St. Philopateer Mercurius

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 an 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.