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Our saint was born in the
year 225 AD of pagan parents, he was named Philopater (a greek name meaning
"Lover Of the Father"). His father and mother soon changed to
christianity, and preached, gave alms and tought their son according to
the christian teachings. Reaching the age of 17 Philopater already joined
the Roman army, and soon enough gained a great reputaion as a swordsman,
and a good tactician for many battles. In the reign of the Roman emperors
Decius & Valerianus they sent out a decree that all people of all ranks
slave or freeman should offer sacrifices onto the Roman Idles, & those
who disobey the decree would face a death penalty. Soon after the edict
War broke out between the barbarians and the Romans, 2 armies fought fiercely
against each other. One day at the peak of the battle Mercurius (Philopater
was named Mercurius when he was promoted to the rank of command) had a
vision, he saw a man surrounded by light holding a drawn sword in his right
hand, handing him the sword, telling him that he would have victory over
the barbarians, and to remember the Lord, our God after the battle. Our
saint then took the sword and dashed into the midst of the barbarians and
mowed the enemy down like grass, he attacked so strongly that he slayed
their King, his company & many others, the barbarians were terrified
they broke down and fled, the Romans were victorious. Thereafter, Mercurius
was given the title "Supreme Commander Of all the Roman Armies"
at 25 years of age. The hero Mercurius became preoccupied with his new
life, & every city that was passed a festival was held in his honour.
One night a angel appeared to our saint & told him that he would suffer
greatly for our Lord Jesus Christ because of the decree but he will receive
a crown of victory in heaven. Later on Decius called on our saint for some
matters of state, after a while Decius suggested that they all go to the
temple to offer sacrifice to the idols, the hero slowly slipped away from
the crowd, but a jealous soldier informed Decius that the hero Mercurius
wasn't present because he was a christian, the emperor didn't believe this
& wanted to see proof with his own eyes. Later on he found out that
our saint was a Christian after Mercurius boldly confessed his christianity
before the emperor. The emperor at first tried to convince our saint to
leave christianity, then he started inflicting many grievous tortures on
our hero by burning, ripping his flesh with nails, but through all this
the Lord saved our saint from his troubles until in the end he received
the crown of martyrdom by beheading, at 3 o'clock 4th December 250 AD.
May his prayers be with us all, and glory be to God forever. Amen.
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