DIVINE MERCY

OUR LADY OF MERCY [OUR LADY OF RANSOM]

MARY, MOTHER OF MERCY

"Hail Holy Queen, Mother of mercy . .. " For centuries people have invoked Mary under this title, and
for Saint Faustina, Mary was a constant source of God's mercy, as mother, guardian, teacher, and intercessor. From Mary she received a special gift of purity, strength in suffering, and countless lessons on the spiritual life. "Mary is my Instructress," she writes, "who is ever teaching me how to live for God (620) . . . The more I imitate the Mother of God, the more deeply I get to know God (843) . . . before every Holy Communion, I earnestly ask the Mother of God to help me prepare my soul for the coming of her Son (114) . . . She has taught me how to love God interiorly and also how to carry out His will in all things (40) . . .O Mary, my Mother, I place everything in thy hands (79) . . . Thou art joy, because through thee God descended to earth and into my heart" (40).

Our Lady of Mercy has a special devotion all over Spain and Latin America, and the United States as well as in Europe and Asia, derived from the 1218 apparition and promoted by the Order of Mercy which was founded as in were in the very face of the Moors; and hence it originally numbered more knights than clerics among its members. It was called the royal, military, and religious Order of our Lady of Mercy for the ransom of captives. The clerics were charged with the celebration of the Divine Office in the commandaries; the knights guarded the coasts, and undertook the perilous enterprise of ransoming Christian captives. St. Peter Nolasco was the first Commander or Grand Master of the Order; when his relics were discovered, he was found armed with sword and cutlass. . . .

At the time when the Saracen yoke oppressed the larger and more fertile part of Spain, and great numbers of the faithful were detained in cruel servitude, at the great risk of denying the Christian faith and losing their eternal salvation, the most blessed Queen of Heaven graciously came to remedy all these great evils, and showed her exceeding charity in redeeming her children. She appeared with beaming countenance to Peter Nolasco, a man conspicuous for wealth and piety, who in his holy meditations was ever striving to devise some means of helping the innumerable Christians living in misery as captives of the Moors. She told him it would be very pleasing to her and her only-begotten Son, if a religious Order were instituted in her honor, whose members should devote themselves to delivering captives from Turkish tyranny. The title was promoted by the congregation of the Mercedarians: a feast in her honor was proclaimed in 1615 to commemorate the apparition. Until 1961 celebrated on September 24, it is no longer part of the modern liturgical calendar and has the rank of a commemoration. For more, click Our Lady of Ransom.

The most famous Latin American reference to Our Lady of Mercy is that of Peru. She is by many considered the patroness of Peru and received in 1921 the title of Grand Marshall of Peru. The image of the Peruvian Lady of Mercy is the same as that shown on the Divine Mercy Collage, Page 1 of this section. The image above is that of the statue in the united States. We do not have the full image: there is a beautiful Angel clasping the Christ Child's feet and another at the side of Our Lady. The scapular is that of the Mercedians.

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