Saint Peter Nolasco

Peter Nolasco was born in Languedoc, probably in 1189, to a noble family. He gave his possessions to the poor, took a vow of virginity and, to get away from the Albigensian lands, moved to Barcelona. There he came face to face with the problem of his life. Half of the Iberian Peninsula was under Muslim rule, and hundreds of Christians were being captured and carried off into slavery in Arab lands, where they worked for notables and landowners. After years, many ended up renouncing their faith — which, in the end, was the way to stop being slaves. Peter began ransoming them with his own fortune. When his ran out, he looked for more money. Then he realized that something more lasting was needed, and he founded an order: the Mercedarians, from the Latin *merces*, ransom. To the three usual vows they added a fourth, and it’s no small detail: to offer themselves as hostages in place of a prisoner, if there was no other way to free him. Quite a few of them really did it. The order had the support of James I of Aragon and spread across the whole Mediterranean, all the way to the Americas. He died in Barcelona on December 25, 1256. Messina and Palermo, of which he is co-patron, celebrate him on May 6, which is also his day in the Roman Martyrology. If your name is Peter, today is your name day — though many wait for June twenty-ninth.