St. Mark

Who they were

John Mark of Jerusalem, whose mother's house was the early Church's meeting place, joined Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey as a young assistant and, partway through, went home. Scripture does not say why. It does record the consequence: when the next journey formed, Paul refused to take the deserter, Barnabas his cousin insisted, and the two apostles split over him, in the New Testament's most famous staffing dispute.

The arc is the point. Years later Peter calls Mark my son; the tradition, through Papias and within living memory, says Mark's Gospel is substantially Peter's preaching written down, the earliest Gospel, urgent and fast, with everything happening immediately; and Paul's own last word, from his final imprisonment, closes the file: get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me in ministry. The deserter became the first evangelist and, by strong tradition, the founder of the Church of Alexandria, and Venice later carried his relics home and built the golden basilica under his winged lion.

Why people turn to St. Mark

Anyone who quit, was written off, and wants back in. Barnabas belongs in that patronage too, since everyone in this position needs one advocate who insists. Notaries and writers by old title, and Egypt and Venice by right.

How to ask their intercession

After the professional failure, Paul's closing sentence is the thing to ask for, said about you: he is useful to me.