Formerly known as Our Lady of Ransom, Our Lady of Mercy is celebrated today primarily by the Mercedarians, an order of Augustinian friars who honor her as their patron. Now known as the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, the Mercedarians were founded in 1218 by a Spanish merchant, Peter Nolasco. Peter received a vision of Mary in which she asked him to found a religious order to ransom Christian captives from Muslim rulers in the south of Spain. Since the first Umayyad conquest of the southern Iberian Peninsula in the eighth century, fighting between Christians and Muslims had been a regular fixture of the Spanish political landscape. Christian and Muslim armies would often take captives from opposing factions and force their enslaved prisoners to convert. For Peter Nolasco, the Christian captives were truly “the least of these” because their Christian faith—the source of their joy and hope—was in dire peril.

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Today, the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy is an international community of priests and brothers who work among a variety of marginalized populations. In addition to the three Evangelical Counsels—vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience—the friars of Our Lady of Mercy take a special fourth vow to give entirely of themselves to those whose faith is in danger.

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After the Second Vatican Council, the feast of Our Lady of Ransom was renamed Our Lady of Mercy. Eventually, this Marian feast was removed from the general Roman Calendar, but Our Lady of Mercy continues to be honored by the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy. Today, friars of the Order of Mercy work among those who suffer from social, political, or psychological forms of captivity. The friars bring their charism of liberation to those captive in jails, those living in marginalized neighborhoods, and to those suffering from addiction. The Order of Mercy also gives special emphasis to offering freedom through education, striving to spread the liberating truth of Christ through catechesis and parish work.

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Our Lady of Mercy can be a recourse for those suffering from addiction or for those trapped in the throes of mental illness. She can be a patron for men and women in imprisonment, for those unjustly sentenced, and for those suffering from loneliness and isolation. Our Lady of Mercy can serve as a guide to interreligious unity, so that our relations with our brothers and sisters of other faiths is not one of violence or fear, but one that recognizes our common belovedness as children of God.

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Although Our Lady of Mercy is no longer celebrated on the general Roman calendar, she is honored in a particular way, and is a fitting intercessor for a world in great need of mercy as we work to bring the message of salvation to all people around the globe.

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Our Lady of Mercy, help of God’s children throughout the world—pray for us!