PETER, of the noble family of Nolasco, in Languedoc, was born in the
diocese of St. Papoul, about the year 1189. His parents were very rich,
but far more illustrious for their virtue. Peter, while an infant, cried
at the sight of a poor man, till something was given him to bestow on
the object of his compassion. In his childhood he gave to the poor
whatever he received for his own use. He was exceeding comely and
beautiful; but innocence and virtue were his greatest ornaments. It was
his pious custom to give a very large alms to the first poor man he met
every morning, without being asked. He rose at midnight, and assisted at
matins in the church, as then the more devout part of the laity used to
do, together with all the clergy. At the age of fifteen he lost his
father, who left him heir to a great estate: and he remained at home
under the government of his pious mother, who brought him up in
extraordinary sentiments and practices of virtue. Being solicited to
marry, he betook himself to the serious consideration of the vanity of
all earthly things; and rising one night full of those thoughts,
prostrated himself in fervent prayer, which he continued till morning,
most ardently devoting himself to God in the state of celibacy, and
dedicating his whole patrimony to the promoting of his divine honor. He
followed Simon of Montfort, general of the holy war against the
Albigenses, an heretical sect, which had filled Languedoc with great
cruelties, and over spread it with universal desolation. That count
vanquished them, and in the battle of Muret defeated and killed Peter,
king of Aragon, and took his son James prisoner, a child of six years
old. The conqueror having the most tender regard and compassion for the
prince his prisoner, appointed Peter Nolasco, then twenty-five years
old, his tutor, and sent them both together into Spain. Peter, in the
midst of the court of the king at Barcelona,[1] where the kings of
Aragon resided, led the life of a recluse, practising the austerities of
a cloister. He gave no part of his time to amusements, but spent all the
moments which the instruction of his pupil left free, in holy prayer,
meditation, and pious reading. The Moors at that time were possessed of
a considerable part of Spain, and great numbers of Christians groaned
under their tyranny in a miserable slavery both there and in Africa.
Compassion for the poor had always been the distinguishing virtue of
Peter. The sight of so many moving objects in captivity, and the
consideration of the spiritual dangers to which their faith and virtue
stood exposed under their Mahometan masters, touched his heart to the
quick, and he soon spent his whole estate in redeeming as many as he
could. Whenever he saw {315} any poor Christian slaves, he used to say:
"Behold eternal treasures which never fail." By his discourses he moved
others to contribute large alms towards this charity, and at last formed
a project for instituting a religious order for a constant supply of men
and means whereby to carry on so charitable an undertaking. This design
met with great obstacles in the execution, but the Blessed Virgin, the
true mother of mercy, appearing to St. Peter, the king, and St. Raymund
of Pennafort, in distinct visions the same night, encouraged them to
prosecute the holy scheme under the assurance of her patronage and
protection. St. Raymund was the spiritual director both of St. Peter and
of the king, and a zealous promoter of this charitable work. The king
declared himself the protector of the Order, and assigned them a large
quarter of his own palace for their abode. All things being settled for
laying the foundation of it, on the feast of St. Laurence, in the year
1223, the king and St. Raymund conducted St. Peter to the church and
presented him to Berengarius, the bishop of Barcelona, who received his
three solemn religious vows, to which the saint added a fourth, to
devote his whole substance and his very liberty, if necessary, to the
ransoming of slaves; the like vow he required of all his followers. St.
Raymund made an edifying discourse on the occasion, and declared from
the pulpit, in the presence of this august assembly, that it had pleased
Almighty God to reveal to the king, to Peter Nolasco, and to himself,
his will for the institution of an Order for the redemption of the
faithful, detained in bondage among the infidels. This was received by
the people with the greatest acclamations of joy, happy presages of the
future success of the holy institute.[2] After this discourse, St. Peter
received the new habit (as Mariana and pope Clement VIII. in his bull
say) from St. Raymund, who established him first general of this new
Order, and drew up for it certain rules and constitutions. Two other
gentlemen were professed at the same time with St. Peter. When St.
