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From very early church tradition, John Mark - author of the Gospel of Mark - has been associated with Alexandria, Egypt. Egyptian Coptics believe he arrived there around 60 AD and remained there until his martyrdom about eight years later. They consider him to be the founder of the Christian church in Alexandria and also its first bishop.
Tradition says that after his arrest in 68 AD, he was martyred by being dragged through the streets behind horses. His body was retained by local Christians and buried underneath the church he founded.
Nearly 800 years later, his body was stolen [828 AD] and enshrined in St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. However, it was only his body; his head remained in Alexandria where each new Patriarch of Alexandria would begin his rule of service by changing the cloth shroud that wrapped the “holy head” of St. Mark.
Mark’s head has been lost in history. In 1968 the Vatican sent some relics from the body of St. Mark to Alexandria, where they remain today.
The remains of St. Mark lay in this sarcophagus at the
Basilica of St. Mark in Venice, Italy
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