Treasures and Tales

Relics That Work

St. Mark’s relics are like holy gifts, helping people through Christ’s grace. After he gave his life in 68 AD, his body was buried in Baucalis, per the Coptic Synaxarion (30 Baramoudah). In 828 AD, Venetian traders took most of it to Venice’s San Marco Basilica, per The Coptic Encyclopedia. Tradition says his head stayed in Alexandria. In 1968, Pope Kyrillos VI brought relics back to Cairo’s St. Mark’s Cathedral, where crowds cheered. Some say a blind girl gained her sight touching the relic box that day, through Christ’s power.

Copts believe relics in Cairo, and some say Alexandria, bring healing, like a boy in 2005 who got better after prayers, per pilgrimage stories. Ethiopians honor these relics from afar, linking them to Alexandria’s faith on Yekatit 30, per The Churches of Ethiopia. Some say a Coptic mom in the USA prayed to an icon with a relic piece, and her child’s fever broke. Like Mark’s healing of Anianus, these relics, celebrated in 30 Baramoudah liturgies, carry his prayers to Christ. For kids, taught in Sunday school, they’re holy gifts showing Mark’s love lives on.

Lesson 13 of 20

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