ARCHBISHOP MAR MARKUS 1st,
2nd Patriarch of the Byzatine Catholic Church
Born, Mark I. Miller, on 18 August 1927 ad, in Missouri, Mar Markus 1st was the descendant of Prussian immigrants to the United States, (the family name was Von Muller until 1924 ad). Mark Miller was orphaned shortly after birth as a result of the death of both of his parents in a car crash, and was consequently adopted by Lena and Oliver Skelton of Kansas, being raised with the name Oliver Wendell Skelton. Aged 14, he converted from the Baptist faith to the Roman Catholic Church. He was educated at Saint John’s University.
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In 1958 ad he become a member of The North American Old Roman Catholic Church that developed after the death of Archbishop Henry Carmel Carfora. On August 25 1962 ad he married Phyllis Parsons, a nurse, and they raised three sons, one of whom was adopted. Discerning God's call to the priesthood, Mar Markus was ordained a priest in 1963 ad by Archbishop Cyrus A. Starkey, adopting the religious name Leo Christopher Skelton, but soon thereafter returning legally to his birth name of Mark I. Miller.
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The Byzantine Catholic Church emerged from the work of Archbishop Robert Schuyler Zeiger through the American Orthodox Catholic Church. In 1964 ad, Archbishop Zeiger consecrated Christopher Carl Jerome Stanley as +Mar Christopher Maria. That same year, Mar Christopher Maria left the AOCC and formed his own jurisdiction, which he led until his death in 1967 ad. On 10 January 1965, Mar Christopher Maria consecrated Mark Miller a Bishop with the assistance of Bishop Freewonsky.
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Bishop Mark Miller left from under the leadership of Archbishop Mar Christopher Maria in 1966 ad. Between then and 1969, he was associated with the Orthodox Old Catholic Church under Archbishop Guy Claude Hamel. Subsequently he formed the Orthodox Old Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles, California, which became the North American Orthodox Catholic Church in 1971. At that time he established an episcopal order, the Order of St Basil, which followed the Benedictine Rule.
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On 12 February 1981 Mar Markus brought his church more strongly into line with Eastern Christian practices, prohibiting the further entry of married episcopates and female clergy, and changed the Church's name to the World Independent Orthodox Catholic Church. In 1984, this church merged with the Holy Orthodox Catholic Church, Eastern and Apostolic, under Bishop Richard Bruce Morrill OSB (+Mar Apriam) to form the Byzantine Catholic Church under Mar Markus 1st as Patriarch. Bishop Morrill later withdrew from the union upon learning he had cancer, returned to his native Louisiana, and died a year later.
As antecedent, the Byzantine Catholic Church looked directly to Archbishop Stanley’s 1964 foundation, of which Patriarch Mar Markus was the successor as Archbishop Stanley had bequeathed Mar Markus his files and church, as well as the work of Bishop Mar Apriam's consecrator Archbishop Walter Myron Propheta (Patriarch Wolodymyr, 1912-1972 ad) of the American Orthodox Catholic Church. Archbishop Propheta in turn traced his jurisdiction back to the 1927 ad foundation of the Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America by Metropolitan Archbishop Aftimios Ofiesh (1880-1966 ad).
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Patriarch Mar Markus' written style was unmistakable; trenchant and conversational, he was steadfast in his promulgation of Orthodox doctrine and practice, and remained active and in good health into the last year of his life. By the time of his passing, he had become one of the elder statesmen of the independent sacramental movement, having presided over a worldwide and growing communion that continues today.
His Holiness Mar Markus 1st, the third Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Church, went to sleep peacefully in the Lord at the age of 85 on Satruday afternoon, March 16th, 2013 ad. His apostolic work lives on through various Churches, ours included.