ON ST. MERTIUS, OR MEORTIUS, MARTYR.
Under Diocletian.
CommentaryMertius or Meortius, Martyr (St.)
Mertius, or Meortius, perhaps Martius, is celebrated by the Greeks on this day. Thus the Menologion: "On the same day, of St. Meortius the Martyr, who, having been beaten for seven days, departed to the Lord." The Menaea give a fuller account: The feast of St. Mertius. "Mertius, in the reign of Diocletian, was a soldier brought into the battle line against the Moors. But when ordered to sacrifice to idols and not being persuaded, he was first stripped of his military belt and discharged, then cut to pieces with scourges. The Acts from the Menaea. Since he endured the torments so bravely that he did not utter even a single cry, he drove the tyrant to wonder and astonishment. And though torments were heaped upon the Martyr without end, he could not be harmed or wounded in any part of his body. When the tortures were at last suspended, he was cast into prison. On the eighth day afterwards, a great quantity of blood and pus flowed from his body and filled the place with a great stench; and at last, this most noble Martyr, exhausted by his sufferings, yielded his precious soul into the hands of the Lord." So far the Menaea. This contest of Mertius appears to have occurred When he suffered. when Maximian Herculeus undertook the expedition against the Quinquegentiani who were ravaging Africa. It is more likely that these were either one nation, or rather a mass formed from five peoples (quinque gentes), than that they were, as Cuspinianus and certain others write, Roman soldiers of fifty years' service (quinquagenarii). Their name seems to have been derived from the five peoples. Zonaras, volume 1, on Diocletian: "pente tinon gentianon ten Afriken kataschonton" ("certain five gentiani having overrun Africa").