Apostle of the Seventy Mark of Apollonia (in Bithynia)

Apostle of the Seventy Mark, also called John Mark, was the nephew of the Apostle Barnabas, one of the seventy lesser apostles sent out by Christ to preach (Luke 10). He served as bishop of Apollonia — a city in Bithynia (northwestern Asia Minor), not one of the many other ancient cities named Apollonia (in Illyria, Macedonia, or Cyrenaica). Orthodox tradition explicitly distinguishes him from the Evangelist Mark — a namesake, but a different person.

No separate account of a martyrdom specifically for this Mark has survived in the sources — unlike, for example, his fellow member of the Synaxis of the Seventy, Tertius, whose martyrdom is separately attested; the category "apostle-bishop" therefore more accurately reflects his veneration than "martyr."

His feast is kept on October 30/November 12 — together with the Apostles of the Seventy Tertius (the second bishop of Iconium, who suffered martyrdom), Justus (Barsabas Justus, mentioned in Acts 1:23, bishop of Eleutheropolis), and Artemas (bishop of Lystra) — and also in the general Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles on January 4/17.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the original name "Mark of Apshonia" is a corrupted rendering of "of Apollonia" ("Apolloniadsky"); the impossible dating "2nd-4th century" has been removed (the apostle belongs to the 1st, apostolic century); the contaminated 5-date string, shared with the entries marcellus_i_of_rome and marcellus_of_ancyra, has been removed — the correct date, October 30/November 12, has been established; category martyr→apostle_of_70, since no separate martyrdom account of him has survived.