Son of Simon the Cyrenian who bore Christ's cross. Mark (Mark 15:21) wrote at Rome (Clemens Alex.). Now if "Rufus (whom Paul salutes as at Rome) chosen in the Lord" (Romans 16:13) be the same Rufus as Mark mentions in writing a Gospel for the Romans, the undesigned coincidence will account for what otherwise would be gratuitous information to his readers, that Simon was "father of Rufus," which the other evangelists omit, and which Mark himself seemingly turns to no advantage.
        Rufus according to Paul was a disciple of note at Rome; how natural then to designate Simon, who was unknown, to the Romans by his fatherhood to one whom they well knew, Rufus! Mark gives the Romans whom he addresses a reference for the truth of the narrative of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection to one who was accessible to them all, and who could attest the facts on the authority of his own father, the reluctant bearer of the Lord's cross (Luke 23:26). The "compelling" of him to bear the cross issued in his voluntarily taking up his own cross to follow Jesus; then through Simon followed his wife's conversion, and that of Rufus whose mother by nature she was, as she was Paul's mother by kindnesses bestowed for Christ's sake. "Salute Rufus ... and his mother and mine."