Mark, evangelist – April 25th
St Mark (d. Alexandria, Egypt) (Relics: Venice, Italy; Alexandria, Egypt; Reichenau, Germany)
First Class Relics
Basilica di San Marco
(Saint Mark’s Basilica)
Piazza San Marco
30124 Venice, Italy
*In 828 two Venetian merchants stole the relics of St Mark from Alexandria and brought them to Venice. A popular legend holds that the relics were hid in a barrel of pork so that they would not be discovered. These relics are now located within the main altar of this church. The Pala d’Oro is located just behind this altar on the back side of the retable.
St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral
Al Abbasiya, Cairo, Egypt
*In 1968 Pope Paul VI gave some of the Venetian relics of St Mark to the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria. They are now kept at this church in Cairo.
*A similar situation happened in 1973 when some relics of St Athanasius were likewise returned to the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria. These relics are also kept at this same church.
Münster St. Maria und Markus
(Cathedral of Saint Mary and Saint Mark)
78479 Reichenau, Germany
*For many centuries the island of Reichenau served as a very important monastic center in Medieval Europe. This island rests upon Lake Constance in southern Germany near the Liechtenstein border. In 1803 the island was secularized leading to the destruction of many of its churches and religious buildings.
*Relics of St Mark were brought to this island from Venice in the year 830 AD. This was just two years after Venetian merchants smuggled these relics out of Egypt. Today these relics rest within this newly constructed church.
Churches of Honor in Rome
San Marco (Saint Mark)
Piazza San Marco 48
Rome, Italy
*This church is on the west side of Piazza Venezia. It is dedicated to St Mark the Evangelist.
*The church was founded in 336 by a pope who took the name of Mark. The remains of this pope and not the evangelist rest beneath the main altar.
