St. Philopateer Mercurius
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article or section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since December 2005. (help, talk) |
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
St. Philopateer Mercurius, also known as the saint with two swords, or even "Abu-Saifain" deriving from the Arabic language meaning the man with two swords, was an Orthodox martyr. He was born in 224 A.D in the city of Rome to two devout Christian parents. His name "Philopateer" derives from two Greek words, Philo, which means lover and Pateer, which means Father, in technical terms it would mean lover of the father. St. Philopateer Mercurius is also said to be the cousin of St. George the Cappadocian.
[edit] Middle years
Philopateer enrolled in the army of the Roman emperor Decius.He was a very strong and courages man, and earned the respect of his fellow soldiers. When the Berbers attacked Rome, Decius when out to fight them, but when he saw how many they were, he got scared. St. Philopateer then came to him and told him " Do not be afraid, because God will destroy our enemies and will bring us victory." Afterwards, when he left the emperor, an angel appeared to him saying "When you overcome your enemies, remember the Lord your God." The angel then departed leaving him a sword. Which is why he is called "Abu-Saifain" because he has a military sword and a divine sword.
When the army came back victorious, an angel appeared again to him reminding him of what he had told him before the battle, that is: "When you overcome your enemies, remember the Lord your God."
[edit] Later years
After the victory, Emperor Decius wanted to offer incense to the idols. However, St. Philopateer did not want to be involved because of his loyalty to his God. When the emperor heard of this, he became very angry and ordered that he be beaten with whips and stalks. But when the emperor saw how much the people loved him he thought they might revolt so instead, he bound him in iron fetters and sent him to Caesarea where they cut off his head. He thus completed his holy fight and received the crown of life in the kingdom of heaven.
