St. Peter Nolasco
Born at Mas-des-Saintes-Puelles, near Castelnaudary, France, in 1189
(or 1182); died at Barcelona, on Christmas Day, 1256 (or 1259). He
was of a noble family and from his youth was noted for his piety,
almsgiving, and charity. Having given all his possessions to the
poor, he took a vow of virginity and, to avoid communication with
the Albigenses, went to Barcelona.
At that time the Moors were masters of a great part of the Iberian
peninsula, and many Christians were detained there and cruelly
persecuted on account of the Faith. Peter ransomed many of these
and in doing so consumed all his patrimony. After mature
deliberation, moved also by a heavenly vision, he resolved to found
a religious order (1218), similar to that established a few years
before by St. John de Matha and St. Felix de Valois, whose chief
object would be the redemption of Christian slaves. In this he was
encouraged by St. Raymond Penafort and James I, King of Aragon,
who, it seems, had been favoured with the same inspiration. The
institute was called Mercedarians (q.v.) and was solemnly approved
by Gregory IX, in 1230. Its members were bound by a special vow to
employ all their substance for the redemption of captive
Christians, and if necessary, to remain in captivity in their
stead. At first most of these religious were laymen as was Peter
himself. But Clement V decreed that the master general of the
order should always be a priest. His feast is celebrated on the
thirty-first of January.
[With the reform of the general Roman calendar in 1969, the feast of St. Peter Nolasco on 31 January was suppressed; he is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology and in local and particular liturgical calendars on 28 January.]
Acta SS.; DE VARGAS, Chronica sancti et militaris ordinis B. M. de Mercede
(Palermo, 1619); GARI Y SIUMELL, Bibliotheca Mercedaria (Barcelona, 1875); MARIN,
Histoire de l'eglise (Paris, 1909).
A. ALLARIA
Transcribed by Herman F. Holbrook
Our Lady of Ransom and Saint Peter, pray for us.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XI
Copyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor
Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
