Sacred Calendar
The Roman year ordered for memory, penance, feasts, saints, and the daily pilgrimage of the faithful.
Calendar standard
Pre-1955 Roman usage
The calendar follows the universal Roman year under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X, with the Roman Martyrology preserved as a distinct daily witness.
The day is presented for prayer, recollection, study, and perseverance in the City.
Daily observance
Today in the City of God
The Church keeps this day in holy time. The Pilgrim's Companion gathers the feast, daily quote, Martyrology, meditation, prayer, and related chapters into one daily path through the City.
Choose a date
Daily observance
St. Mark, Evangelist
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Season: Eastertide
The day is set within the Roman year so its feast, Martyrology, daily quote, prayer, and reading path may be received together without blurring their proper sources.
Today's pilgrimage
St. Mark, Evangelist
Rank: Double of the Second Class
Color: red
Octave: Within the Common Octave of the Solemnity of St. Joseph (Common Octave).
Litany: Greater Litanies.
Quote for the day
Our Lord Jesus Christ
“Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Mark 16:15, Douay-Rheims
Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology - April 25
At Alexandria, the birthday of blessed Mark, evangelist, disciple and interpreter of the apostle St. Peter. He wrote his gospel at the request of the faithful of Rome, and taking it with him, proceeded to Egypt and founded a church at Alexandria, where he was the first to announce Christ. Afterwards, being arrested for the faith, he was bound, dragged over stones and endured great afflictions. Finally he was confined to prison, where, being comforted by the visit of an angel, and even by an apparition of our Lord himself, he was called to the heavenly kingdom in the eighth year of the reign of Nero. — At Rome, the great Litanies in the church of St. Peter. — At Syracuse, the holy martyrs Evodius, Hermogenes, and Callistus. — At Antioch, St. Stephen, bishop and martyr, who suffered much from the heretics opposed to the Council of Chalcedon, and was precipitated into the river Orontes, in the time APEIL. 117 of the emperor Zeno. — In the same city, the Saints Philo and Agathopodes, deacons. — At Alexandria, the bishop St. Anian, disciple of blessed Mark, and his successor in the episcopate. With a great renown for virtue, he rested in the Lord. — At Lobbes, the birthday of St. ErmiDus, bishop and confessor.
Highlighted saint
St. Mark
Evangelist and herald of the Gospel.
St. Mark is honored as an evangelist, preserving and preaching the Gospel of Christ for the Church.
His feast teaches that the Gospel is not private possession or religious mood, but apostolic testimony entrusted to the Church.
Virtue to practice
Disciplined witness to the Gospel.
Error to resist
The silence that treats revealed truth as private preference.
For the pilgrim in exile
Ask St. Mark for a faithful tongue and a disciplined pen. The truth need not be noisy to be brave.
Imitate today
- Bear witness to the faith plainly.
- Use speech and writing in service of truth.
- Pray for missionaries and preachers.
Sources
- Mark 16:15-20, Douay-Rheims.
- Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, April 25.
From Matins
Peter's interpreter carries the Gospel to Alexandria.
Matins - Second Nocturn - St. Mark, Evangelist
St. Jerome, Priest, On Ecclesiastical Writers
“He wrote the shortest of the Gospels.”
Doctrine taught
- The Breviary receives St. Mark as the disciple and interpreter of St. Peter, writing from what he had heard Peter teach.
- St. Peter approved Mark's Gospel and gave it to the Church to be read by his authority, binding the written Gospel to apostolic witness.
- Mark carried the Gospel into Egypt, founded the Church of Alexandria, and formed Christians whose common life recalled the first charity of Jerusalem.
For the pilgrim in exile
Receive the Gospel as apostolic testimony, not private literature. St. Mark teaches that Scripture is handed down in the Church, preached, approved, read, and lived.
Sources
- The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. II, Spring, Second Nocturn for St. Mark, lessons iv-vi.
- Bute 1908 is used here as an accessible pre-Pius X Breviary witness and is cited distinctly from the 1936-1937 Benziger / Burns Oates edition.
Breviary Witness
The Gospel entrusted to apostolic witness.
Matins - St. Mark
Breviary witness
- The Breviary honors St. Mark as evangelist and herald of the Gospel.
- His witness teaches that the word of Christ is to be preached, written, guarded, and handed on as apostolic truth.
For the pilgrim in exile
Use speech and writing for the faith. The Gospel is not private feeling, but public testimony for salvation.
Sources
- Roman Breviary, Matins lessons for April 25, St. Mark.
- Mark 16:15-20, Douay-Rheims.
Gospel of the day
Preach the Gospel to every creature.
St. Mark, Evangelist - Mark 16:15-20
“Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
What Our Lord teaches
- The Gospel is not private possession but apostolic mission.
- Christ confirms the preaching of His Church by His authority from heaven.
Virtue to practice
Bear witness to the faith plainly, without theatrical zeal.
Error to resist
The silence that treats revealed truth as private preference.
For the pilgrim in exile
Ask St. Mark for a faithful tongue and a disciplined pen. The truth need not be noisy to be brave.
Sources
- Mark 16:15-20, Douay-Rheims.
- Traditional Roman Gospel for St. Mark.
Meditation
Victory Seen in Christ
The day lifts the pilgrim above mere survival. The Church suffers, but she suffers under the Lord who is risen, ascended, glorified, and victorious in His saints. Triumph is not a mood. It is the promised end toward which perseverance is ordered.
Related paths
Walk the day through the City.
Today's chapters
Read with the feast.
Prayer
The day should become prayer.
O Lord, do not permit me to admire truth without submitting to it. Give me the courage to obey what Thou hast already made known.
Thought for the pilgrim
Truth becomes fruitful when it is obeyed.
Practice
The day should become obedience.
Choose one known duty and obey it without delay or complaint.
Source notes
Universal Roman Calendar under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X
Fasting and abstinence according to the laws observed in 1952
Daily quotations and pilgrimage excerpts should come from Scripture, Fathers, Doctors, saints, traditional popes before 1958, traditional catechisms, approved devotional works, or received liturgical texts.
The Roman Martyrology, Baltimore, 1916, published by John Murphy Company; the local 1916 text is displayed and traceable to its source lines.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xvii–xxviii.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, p. xv.
- St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, p. xx: St. Mark, Evangelist — Greater Litanies.