The
Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy (or the
Order of Merced,
O.Merc.,
Mercedarians, the
Order of Captives, or the
Order of Our Lady of Ransom) was one of many dozens of associations that sprang up in Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries as institutions of charitable works. The work of the Mercedarians was in ransoming impoverished captive Christians (slaves) held in Muslim hands, especially along the frontier that the
Crown of Aragon shared with
al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). The Order of Mercy, an early 13th century popular movement of personal piety organized at first by Nolasco, was concerned with ransoming the ordinary men who had not the means to negotiate their own ransom, the "poor of Christ".
Hagiographic tradition From the year 1192 certain noblemen of Barcelona had formed a
confraternity for the purpose of caring for the sick in hospitals, and also for rescuing Christian captives from the Moors. Tradition has it that around 1218, Nolasco and King
James I of Aragon each experienced separately a vision of the Virgin Mary, who asked them to found a religious order dedicated to rescuing the many Christian captives held by the Muslims. Nolasco's confessor,
Raymond of Penyafort, a
Dominican friar and former
canon of Barcelona, encouraged and assisted him in this project; and King James also extended his protection. On August 10, 1218, the new
religious order for the Redemption of Captives was officially constituted at the main altar erected over
Eulalia of Barcelona's tomb in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross (also known as the
Cathedral of Santa Eulalia) in
Barcelona. Bishop
Berenguer de Palou gave Nolasco and his companions the white
religious habit that they would wear as characteristic of the Order; he put them under the
Rule of Saint Augustine In 1236,
Pope Gregory IX granted the Mercedarians formal recognition as a religious order under the old
Rule of St. Augustine. The small order gained additional members, property and support in the 1250s and 1260s. While evidence is scant, one has to assume that this support came in recognition of the Order's work in ransoming captives in a war zone that remained quite active. The growing pains, however, also caused institutional turmoil, whose outlines can only be glimpsed. The visible result was a reorganization in 1272 by a new master, . James I, whose descendants claimed him to be the Mercedarian founder, had in fact no documented contact with the Order until the late 1230s and early 1240s, at which time he granted formerly Muslim lands in Valencia, especially the
Shrine of Santa Maria del Puig, patron saint of the kingdom. It was not until the 1250s that royal patronage becomes evident, when the king granted the Order his
guidaticum (a form of diplomatic protection), economic privileges that promoted gifts to the Order, and, at least temporarily, the important shrine of St. Vincent in the City of Valencia. Claims by King James II and Peter IV of a royal foundation of the Order reflected not real history but their own designs upon the Order's financial resources and personnel. In 1265 a second order of Mercedarians for women was founded in Spain by St.
Mary de Cervellione.
Constitutions of the Mercedarian Order , in northern
Castile. In the preface of the first Constitutions of the Mercedarian Order of 1272, three key elements referring to the foundation stand out: the name, the founder and the purpose of the Order. The name with which the Order founded by Nolasco is identified, is mentioned first. Prior to the 1272 Constitutions, the Order had several names among which: Order of Saint Eulalia, Order of the Mercy of Captives, Order of the Redemption of Captives, Order of Mercy. Those of 1272 established a dual patronage: The Order of the Virgin Mary of the Ransom of Captives of St. Eulalia of Barcelona. But the proper and definitive title is: Order of the Virgin Mary of Mercy of the Redemption of Captives. This name, however, does not come into general use until the 1290s and is not codified until the Albertine Constitutions of 1327. The 1272 Constitutions, further, establish Nolasco as the Order's founder:he has been constituted "servant, messenger, founder and promoter" of the new Institute. Peter Nolasco is the real founder of the Order or the "Procurator of the alms of captives" as defined on March 28, 1219, by the first document referring to him. in
Cusco, Peru, built between 1651 and 1696. Finally, it is clearly specified that the purpose of the Order is "to visit and to free Christians who are in captivity and in power of the
Saracens or of other enemies of our Law… By this work of mercy… all the brothers of this Order, as sons of true obedience, must always be gladly disposed to give up their lives, if it is necessary, as Jesus Christ gave up his for us." == Reform ==