Spirituality ~ Habit of Mary
Ancient documents confirm that the first Mercedarian religious used to give the members a habit which they called “of holy Mary”. This happened to Bonifacio, a man from Valencia who was seriously ill. The Prior of the Order gave him the habit after he claimed his conformity with these words: “Here is the habit which you promised to receive! Do you wish to receive it?” The text in question adds that when the Mercedarian prior realized that Bonifacio was about to die, “he ordered to have the habit of the Mercy Order brought to him”. Later, the same prior called it “habit of holy Mary”. Everything was verified in l254 by Bernardo de Rivalta.
Capuche ~
Scapular ~
Tunic ~
Belt ~
The Mercedarian Shield ~ The shield is the external element that is most characteristic of the members of the Mercedarian family. Some habits have lost the white color. We wear stereotyped clothing or lay clothes..., but the shield on the breast or the small shield on the lapel identify us. The gold and blood-red stripes with the white cross over gules disclose a Mercedarian heart.
This should be more than a legend. What ancient chronicles attest may be the truth: the heroic Count of Barcelona, Wifredo the Bearded fell while courageously fighting against the Normans for his lord, Charles the Bald. When he was surrendering his life because of the wounds he had received in the battle, the emperor came over to him, dipped his right hand into the blood spurting from that generous chest and placed his four fingers on the shield of the wounded man in honorable memory of the Count and for the legacy of his offspring.
The Mercedarian shield contains three elements: a gold quarter with four red pales; a second red quarter with the silver cross and the royal crown.
It was given to us on August l0, l2l8 in the very act of the foundation of our Order. At the command of the Blessed Virgin, Peter Nolasco wanted to establish a religious institute dedicated to the redemption of captives. Two important sponsors came forth: the Church, through don Berenguer de Palou, Bishop of Barcelona and the crown in the person of King James I, the Conqueror. These two men were to become patrons of the Order of Mercy. They provided it with juridical existence; gave it the hospital of Saint Eulalia and part of the royal palace; granted many important privileges and they protected the Order as their own institution.
For us, the shield is little more than an ornament and an identification sign. It had been much more than that. Centuries ago, whoever saw a person wearing the red stripes on gold knew that such a person was from the royal house, protected by the king and enjoying all the prerogatives of a courtier. The same was true in the ecclesiastical realm: the white cross over red indicated that the clergyman belonged to the cathedral of Barcelona and that he was part of its Chapter.Royal documents call our shield a “sign,” an “insignia,” and a “habit.” The l272 Constitutions defined it as “the sign.” Religious were wearing it and it was displayed on all Mercedarian property. It commanded respect from the citizens, protection from public officials and exemption from every type of taxes or burdens.
Looking at the shield from the heraldic point of view, we observe a first gold quarter showing four red stripes, symbols of the spears of the knights; a second quarter of gules showing the silver cross; the royal crown, the most distinguished heraldic element.
In the Mercedarian shield we find the most noble metals in heraldry: gold, silver and gules. Each one involves its own symbolism and exigency: the gules invite to love, charity and heroism; silver involves a call to innocence and purity and gold suggests kindness, nobility and spiritual greatness.
I know of a religious who kisses his shield with tenderness and faith when he puts it on every morning. This means that he has understood the magnificence of the emblem and the radicalness of the commitment; he accepts seven hundred and seventy-five years which urge him on with blood, generosity and with greatness. He says yes to a present of pain, slavery and hope.The Mercedarian Shield and Heraldry
The shield or coat of arms of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy for the redemption of captives is divided into two parts. Such shields are called in heraldry true arms, for they have the royal crown as a seal and a sign of their major distinction among shields as such.The firs half of the shield is red and has a silver cross in the middle. The second half being gold, has four red bars. The royal crown and the seal are from the royal shield of Aragon.
