AD 42

Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria

Traditional arrival of Mark and founding of the Alexandrian church in 42

The foundation legend opens with a broken sandal strap and a cobbler who drives an awl through his own hand — not with a cathedral or an imperial decree.

A broken sandal, and a cobbler named Anianus

Coptic tradition assigns Mark the Evangelist's arrival in Alexandria and the beginning of his preaching there to 42 CE. It is an ecclesiastical tradition, not a contemporaneously documented event.

In the later Martyrdom of Mark tradition, his first Alexandrian encounter is with a cobbler named Anianus: the cobbler injures his hand repairing Mark's sandal, Mark heals him, preaches in his home, and eventually appoints him bishop.

42, 43, 43/44, 61

The Coptic Orthodox Church's own current historical account does not use 42. It favors approximately 43, summarizes the History of the Patriarchs as 43/44, and separately acknowledges a 61 dating.

The 42 and 43 entries are rival year labels for substantially the same foundation tradition, not two independently attested events.

What the earliest narrative supplies, and what the ground has not

The earliest surviving narrative cited for the foundation is Eusebius's early-fourth-century Church History, which says Mark was sent to Egypt, preached his written gospel and first established churches in Alexandria. Eusebius supplies no year and introduces the claim with "they say."

The Cambridge History of Christianity reports virtually no Egyptian Christian archaeological evidence datable before the fourth century, although Christian manuscripts there are attested from the second.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources not yet audited Traditional date

How this was checked

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Traditional date. This date is the conventional one, not one fixed by a contemporary record.

What the sources leave uncertain

The year 42 is a traditional date, not a date supplied by Eusebius or contemporary evidence.
The Coptic Orthodox Church’s current historical account instead favors approximately 43 and also acknowledges a 61 dating.
Eusebius’s wording—“they say”—does not identify his source. Modern scholarship notes that his account is late and that Mark’s historical role in Alexandria is elusive.
The Cambridge History of Christianity reports virtually no Egyptian Christian archaeological evidence datable before the fourth century, although Christian manuscripts are attested from the second century.