St. Peter Nolasco

Peter Nolasco is the founder of the Mercedarian Order — the Order of Our Lady of Mercy for the Redemption of Captives — one of the religious orders that arose in the thirteenth century in response to the specific and persistent crisis of Christian captives held in Muslim territories along the Mediterranean coast. He was born in France around 1189, came to Spain in early life, and became associated with Raymond of Peñafort and with James I of Aragon in the founding enterprise. The order was established in 1218 and approved by Gregory IX in 1235.

The Mercedarian charism was specific: the ransom of captives. Members were to travel to North Africa and Muslim Spain, negotiate with local authorities, and pay for the release of Christians held as slaves. The fourth vow that distinguished the order — the commitment to offer oneself as a hostage if the ransom money ran out — was the most extreme expression of this charism and the element most worthy of historical scrutiny. The historical evidence for how frequently the hostage vow was actually exercised is complicated by the enthusiasm with which the later tradition multiplied stories of self-offering, some of them improbable. The existence of the vow and its genuine occasional exercise is established without pressing the evidence beyond what it will sustain.

Peter's personal biography presents similar difficulties. The early sources are not wholly reliable, and the tradition clearly elaborated the founder's story in line with what the order wished to be true about its origins. The papal vision that authorized the foundation — Innocent II said to have had a vision of the Virgin on the same night as Peter — belongs to the class of founding legends that deserves historical caution. What can be affirmed historically is the layman who organized a new form of charity for a specific category of suffering, who attracted enough followers and enough royal patronage to build a lasting institution, and who died in Barcelona around 1256. He was canonized in 1628.