Anyone know anything about the Mercedarians?

[MattBalkus]

I’ve always had a devotion to Our Lady and the Divine Mercy of Christ and to see the Mercedarian order which is basically the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, I was very interested. I looked into their website and I felt uncomfortable as I started looking through photos and watching videos. Maybe it’s just because it was old content and everyone looked a little bit odd or maybe it’s just because of the fact that I didn’t really understand the charism. I thought the Mercedarians would devote Divine Mercy and devotion to mercy, which they do, however their focus is on saving people from losing their faith due to certain slaveries in life? I’m not sure what this means. Does anyone know any Mercedarians and have any feedback? Or is there a Mercedarian who could give me some more info?

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Cloisters]

There are other communities dedicated specifically to the Divine Mercy. The Mercedarians, properly speaking, were founded to ransom captive Christians from the Moors.

I’m assuming you’re in the US? The Fathers of Mercy in KY have a Divine Mercy Chapel. The Marians of the Immaculate Conception have a Divine Mercy chapel, as well. They’re located in MA.

Blessings,
Mrs Cloisters OP
Lay Dominican
http://cloisters.tripod.com/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/holyangels/id9.html/

 

[CTBcin]

Hi! Early in my discernment, when I was looking at religious orders, I did some research on the Mercedarians, as I was intrigued by their charism. However I never contacted them or visited.

As far as I understand, they were originally founded to ransom themselves to Muslim captors in the place of Christians in danger of losing their faith. They take a 4th vow promising to die in the place of Christians in danger of losing their faith, if that situation were ever to arise. Nowadays, they do more parochial work and teaching.

I think most of their content is old. They’re a small order and presumably don’t have the money and resources for well-produced promotional materials. The best way to get a sense of their order is to contact them and maybe set up a visit/attend a come and see, if you’re still interested at that point.

I hope this provided some help!

 

[midori]

Taking a quick look at their Constitution—

Our Order, since its foundation, has followed Jesus, making him present as a friend and redeemer among the Christians who “in power of the Saracens and of other enemies of our Law” found themselves exposed too the danger of losing their faith. Thus the Order fulfilled the word of the Gospel: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…for he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives”, by being able to see in them the face of Jesus who, on the Day of Judgement will say: “I was in prison and you came to visit me”.

Today there are arising in our societies new forms of social, political, and psychological slavery which derive ultimately from sin and become for the faith of the Christians just as dangerous as the slavery and oppression of former times. Therefore, our Order commits itself to give testimony to the same Good News of love and redemption that it has shown since the beginning of its history.

followed by

Since our ministries cannot be exercised effectively in an unknown society, the religious should study the spiritual values that manifest themselves historically according to the signs of the times, and everything else that would contribute to a better individual and social knowledge of man.

So, rather than ransoming captives who have been enslaved by 13th c. Saracens and Moors, the modern Mercedarians—

…work in jails, marginal neighborhoods, among addicts, and in hospitals. In the United States, the Order of Mercy gives special emphasis to preserving the faith of families through education and parish work.