, the first bishop of the Church of Alexandria, was also its first martyr. He suffered on the feast of Holy Pascha, which coincided with the pagan feast of Serapis. A Christian church already existed in Alexandria, built near the sea, at a site called Vukul. On April 24, while the holy apostle was celebrating the sacrament, pagans, embittered by the success of his preaching, burst into the church, seized him, bound him with ropes, and dragged him through the streets and outskirts of the city. Then, tortured, they threw him into prison. At midnight, an angel of the Lord appeared to the holy sufferer and strengthened him for the feat of martyrdom with the joyful news of his impending bliss in heaven. Then the Lord Himself consoled him with His appearance. The next morning, a frenzied crowd of people furiously dragged the apostle from prison and again mercilessly dragged him through the streets of the city, causing Saint Mark to be cast into prison. Mark died soon after. The pagans' malice was not satisfied with the apostle's death; they decided to burn his body. A fire had already been lit when a sudden darkness, terrible thunder, an earthquake, rain, and hail dispersed the confused pagan crowd. Christians reverently buried the body of the holy apostle. A church was built over St. Mark's relics in the fourth century. In the first half of the ninth century, when Arab and Muslim rule and the Monophysite heresy completely weakened Orthodoxy in Egypt, the relics of the holy Evangelist were transferred to Venice, near which, in Aquileia, he labored for some time to preach the Gospel. There, they rest to this day in a magnificent church dedicated to him.
Source: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Istorija_Tserkvi/zhizn-i-trudy-apostolov/17