Mark the Deacon

Mark the Deacon (Latin: Marcus Diaconus) was a monk in the Egyptian desert of Scetes who became the biographer of Saint Porphyrius in the 5th century. He was, at a later date, made deacon of his church. To effect the sale of the property still owned by Porphyrius in his native city, Mark set out for Thessalonica and, upon his return, the proceeds were distributed among the monasteries of Egypt and among the necessitous in and around Jerusalem. His masterpiece, the "Vita S. Porphyrii" ("Life of St. Porphyrius), formerly known only in a Latin translation, was published in 1874 by M. Haupt in its original Greek text. A new edition was issued in 1895 by the Bonn Philological Society. The vita is also known in a Georgian version, which may have been derived from a lost Syriac original.