Great Martyr Mercurius (III)
The Great Martyr Mercurius was a Scythian by birth and served as a soldier in the Roman army. The lawless Emperor Decius (249–251) issued a law requiring Roman citizens to worship the pagan deities and threatening Christians with the death penalty. At that time barbarians attacked the empire, and Decius gathered an army to fight them. During one of the battles an angel of the Lord appeared to Saint Mercurius, handed him a sword and said to him: “Fear not; fight the enemy manfully, and when you have won, do not forget the Lord your God.” With this sword the holy warrior boldly cut his way through the enemy hordes, killed the king of the barbarians too, and brought the Romans victory. The grateful emperor rewarded Saint Mercurius generously for his courage and appointed him a commander.
The angel of the Lord appeared again to the holy warrior, reminded him from whom the victory had been given, and called him to the service of God. Then Saint Mercurius remembered that his father Gordian had confessed the Christian faith, and he himself was baptised. He refused to take part in a solemn pagan sacrifice, for which the wrathful emperor summoned him. Mercurius openly confessed that he was a Christian, threw his soldier’s belt and cloak at the feet of the godless autocrat, and renounced earthly honour. In prison the angel appeared to the saint once more, strengthened him and urged him to endure boldly every torment for Christ.
The blessed martyr was stretched out over a fire, slashed with knives and mercilessly beaten with rods. Each time the saint, so cruelly tortured, was thrown into prison, he was granted miraculous healing by the Lord, which proved to the lawless ones the invincibility of the faith of Christ. The Lord Himself appeared to Mercurius, who had been sentenced to death, and promised that He would soon deliver him from his torments. The great martyr was beheaded in Caesarea of Cappadocia. His precious body gave forth the fragrance of myrrh and incense and healed many sick people.
Even after death the blessed Mercurius carried out military service for the good of the Church on earth: the hierarch Basil the Great (commemorated 1 January) was praying fervently before an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos and asking that the Orthodox be delivered from the lawless Emperor Julian the Apostate (361–363). The Queen of heaven heard his supplication and sent the holy warrior Mercurius from the Church triumphant to defend the Church militant: the image of the great martyr depicted on the icon beside the Most Holy Mary vanished, and then appeared again with a bloodied sword in his hand. At that very time, in the war with the Persians, Julian the Apostate was mortally wounded by an unknown warrior, who vanished that same moment. The last words of the dying blasphemer were: “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!”
