St. Mark was born in Athens. He told Abba Serapion about his life, who, by the will of God, visited him before his death.
In his youth, he studied philosophy. After the death of his parents, Saint Mark retired to Egypt and settled in a cave of the Thracian Mountain (in Ethiopia). The monk lived as a hermit for ninety-five years and during all that time he did not see not only a human face, but even animals or birds. The first thirty years were the most difficult time for St. Mark. Barefoot and undressed, he suffered from the cold in winter and the heat in summer. He ate rare desert plants, and sometimes had to eat dust and drink bitter seawater. Unclean spirits pursued St. Mark, swore to drown him in the sea, and, seizing him, dragged him down the mountain shouting: "Get off our land! Since the beginning of the world, no one has come here–how dare you come?"
After a thirty-year ordeal, Divine grace descended upon the ascetic. Angels brought him food, and long hair grew on his body, which began to protect him from the cold and heat. "I saw," the monk Serapion told Monk Serapion, "the likeness of a Divine paradise and in it the prophets of God Elijah and Enoch, and the Lord showed me everything I asked for." During a conversation with Abba Serapion, Reverend Mark asked if peace was worth living in the law of Christ, and if the persecution of Christians was continuing. When the saint heard that the idolatry had stopped, he rejoiced and asked: "Are there saints among the world today who perform miracles, as the Lord said in His Gospel: "If you have lost faith like a bitter grain, you say to this mountain: Pass away everywhere there, and it will pass away, and nothing will be possible for you" (Matthew 17:20)?" As the saint uttered these words, the mountain shifted 5,000 cubits (about 2.5 kilometers) and moved closer to the sea. Reverend Mark saw that the mountain was moving and turned to it: "I did not order you to move, but I was talking to my brother.; So get in your place!" After that, the mountain really returned to its place. Abba Serapion fell on his face in fear. Reverend Mark took him by the hand and asked: "Haven't you seen such miracles in your life?" "No, Father," replied the elder Serapion. Then the Monk Mark wept bitterly and said: "Woe to the earth, for Christians live on it only by name, and not by deeds."
After that, the Monk Mark invited Abba Serapion to a meal. The food was brought by an Angel. Abba Serapion said that in all his life he had never eaten such delicious food or drunk such sweet water. "Brother Serapion,– replied the Monk Mark, "have you seen how many blessings God sends to His servants? God has always sent me one loaf and one fish each, and now He has doubled the meal for you–He has sent us two loaves and two fish. It is with such a meal that the Lord God feeds me all the time for my first sufferings."
Before his death, St. Mark offered prayers for the salvation of Christians, the earth, and all those who live on it in peace and the love of Christ. He commanded Abba Serapion to bury him in a cave and block up the entrance to it. Abba Serapion witnessed how the soul of the hundred–and-thirty-year-old elder, St. Mark, was received into heaven (+ 400).
After the burial of the saint, two Angels in the form of hermits escorted Abba Serapion to the inner desert to the great elder John. It was Abba Serapion who told the brethren of this monastery about the life and death of St. Mark.