Great Martyr Mercurius [Mercury] of Cæsarea in Cappadocia

Mercurius is remembered as a soldier of the regiment called Martenses, from the first Armenia, in the army of the emperor Decius in the 3rd century. His father Gordian was a Scythian. According to his Life, during a battle with barbarians an angel gave him a sword, and he drove them back and won the victory.

He then remembered his father's Christian faith, refused to sacrifice to the gods, and told the emperor Decius that his true homeland was the heavenly Jerusalem. He was tortured with knives and fire and sent to Caesarea in Cappadocia, where, says the Life, he was beheaded. Basil the Great is said to have prayed before an icon of the Virgin showing Mercurius with a spear, asking for help against Julian the Apostate.