ABSTRACT
J.M. Sauget1 following S. Binon,2 considered Mercurius to be one of the most enigmatic of saints. He certainly is enigmatic, but then so are most warrior saints in some way! The documents concerning him are published.3 They derive from the first Passio, which Delehaye called ‘un récit de fantaisie fait de réminiscences et de lieux communs … une composition artificielle comme les Actes de Théodore, Georges et Procope’.4
Nevertheless, the Byzantines, who were not endowed with the same critical spirit as the eminent Bollandist, accepted these fantaisies as authentic. Even if most of what is recorded about this fairly popular warrior saint is fantaisie, we do, in fact, have one piece of historically valid information concerning the principal centre of his cult. Theodosius, not long after the death of Anastasius I in 518, visited the sanctuary of Mercurius, along with that of St Mammas, in Caesarea of Cappadocia.5 Curiously, accounts of his posthumous prodigy may have been in circulation earlier than his first Passio. It will be presented in due course.
