#mercedarians

THE DESCRIPTION OF OUR LADY OF MERCY (aka Our Lady of Ransom) Feast Day: September 24

The story of Our Lady of Ransom begins with St. Peter Nolasco, born in Languedoc about 1189. At the age of 25, he took a vow of chastity and made over his vast estates to the Church. After making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Montserrat, he went to Barcelona where he began to practice various works of charity.

He conceived the idea of establishing an Order for the redemption of captives seized by the Moors on the seas and in Spain itself; they were being cruelly tormented in their African prisons to make them deny their faith.

He spoke of it to the king of Aragon, James I, who knew him well and already respected him as a saint; for the king had already asked for his prayers when he sent out his armies to combat the Moors, and he attributed his victories to those prayers.

In effect all the Christians of Europe, and above all of Spain, were praying intensely to obtain from God the remedy for the great evil that had befallen them. The divine Will was soon manifested.

On one night — August 1, 1218 — the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Peter, to his confessor, Raymond of Penafort, and to the king, and through these three servants of God established a work of the most perfect charity, the redemption of captives.

On that night, while the Church was celebrating the feast of St. Peter in Chains, the Virgin Mary appeared first to St. Peter, saying that she indeed desired the establishment of a religious Order, later known as the Mercedarians, bearing the name of her mercy. Its members would undertake to deliver Christian captives and offer themselves, if necessary, as a ransom pledge.

The Order, thus solemnly established in Spain, was approved by Pope Gregory IX under the name of Our Lady of Mercy. By the grace of God and under the protection of His Virgin Mother, the Order spread rapidly. Its growth was increased as the charity and piety of its members was observed; they very often followed Our Lady's directive to give themselves up to voluntary slavery when necessary, to aid the good work. It was to return thanks to God and the Blessed Virgin that a feast day was instituted and observed on September 24, first in the Order, then everywhere in Spain and France.

It was finally extended to the entire Church by Pope Innocent XII. Pope Leo XIII encouraged the devotion by making this feast proper to all the dioceses of England, with a focus on how Our Lady ransoms us from the slavery of our sins, and brings us the grace of conversion.

La procesión de la Merced en la Plaza Mayor del Cuzco

attrib. to Diego Quispe Tito (Peruvian, 1611 – 1681) oil on canvas, c. 1674

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT PETER NOLASCO The Founder of the Mercedarians Feast Day: May 6

"I will praise Thee, O Lord, who hast sent redemption to Thy people!"

Peter Nolasco was born at the end of the twelfth century in Mas-des-Saintes-Puelles, Languedoc, France.

Though there is debate about whether Nolasco was born in France or Spain, is clear that he was in Barcelona when he was a teenager, became part of an army fighting the Moors in the Iberian peninsula, and was appointed tutor to the young king, James I of Aragon.

At that time, the Moors still held much of Spain, and in sudden raids from the sea they carried off thousands of Christians, holding them as slaves in Granada and in their citadels along the African coast.

Peter, a merchant by profession, became aware of the plight of these Christian captives on his frequent business trips. He was obsessed with the thought of their suffering, and when, after the death of his father, he received a small inheritance, Peter proceeded to spend it freely in ransoming the Christian slaves. Because of these ventures Peter soon became penniless.

He was on the point of despair when he had a vision of the Virgin and heard these words: "Find me men like yourself, an army of brave, generous, unselfish men, and send them into these lands where the children of the faith are suffering."

Peter went at once to Raymond of Peñafort, his spiritual director, who used his influence to get approbation and support for the new community. On August 10, 1218, Peter and two companions were received as the first members of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, dedicated to the ransom of Christian captives.

The Order spread rapidly. The founder required of himself and his followers a special vow in addition to the usual three--to devote their 'whole substance and very liberty to the ransoming of slaves,' even to the point of acting as hostages in order to free others.

Peter and his comrades traveled throughout Christian Spain, recruiting new members and collecting funds to ransom the captives. Then they began negotiations with the slave-owners. They penetrated Andalusia, crossed the sea to Tunis and Morocco, and brought home cargo after cargo of Christians.

Although Peter, as General of the Order, was occupied with its organization and administration, he made two trips to Africa where, besides liberating captives, he converted many Moors. He died after a long illness on May 6, 1256 in Valencia, and was canonized by Pope Urban VIII in 1628.

According to records, the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the Ransom of Captives accomplished approximately 70,000 rescues--some 2,700 during the founder's lifetime. Originally the Order was a military order; the members were knights.

In 1318 Pope John XXII decreed that the leader of the order should be a priest, an action that caused lay knights to leave the Mercedarians and join a military order of Our Lady of Montesa. The Mercedarians subsequently became a mendicant order. Mercedarians accompanied Columbus to America and founded monasteries in Latin America. They also established themselves in Africa, Italy, France, and Ireland. The anti-clerical mood of the nineteenth century came close to extinguishing the Mercedarians.

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT RAYMOND NONNATUS The Patron of Childbirth Feast Day: August 31

"For many hours you did not die in the womb of your dead mother, and you were successfully delivered from her side to be the joy of the world."

St. Raymond is universally known as Nonnatus ('not born') due to his Caesarean birth. He is the Mercedarian saint who achieved the greatest popularity among Christians in the places, kingdoms, and nations where the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy became established.

According to the most reliable tradition, Saint Raymond was born in the town of Portello, situated in the Segarra region of the Province of Lérida at the dawn of the thirteenth century. He was given the surname of Nonnatus (not born) because he came into the world through an inspired and urgent incision which the Viscount of Cardona made with a dagger in the abdomen of the dead mother. In his adolescence and early youth, Raymond devoted himself to pasturing a flock of sheep in the vicinity of a Romanesque hermitage dedicated to Saint Nicholas where an image of the Virgin Mary was venerated. His devotion to the Holy Mother of Jesus started there.

He joined the Order of Mercy at a very early age and a student of the watchful first brother and Master of the Order, Peter Nolasco, and thus Raymond became a redeemer of Christian captives in Moorish lands. In a redemption which took place in Algiers, he had to stay behind as a hostage. It was then that he endured the torment of having his lips sealed with an iron padlock to prevent him from addressing consoling words to Christian captives and from preaching the liberating good news of the Gospel.

After he had been rescued by his Mercedarian brothers, Pope Gregory IX appointed him Cardinal of the Church of San Eustaquio. Summoned by the Supreme Pontiff, Raymond was on his way to Rome when he met death in the strong and rocky castle of Cardona in 1240. The Order of Mercy, the viscount and the city of Cardona were all arguing over his dead body, and where it should be buried, it was entrusted to Divine Providence on the harness of a blind mule. Without anyone leading it, the mule accompanied by a crowd trotted to Saint Nicholas hermitage where the venerable body was buried.

La Virgen de las Cuevas

by Francisco de Zurbarán (Leonese, 1598 - 1664) oil on canvas, 1655

Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala - Convento de Nuestra Señora de la Merced

architect Juan de Dios Estrada (Guatemalan, fl 1739 - 1755) 1751 - 1767 suppressed in 1778*

ph. Eadweard Muybridge (British, 1830 - 1904) 1875 Historia de Guatemala en fotografías

La Virgen de las Mercedes con San Pedro Nolasco y San Ramón Nonato

by unknown Cuzco School artist oil on canvas, 18th century