Raymund went to Rome, he obtained from pope Gregory IX., in the year
1225, the confirmation of this Order, and of the rule and constitutions
he had drawn up. He wrote an account of this from Rome to St. Peter,
informing him how well pleased his Holiness was with the wisdom and
piety of the institute. The religious chose a white habit, to put them
continually in mind of innocence: they wear a scapular, which is
likewise white: but the king would oblige them, for his sake, to bear
the royal arms of Aragon, which are interwoven on their habit upon the
breast. Their numbers increasing very fast, the saint petitioned the
king for another house; who, on this occasion, built for them, in 1232,
a magnificent convent at Barcelona.[3]
King James having conquered the kingdom of Valencia, founded in it
several rich convents; one was in the city of Valencia, which was taken
by the aid of the prayers of St. Peter, when the soldiers had despaired
of {316} success, tired out by the obstinacy of the besieged and
strength of the place. In thanksgiving for this victory, the king built
the rich monastery in the royal palace of Uneza, near the same city, on
a spot where an image of our Lady was dug up, which is still preserved
in the church of this convent end is famous for pilgrimages. It is
called the monastery of our Lady of mercy del Puche.[4] That prince
attributed to the prayers of Saint Peter thirty great victories which he
obtained over the infidels, and the entire conquest of the two kingdoms
of Valencia and Murcia. St. Peter, after his religious profession,
renounced all his business at court, and no entreaties of the king could
ever after prevail with him to appear there but once, and this was upon
a motive of charity to reconcile two powerful noblemen, who by their
dissension had divided the whole kingdom, and kindled a civil war. The
saint ordained that two members of the Order should be sent together
among the infidels, to treat about the ransom of Christian slaves, and
they are hence called Ransomers. One of the two first employed in this
pious work was our saint; and the kingdom of Valencia was the first
place that was blessed with his labors; the second was that of Granada.
He not only comforted and ransomed a great number of captives, but by
his charity and other rare virtues, was the happy instrument of inducing
many of the Mahometans to embrace the faith of Christ. He made several
other journeys to the coasts of Spain, besides a voyage to Algiers,
where, among other sufferings, he underwent imprisonment for the faith.
But the most terrifying dangers could never make him desist from his
pious endeavors for the conversion of the infidels, burning with a holy
desire of martyrdom. He begged earnestly of his Order to be released
from the burden of his generalship: but by his tears could only obtain
the grant of a vicar to assist him in the discharge of it. He employed
himself in the meanest offices of his convent, and coveted above all
things to have the distribution of the daily alms at the gate of the
monastery: he at the same time instructed the poor in the knowledge of
God and in virtue. St. Louis IX. of France wrote frequently to him, and
desired much to see him. The saint waited on him in Languedoc, in the
year 1243, and the king, who tenderly embraced him, requested him to
accompany him in his expedition to recover the Holy Land. St. Peter
earnestly desired it, but was hindered by sickness, with which he was
continually afflicted during the last years of his life, the effect of
his fatigues and austerities, and he bore it with incomparable patience.
In 1249, he resigned the offices of Ransomer and General, which was six
or seven years before his death. This happened on Christmas-day, in
1256. In his agony, he tenderly exhorted his religious to perseverance,
and concluded with those words of the psalmist: _Our Lord hath sent
redemption to his people; he hath commanded his covenant forever_.[5] He
then recommended his soul to God by that charity with which Christ came
from heaven to redeem us from the captivity of the devil, and melting
into tears of compunction and divine love, he expired, being in the
sixty-seventh year of his age. His relics are honored by many miracles.
He was canonized by pope Urban VIII. His festival was appointed by
Clement VIII. to be kept on the 31st of January.
