In the title Our Lady of Mercy, the Spanish word “Merci” means “grace”, or in Latin “merces” means ransom. The Order of Mercedaries was in charge of buying back the Christians held captive by the Muslims, on the orders of Our Lady herself.
On the night of August 1st to 2nd 1218, James I, King of Aragon, Pierre de Nolasque, a French gentleman who had been his master, and also Raymond of Pennafort, a Dominican confessor of the two above-mentioned men, each had an apparition of the Virgin at the same time in Barcelona. The Virgin told them that it was her and her Son’s will that they would establish a military order to redeem the prisoners held captive by the infidels.
“I have come here to seek men who are willing, after the example of my Son, to give their lives for the salvation and freedom of their captive brothers.
I therefore desire that an Order be established in my honour, whose religious, with living faith and true charity, redeem Christian slaves from the power and tyranny of the Turks, even pledging themselves, if necessary, for those whom they cannot otherwise redeem…”.
We can see the symbolic significance of this triple appearance: to the holder of temporal power James I, to the holder of financial power the wealthy Pierre de Nolasque, to the holder of spiritual power the Dominican Raymond of Pennafort.
Pope Gregory IX approved the order in 1235, five years before the founder’s death in 1240.
