Bishop of Arethusa in Syria who under Constantine had destroyed a pagan temple and built a church in its place. When Julian the Apostate came to power, the pagans seized him and subjected him to cruel tortures, which he endured with steadfast courage.
The Holy Hieromartyr Mark, Bishop of Arethusa
Mark was bishop of Arethusa in Syria in the fourth century and is venerated as a hieromartyr for the sufferings he endured under the emperor Julian the Apostate. He is commemorated on March 29, together with the Deacon Cyril of Heliopolis and others who suffered in the same persecution.
Under the emperor Constantine, Mark had destroyed a pagan temple at Arethusa and built a Christian church in its place. When Julian came to the throne (361-363) and set himself to restore the old religion, the pagans of the city turned against the bishop. The aged Mark at first withdrew into hiding, but when he learned that his persecutors were torturing others in their search for him, he gave himself up rather than let others suffer on his account.
His captors demanded that he pay a large sum toward rebuilding the pagan temple, and when he refused they subjected him to a series of cruel torments. According to the tradition they tore out his hair, slashed his body, dragged him through the streets, cast him into a swamp, and cut him with knives; at the last they smeared him with honey and grease and hung him up in a basket beneath the midday sun to be stung by bees, wasps, and hornets. His steadfastness so moved the people that many were brought back to Christ, and in the end he was released.
Mark's passion is among the better-documented martyrdoms of Julian's reign. Saint Gregory the Theologian recounts his sufferings in his First Oration against Julian, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus records him in his Church History. These accounts preserve both the brutality of his torments and the bishop's calm endurance, which became a means of converting some of those who had set themselves against him.