* * * * *
Charity towards all mankind was a distinguishing feature in the
character of the saints. This benevolent virtue so entirely possessed
their hearts, that they were constantly disposed to sacrifice even their
lives to the relief and assistance of others. Zealously employed in
removing their temporal necessities, they labored with redoubled vigor
to succor their spiritual wants, {317} by rooting out from their souls
the dominion of sin, and substituting in its room the kingdom of God's
grace. Ingratitude and ill-treatment, which was the return they
frequently met with for their charitable endeavors, were not able to
allay their ardent zeal: they considered men on these occasions as
patients under the pressure of diseases, more properly the object of
compassion than of resentment. They recommended them to God in their
private devotions, and earnestly besought his mercy in their favor. This
conduct of the saints, extraordinary as it is, ceases to appear
surprising when we recollect the powerful arguments our Blessed Saviour
made use of to excite us to the love of our neighbor. But how shall we
justify our unfeeling hard-heartedness, that seeks every trifling
pretence to exempt us from the duty of succoring the unfortunate? Have
we forgot that Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who alone hath bestowed on us
whatever we possess, hath made charity towards our fellow-creature, but
especially towards the needy, an indispensable precept? Do we not know
that he bids us consider the suffering poor as members of the same head,
heirs of the same promises, as our brethren and his children who
represent him on earth? He declares, that whatever we bestow upon them
he will esteem it as given to himself; and pledges his sacred word that
he will reward our alms with an eternity of bliss. Such motives, says
St. Chrysostom, would be sufficient to touch a heart of stone: but there
is something still more cogent, continues the same holy father, which
is, that the same Jesus Christ, whom we refuse to nourish in the persons
of the poor, feeds our souls with his precious body and blood. If such
considerations move not our hearts to commiserate and assist the
indigent, what share of mercy and relief can we hope for in the hour of
need? Oh, incomprehensible blindness! we perhaps prepare for ourselves
an eternal abyss, by those very means which, properly applied, would
secure as the conquest of a kingdom which will never have an end.[6]
Footnotes:
1. A century before, the counts of Barcelona were become kings of
Aragon by a female title, and had joined Catalonia to Aragon, making
Barcelona their chief residence and capital.
2. F. Tonron, in the life of St. Raymund, p. 20, quotes an original
letter of St. Raymund, which mentions this revelation. The
authenticity of this letter cannot be called in question, being
proved by F. Bremond, Bullar. Ord. Praed. t. 1, not. in Constit. 36,
Greg. X. The same revelation is inserted in the bull of the saint's
canonization, in the Histories of Zumel, Vargas, Penia, &c. Benedict
XIV. also mentions it, Canoniz. SS. l. 1, c. 41, and proves that it
cannot reasonably be contested.
3. This Order consisted at first of some knights, who were dressed like
seculars, wearing only a scarf or scapular; and of friars who were
in holy orders, and attended the choir. The knights were to guard
the coast against the Saracens, but were obliged to choir when not
on duty. St. Peter himself was never ordained priest; and the first
seven generals or commanders were chosen out of the knights, though
the friars were always more numerous. Raymond Albert, in 1317. was
the first priest who was raised to that dignity; and the popes
Clement V., and John XXII., ordered that the general should be
always a priest after which, the knight were incorporated into other
military Orders, or were rarely renewed. It is styled, "The royal
military religious Order of our Lady of Mercy for the redemption of
Captives." It is divided into commanderies, which in Spain are very
rich. It has eight provinces in America, three in Spain, and one,
the poorest, in the southern part of France, called the province of
Guienne. Whereas this Order is not bound to many extraordinary
domestic austerities, a reformation, obliging the members to go
barefoot, was established among them in the sixteenth century, and
approved by pope Clement VIII. It observes the strictest poverty,
recollection, solitude, and abstinence, and has two provinces in
Spain, and one in Sicily, besides several nunneries. It was erected
by F. John Baptist Gonzales, or of the holy sacrament, who died in
the year 1{}18, and is said to have been honored with miracles.
4. Podoniensis.
5. Ps. cx. 9.
6. S. Chrys. Hom. in illud: Vidua eligatur, &c. t. 3, p. 397. Ed. Ben.