The Four Red Bars in History
The four red rods or Catalan bars came about around the year 888 A.D. This is probably the closest year to their origin. In keeping with tradition, they were received as arms of heraldry from the hands of Emperor Charlemagne. History shows that 888 was the year because they were then last used as his own coat of arms.Wilfred I of Velloso (the Charitable), who, according to popular opinion, was a descendent of the Carolingian family of France. Wilfred founded the Barcelona dynasty of counts, as recalled in Spanish history. Wilfred, as a man of great piety and not to mention his war-like spirit, with his wife, Winidilde, established the monasteries of San Juan de Abadesas and Santa Maria de Repoll in the Ter Valley. In the Benedictine monastery of Ripoll, Velloso was buried and one of his sons became the first abbot and later a bishop.
On April 20, 888, Wilfred requested the consecration of the monastery church. This is recorded in the archives of the Crown of Aragon. James II of Aragon, in a document dated August 1318, attests to the existence of this monastery as a work accomplished by the generosity of Wilfred. In the pillars and in other places in the cloister there are found, carved in stone, the four red bars. This is confirmed by Ribera in Royal Patronage. The holy enclosure of Ripoll continues to display the glorious shield. It was recognized as and given by the founder of the Barcelona dynasty of counts in reward for heroism shown at war.
The Catalan Pillars Pass Onto Aragon
Raymond Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona, is known in history by the surname of “the Holy” because of his love for justice, zeal for religion, obedience to the Church and his refined loyalty. He was considered a distinguished and honored Christian. At the age of twenty-four, the eleventh of August 1137, in Barbastro, he married Petronila of Aragon, daughter of Ramiro of Monaco and heir of the throne. That same year, Ramiro abdicated the throne in favor of his son-in-law, Raymond Berenguer, to whom he left his entire kingdom and assumed the title of Prince of Aragon. This occurrence was considered providential in those days in which discord existed among the princes of the Iberian Peninsula. This is how Raymond became king of the Aragonese people. The shield of four red bars from its predecessors, will be incorporated into the royal shield of Aragon. James I of Aragon (the Conqueror), the great grandson of King Raymond Berenquer IV and Queen Petronila, consented to the foundation of the Order of Mercy by Saint Peter Nolasco.The Cross
The red part of the Mercedarian shield, according to chronological order, has as its center a silver cross.In medieval times, different crosses of various shapes and colors distinguished the crusaders, as well as, the various habits for all of the medieval military orders, among which the Order of Mercy must be counted. With the breakup of Charlemagne’s vas empire, Castagneda and Alcover write in Art of Blasone, came the ambitions of powerful magnates who substituted the law and inviolable statutes of equality with their own interests and tyrannical instincts.
The complaint, however, against so much iniquity, also arose in the bosom of barbarity. Supported by the Church, the institution of knighthood for the defense of society against the violence of feudalism arose. They were to protect the oppressed, respectful taxing of women and oppose the injustice of the overbearing. The medieval military orders the Church and the country. Their Christian life was engraved in the knightly rules and bore witness to the new possibility between moral troubles and the work to re-establish a manner of living according to Gospel precepts.
The knights, who proved brave in defending Christian society from its enemies, received in the name of the Church, the cross which they could wear on their chest. This gave honor to their holiness of life and their defense of the Faith against her enemies. They lived an austere life in observance of very rigid constitutions approved by the Church. They observed the religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Their military habit was the holy cross worn on their chest, the same cross that the Conqueror-King, with apostolic authority, gave the first Mercedarians on the day of their foundation, August 10, 1218. This made them a distinct Order and confirmed them by royal decree. This is attested to by the royal decree by Zaragoza and among others as well –James II of Aragon and Peter IV of Aragon, the historian-king.
The Crown
The crown is a piece of heraldry. Its use as a seal and as an ornament on the shield dates back many centuries. A number of religious orders and congregations have the crown on the shield as a distinctive mark. The use of the crown by the Mercedarian Order results from its being given by King James I, the Conqueror. The Mercedarian shield has its own symbolism in royal heraldry as a shield. A distinctive honor was always associated with a specific heraldry different forms assumed throughout time which introduce western changes in some designs of the coat of arms.The king, as noted in Royal Decree by Zaragoza, “We warmly grant Your Excellency and definitively confirm for you our chosen, Brother William de Bas, master general of the Order for the redemption of captives, and for each and every brother of the same Order, present and in the future, the distinctive habit along with our royal shield, which you have already been using…”
