You can do what you want with a PhaseListener. See http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub/articles/masterj2ee/j2ee_wk7.html for more details (the "Adding Meaningful Field References" section) it describes a way doing this by using a PhaseListener that customizes the validation messages based on a parameter supplied by f:attribute tags inside the h:input stuff. PS: +1 for the <s:validate message="my message"> feature. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4037240#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...