[Officium]
St. Peter Nolasco, Confessor

[Oratio]
O God, Thou Who, as an example of Thy charity, divinely taught St. Peter to enrich Thy Church with new offspring, a family of religious devoted to the ransom of the faithful, grant by his intercession, that we may be released from the slavery of sin, and rejoice in lasting freedom in heaven.
$Qui vivis

[Lectio4]
Peter Nolasco was born of noble parents at Recaudun near Carcassonne in France ~(about the year 1189,) and is chiefly distinguished for his great love toward his neighbour. It was considered a foreshadowing of this virtue, that when he was a little child in his cradle, a swarm of bees settled on his right hand, and began to make an honey-comb there. He lost his parents while still young, and in consequence of his horror of the Albigensian heresy, with which France was then plagued, he sold his property there and emigrated to Spain. Here he first discharged a vow which he had made at the sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of Monserrat, and afterwards went to Barcelona. Here he was so affected by the miserable state of the Christians who were in slavery to the Moors, that he expended his whole fortune in ransoming as many of them as possible, and used to say that he wished he could be sold himself to ransom more, or could himself change places with them.

[Lectio5]
It came to pass that God showed how agreeable to Him was the charitable zeal of Peter. One night when he was praying, and his mind was much exercised on the means of succouring the enslaved Christians, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him in a vision, and gave him to understand that it would be most pleasing to her Son and herself, if he would found in her honour an order of religious men, whose chief duty it should be to effect the redemption of Christian bondsmen out of the hand of the unbelievers. In conformity to this revelation, which had likewise on the same night been made to St. Raymond de Penafort and King James I. of Aragon, he founded the Religious Order of the Blessed Mary of Ransom, for the redemption of captives. The members of this order add a fourth vow to the three essential ones of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, namely, that they will be ready if need be to remain as hostages in 'the hand of the unbelievers for the liberation of others.

[Lectio6]
After he took the vow of virginity he remained with his purity quite unsullied all his life, and was at the same time a bright pattern of long-suffering, lowliness, temperance, and other virtues. God was pleased to adorn him with the gift of Prophecy, whereby he foretold things to come. Among others, he prophesied to King James that he would take the city of Valencia from the Moors, which he afterwards did. He was refreshed by frequent apparitions of his Guardian Angel and of the Virgin Mother of God. He had lived to a great age, when being quite worn out, and falling into a grievous sickness, he perceived that his end was at hand. He then received the holy Sacraments, and, gathering his brethren around him, exhorted them for the last time to show pity to slaves. After this he began to repeat with great emotion the ex. Psalm, I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart, and when he had uttered the words He sent redemption unto His people, he resigned his soul to God. This happened at midnight between the 23rd and 24th of December, 1256. Alexander VII. ordered that his feast should be celebrated on the 31st of January.

[Lectio94]
Peter Nolasco, born of a noble family at Recaudun near Carcassonne in France, was bereaved of his parents in his youth. Loathing the heresy of the Albigenses, he divided his patrimony and went to Spain. There, as he was praying one night, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and suggested that it would be most pleasing to her Son and to herself to have a religious order founded for the purpose of freeing those taken captive in the power of unbelievers. And so, together with St. Raymond of Pennafort and James I, king of Aragon, who had been told the same thing by the Mother of God on the very same night, he established the Order of Our Lady of Mercy for the redemption of captives, the members taking a fourth vow to remain as hostages in the power of pagans if this were needed to free Christians. He was often cheered by apparitions of his guardian Angel and of the Virgin Mother of God; and when he had attained a good old age, he died a holy death in the middle of the night of the Vigil of Christmas, in the year 1256.
&teDeum