PIETRO NOLASCO, saint. — Born in southern France in the last quarter of the twelfth century; while still young, he moved around 1213 to Spain, largely dominated by the Saracens. After visiting in Catalonia the celebrated sanctuary of Monserrato, as the beginning of his divine mission (a gesture later imitated by s. Ignazio, s. Giuseppe Calasanzio, and other saints), he proceeded to Valenza, which had not yet been freed from the Mohammedan yoke, in order to devote himself there to the redemption of Christians reduced to slavery.
Divinely inspired and under the auspices of the Madonna, with the cooperation of s. Raimondo di Peñafort and King Giacomo I d'Aragona, he founded at Barcelona in 1218, according to the most common opinion, or in 1223, or rather in 1228, as some writers maintain, the Order of the Most Holy Virgin of Mercy for the redemption of the wretched captives held by the Moors. The cradle of the new family was the hospital of s. Eulalia, donated for this purpose by the aforementioned monarch, who also granted the heroic religious the coat of arms of Aragon, which they still wear on their white habit, similar to that of the Dominicans. Like them, they adopted the Rule of s. Agostino, to which several simple constitutions were added. His co-founder s. Raimondo obtained confirmation of the Order in 1235 through a very brief bull of Gregory IX. Memorable was the Saint’s expedition into the African lands; in 1247 or 1248
he is found at Seville with King s. Ferdinando, conqueror of that city.
When the Saint died a few years later, he left his Order spread throughout Catalonia, Aragon, Valenza, and southern France. In 1655 Alexander VII had his name inserted in the Roman Martyrology and his Office in the universal Breviary.