Every once in a while, I come across a story that I think is interesting or funny or just worth telling but that doesn’t fit into my main post. I’ll offer these stories in episodes of From the Cutting Room Floor, available to paid subscribers only.
We know that after the death of Saint Mercurius, his veneration in the East spread rapidly. There were many churches dedicated to Saint Mercurius in Egypt, and Mercurius was one of the riders in white who came to the rescue of the first crusade.
A Coptic manuscript tells the story of how the veneration of Mercurius got started. It’s probably not a true story, but it’s a good rollicking tale. It begins with a poor man whom the saint selects as his chief builder. The saint wants him to build a shrine. Against all odds, even though no one really has any money, bit by bit the shrine gets built with a lot of direct intervention from the saint. When one of the labourers steals a nice piece of wood, he finds himself unable to remember the way home. He wanders around, carrying the wood, until he gets to the house of the chief builder, where he repents. When a local lord tries to commandeer some of the building supplies, a camel goes berserk and bites him, then sits on him. He gets the hint. After the shrine is built, the anonymous author of the manuscript adds one more miracle.
It is the story of Saint Mercurius and the Lord’s Daughter.
Once upon a time there was a great lord with a beautiful young daughter.