Marcus Diadochus

(Markos ho diadochos)

An obscure writer of the fourth century of whom nothing is known but his name at the head of a “Sermon against the Arians”, discovered by Wetsten in a manuscript codex of St. Athanasius at Basle and published by him at the end of his edition of Origen: “De oratione” (Basle, 1694). Another version of the same work was lent by Galliciollus to Galland and published in the “Veterum Patrum Bibliotheca”, V (Venice, 1765-1781). This is the text in P.G., LXV, 1149-1166. The sermon quotes and expounds the usual texts, John 1:1; Hebrews 1:3; Psalm 109:3-4; John 14:6, 23, etc., and answers difficulties from Mark 13:32; 10:10; Matthew 20:23 etc.

A quite different person is Diadochus, Bishop of Photike in Epirus in the fifth century, author of a “Sermon on the Ascension” and of a hundred “Chapters on Spiritual Perfection” (P.G., LXV, 1141-1148, 1167-1212), whom Victor Vitensis praises in the prologue of his history of the Vandal persecution (Ruinart’s edition, Paris, 1694, not. 3). The two are often confounded, as in Migne.