Mercedarian tradition says that Serapion Scott once served in the armies of Richard the Lion-Heart and Leopold VI during the time of the Crusades.

The first was to Murcia, in which he purchased the liberty of ninety-eight slaves: the second to Algiers, in which he redeemed eighty-seven, but remained himself a hostage for the full payment of the money.

[6] A widely circulated early account holds that the ransom did not arrive in time and so his captors decided to have him killed.

[5][7] "Captured in Scotland by English pirates, Serapion was bound by the hands and feet to two poles, and was then beaten, dismembered, and disemboweled.

[3] Pope Benedict XIII declared Serapion a martyr, and approved his veneration in the Order of Mercedarians, by a decree in 1728.