Our Lady of Mercy

Devotions

The Marian title of the Mercedarian Order, founded in 1218 to ransom Christian captives, kept each year on September 24.

Our Lady of Mercy is the Marian title associated with the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, known as the Mercedarians, founded in Barcelona in 1218 by St. Peter Nolasco to ransom Christians held captive. Tradition holds that Mary herself asked for the order’s founding, and the Church has long kept September 24 as her feast under this title.

Quick Facts

  • Category: Marian Titles — Doctrinal and Devotional Titles
  • Origin: Tied to the 1218 founding of the Mercedarian Order in Barcelona
  • Feast: September 24 (traditional/particular calendars)
  • Church status: a Catholic Marian title belonging to an approved religious order, historically extended to the wider Church, now kept on particular rather than the current universal calendar
  • Private revelation: not dependent on private revelation; the founding legend should be distinguished from the order’s own approved standing

What Is This Devotion?

Devotion to Our Lady of Mercy honors Mary under the title connected to the founding of a religious order dedicated to a strikingly concrete work of charity: ransoming Christians held captive, historically by raiders and rulers during the era of the Reconquista and the Crusades. The title’s Spanish and Latin form, Nuestra Señora de la Merced, carries the sense of both mercy and ransom, reflecting the order’s mission to free captives as an act of mercy modeled on Christ’s own redemption of humanity.

Origin and History

According to Mercedarian tradition, Mary appeared on the night of August 1–2, 1218, separately to Peter Nolasco, a layman already active in ransoming captives in Barcelona; to Raymond of Penyafort, Nolasco’s confessor and a Dominican friar later canonized himself; and to King James I of Aragon, asking that a religious order be founded specifically for this work of mercy. On August 10, 1218, the new order was formally constituted at the altar of Barcelona’s cathedral, with the friars invested in white habits under the Rule of St. Augustine. The order received papal confirmation from Pope Gregory IX in the 1230s, and members historically took a distinctive fourth vow, beyond poverty, chastity and obedience: to give themselves as hostages in exchange for a captive’s freedom if no other ransom could be found.

Devotion to Our Lady of Mercy under this title spread through Spain and, later, Spanish America, where she is honored as patroness in several nations. Pope Innocent XII extended the feast of September 24 to the wider Church in 1696, and it remained on the General Roman Calendar used before the Second Vatican Council. As with several similarly narrow historical feasts, the post-conciliar calendar reform of 1969 did not retain it on the current universal calendar for the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, though it continues as the Mercedarians’ own proper feast and remains a major local and national observance, especially in Spain and Latin America.

Catholic Theology

The Mercedarian charism gives concrete, historical shape to Mary’s title as Mother of Mercy: just as Christ ransomed humanity from sin, the order’s friars historically ransomed captives from physical bondage, understanding the corporal work as a living image of the spiritual one. The title reminds Catholics that devotion to Mary is meant to bear fruit in real acts of charity, not remain a private sentiment; the Mercedarians describe their mission today as extended to modern forms of captivity — social, psychological and other forms of bondage — carrying the same founding charism into the present.

How to Practice It

  • Pray for the Church’s continuing work of freeing those held captive in any form, physical or otherwise.
  • Learn about the Mercedarian Order’s history and its continuing charitable mission.
  • Mark September 24 with prayer, especially where this title is locally or nationally observed.
  • Support Catholic ministries to the imprisoned, trafficked or otherwise held against their will as a concrete expression of this devotion’s charism.

Associated Prayers

When It’s Observed

September 24 was extended to the universal Church by Pope Innocent XII in 1696 and remained on the General Roman Calendar used before the Second Vatican Council. It is not part of the current universal calendar for the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, but continues as the Mercedarian Order’s own proper feast and is kept with particular solemnity in Spain, including as a major civic and religious holiday in Barcelona, and in several Latin American nations where she is honored as patroness.

Church Status

This is a long-established Marian title, resting on the documented thirteenth-century founding of an approved religious order and confirmed by a series of popes, including the extension of its feast to the wider Church in 1696. Its liturgical rank has changed with the calendar reforms of the twentieth century — it is no longer on the current universal calendar for the ordinary form — but it remains an authentic, approved devotion within its proper Mercedarian and regional observance.

Common Misconceptions

“Our Lady of Mercy and Our Lady of Ransom are two unrelated devotions.”

They share the same historical root. Nuestra Señora de la Merced, the Mercedarian title, has long been rendered in English as both Our Lady of Mercy and Our Lady of Ransom, since the Spanish word merced carries both senses. A separate, later English devotion also uses the Our Lady of Ransom title; see our dedicated page on that devotion for how the two threads relate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Our Lady of Mercy still a universal feast of the Church?

Not on the current General Roman Calendar for the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, though it was extended to the universal Church in 1696 and remained there until the calendar reforms following the Second Vatican Council. It continues today as a proper feast of the Mercedarian Order and a major local observance in Spain and parts of Latin America.

What was the Mercedarians’ fourth vow?

Beyond the usual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, Mercedarian friars historically vowed to offer themselves as a hostage in place of a captive if every other means of ransom had failed — a vow expressing, in the most literal way, the order’s charism of self-giving mercy.

Do the Mercedarians still ransom captives today?

Not in the historical sense of paying ransoms to raiders, since that specific danger has passed, but the order describes its mission as continuing in service to people held captive by modern forms of bondage, including social, psychological and other kinds of oppression.

Sources

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