Posted on 07/25/2025 4:26:18 AM PDT by Cronos
Imagine yourself in a 13th-century North African prison where you are being held for refusing to renounce your Catholic faith. Conditions are cruel, and you are losing hope of seeing your family again. You wonder if it wouldn’t be so bad to convert to Islam.
Then an angel in white appears at your cell with the jailor, who unlocks the door. All at once, you are free to return to your home in Spain. The angel is a monk from the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy (also known as the Order of Mercy or the Mercedarians), who has paid a ransom for your release with money collected from Spanish Catholics.
Thousands of European Christians, including Miguel de Cervantes, author of the novel Don Quixote, were ransomed this way
The Order of Mercy was founded in 1218 by St. Peter Nolasco, a French merchant who moved to Spain
One night, as he was praying for captives, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and, giving him a white habit, asked him to found a religious order aimed at freeing those in captivity. Our Lady also appeared to King James and St. Raymond of Penyafort on the same night, and, subsequently, the two supported St. Peter Nolasco in founding the order. ..
In addition to the evangelical counsels, members took a fourth vow: to offer themselves as slaves to the Moors if they could in no other way obtain the ransom of the Christians. This was not a calling for the faint of heart! ...
Traveling often to Morocco, the monks sometimes were held captive or killed in place of the captives when they didn’t have all of the funds demanded. I can only imagine what those journeys must have been like and how the monks negotiated with captors..
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
Ever heard of monks who took a vow to die in your place?
These guys were founded to ransom Christians enslaved by Muslims. If needed, they’d literally swap themselves in for captives.
Heroic charity, born of Marian devotion.
Thousands of European Christians, including the renowned Miguel de
Cervantes, author of the novel “Don Quixote,” were ransomed this way.
That’s a reassuring revelation.
Thank you for posting this article! The Mercedarians are in just a few locations in the US but I was lucky enough to grow up in a town that hosted their seminary and headquarters in western New York, and then to have them briefly serve my current Parish in north Florida (but their numbers eventually got too low). One of their main missions is in the prisons (Attica in New York and the death row prisons in Florida). Very holy and down-to-earth men.
Pope Urban II (1088–1099). He is credited with initiating the First Crusade. He encouraged military support for Byzantium and called for an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Pope Paschal II (1099–1118): Succeeding Urban II, Paschal II continued his predecessor's policies .
Pope Callixtus II (1119–1124): Callixtus II sanctioned the Venetian Crusade (1122–1124).
Other Popes from 1145 to 1689 supported the military defeat and destruction of Islam.
Where are these Popes today?
Pope Benedict XVI’s most notable statement on Islam came during his lecture at the University of Regensburg on September 12, 2006. In his speech, titled “Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections,” he quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, who said, “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”
Interesting...
Never heard of This.
Cath-Prot exchange Incoming.
Exactly! That statement by Pope Benedict was spot on and not reported much as I recall.
Thanks Cronos.
Proverbs 24:
11 Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
The Muslims screamed about it at the time. The Pope sort-of apologized, IIRC.
I heard about this order about 40 years ago when I met a college professor whose research focused on them.
Unfortunately paying ransom creates a demand to capture and market ransomable persons.
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.
“Unfortunately paying ransom creates a demand to capture and market ransomable persons.”
Virtually nobody has the money and knowledge to hire the qualified personnel and equipment needed to carry out a hostage rescue. Thus, the ransom option.
Only executive travel insurance comes close. The other would be a government rescue operation.
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