diff --git a/lib/gollum/markup.rb b/lib/gollum/markup.rb
index a1b90666..048d23bc 100644
--- a/lib/gollum/markup.rb
+++ b/lib/gollum/markup.rb
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ require 'cgi'
 require 'pygments'
 require 'base64'
 
+# initialize Pygments
+Pygments.start
+
 module Gollum
 
   class Markup