...
ActionMessages messages =  new  ActionMessages();
...
messages.add(ActionMessages.GLOBAL_MESSAGE,
           new  ActionMessage("errors.sql","Мое сообщение об ошибке")
          );
...
   if  (! messages.isEmpty()) {
           saveMessages(request, messages);
            return  (mapping.findForward("failure"));
   }

errors.sql=SQL error : { 0 }

...
<logic:messagesPresent message="true">
   <html:messages id="msg" message="true">
      <bean:write name="msg"/>
   </html:messages>
</logic:messagesPresent>
...