Apuntes hagiográficos e iconográficos sobre un modelo de santidad militar: Mercurio-Abu Seifein, el mártir de las dos espadas

In this paper we propose a short analysis of the iconographical canon related to Abu Seifein, best known as Saint Mercurius, a military martyr of the III rd. century, focusing specially on the saint’s weapons just as this appears in the Western and Eastern iconography. The epithet under with he is known in the Coptic sphere makes reference to the two swords, the human and the divine one, with which he is represented in the act of killing the emperor Julian the Apostate. There are, however, some other iconographical variants, very poor in details as far as the weapons and the stratiotike esthes are concerned, if we face them up to the contemporary military Byzantine treatises.