St. Mark was one of the evangelists and author of the Gospel bearing his name. Marcus was his Latin surname. His Jewish name was John, which is the same as Johanan, meaning the grace of God as mentioned, "John, whose surname was Mark" in (Acts 12:12,25; 15:37). St. Mark was the son of a woman named Mary, a Jewish matron who lived in Jerusalem. He was cousin of St. Barnabas of Cyprus, the great friend of St. Paul. His mother would seem to have been closely acquainted with St. Peter, and it was at her house, as to a familiar home, that the apostle recovered after leaving prison in 44 A.D (Acts 12:12). St. Mark was close to St. Peter, to whom also he probably owed his conversion, as St. Peter calls him his son (1 Peter 5:13). We hear of him for the first time in Acts 15:25 where we find him accompanying and Barnabas on their return from Jerusalem to Antioch in 45 A.D. He was then mentioned on he earliest missionary journey of the same apostles in 48 A.D. when he joined them as their "minister" in Acts 13:8. He visited Cyprus with them but in Perga in Pamphylia, when they were about to enter upon the more arduous part of their mission, he left them and returned to Jerusalem. We read about him with St. Paul during that apostle's first imprisonment in Rome in 61-63 A.D. and he Is acknowledged by him as one of his few fellow labourers who had been a "comfort" to him during the weary hours of his imprisonment in Colossians 4:10,11 and Phle 1:24. We next have references about him in 1 Peter 5:13, "The church that is in Babylon... salutes you, and so doth Marcus my son." From Babylon he returned to Asia Minor as  St. Paul in his second imprisonment in 68 A.D. wrote to Timothy to asks him to bring Mark with him as he was "profitable to him For the ministry." (2 Timothy 4:11). It is assumed that he then joined Peter and Paul in Rome until they were martyred, after which church tradition affirms that St. Mark visited Egypt, founded the church of Alexandria (the Coptic Orthodox church)  and died by martyrdom.