It is Neo-Renaissance in architecture and has a small museum with religious objects and art, including a collection of pieces from Easter Island. The collection includes a rongorongo tablet, one of 29 left in the world.
García de Sahagún was a 16th century Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church.
He was the Titular Bishop of Berytus (The Roman Catholic Diocese in Beirut, Lebanon). and the Diocese of Cuenca.He was a member of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy.
Joan Gilabert Jofré (1350–1417), also known as Padre Jofré or Pare Jofré, was a member of the Christian religious Order of Mercy and the founder of what is claimed to be the first psychiatric care institution in Europe, he will be influenced by the hospital sidi fredj of Fez in Morocco, in Valencia, Crown of Aragon (today in Spain).Pare Jofré was born in Valencia on 24 June 1350. He studied law in Lleida, before returning to Valencia where he joined the Order of Mercy in 1370 and entered the Monastery of El Puig. He was ordained priest in 1375 and became a preacher. He eventually became Superior of the Order in Valencia. A commitment to the poor led him to establish institutions to care for the mentally ill, abandoned children and indigent pilgrims. After his death he became a subject of religious veneration and he has been proposed for canonisation as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
Martín de Murúa, O. de M., (c. 1525 in Gipuzkoa, Spain – c. 1618 in Spain) was a Basque Mercedarian friar and chronicler of the Spanish conquest of the Americas. He is primarily known for his work Historia general del Piru (written c.1580-1616), which is considered the earliest illustrated history of Peru.
Saint Mary de Cervellione (de Cervello; Mary of Cervellon) (1230 at Barcelona – 19 September 1290) was a Catalan superior of a Third Order of Mercedarians. She is a Catholic saint; her following, which began immediately after her death, was approved by Pope Innocent XII in 1692.
She is invoked especially against shipwreck and is generally represented with a ship in her hand. Her feast is celebrated on 19 September. On account of her charity towards the needy she began to be called Maria de Socos (Mary of Help).
Melchor de Talamantes (in full, Melchor de Talamantes Salvador y Baeza) (January 10, 1765, Lima, Viceroyalty of Peru – May 9, 1809, Veracruz, Mexico), was a Mercedarian friar and priest, a political liberal, and a leader in Mexico's movement for independence from Spain.
At the age of 14, Talamantes entered the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy. He obtained his doctorate of theology from the University of San Marcos. Afterwards he served as a high official in the Archdiocese of Lima, and for two years as an assistant to Viceroy of Peru, Francisco Gil de Taboada. During this time he came to know Hipólito Unanue, a fighter for the independence of America.
In 1796 Talamantes asked for his release from the Order, to become a secular priest. This was because his reading of forbidden books and his libertarian tendencies had led to difficulties with his religious superiors. He also asked to be transferred to Spain, by way of Mexico. The second request was granted on September 20, 1798 and he left from Guayaquil for Mexico, arriving at Acapulco on November 26, 1799.
Talamantes took up residence at the convent of his Order in Mexico City, where he dedicated himself to reading and meditation. On October 15, 1802 he delivered the lecture Panegyric of the glorious virgin and doctor, Saint Teresa of Jesús, which was printed, with permission, in the same year. On November 18 he delivered in the cathedral of the city the Funeral Oracion for the Spanish soldiers killed during the war.
In 1806 Viceroy José de Iturrigaray commissioned him to report on the boundaries between Texas (New Spain) and Louisiana.
Talamantes began attending parties and meetings. He made friends of radical Criollos, played cards, contracted debts, and neglected his religious offices. He was named censor of the Diario de México, and came to have great influence in official circles, particularly in the Ayuntamiento (city government of Mexico City). He was now the intellectual leader of the Criollo party.
In 1808, after the French invasion of Spain, the Criollos and some of the Spanish living in New Spain wanted to proclaim the independence of the colony and establish a governing junta, similar to the anti-French juntas in the mother country. On September 1, 1808, Talamantes delivered two tracts to the Ayuntamiento, in favor of separation from Spain and of the convoking of a Mexican congress. His premises were that all ties to Spain had now been broken; that regional laws had to be made, independently of the mother country; that the Audiencia could not speak on behalf of the king; and that the king having disappeared, sovereignty was now vested in the people.
His proposed congress was to represent all the provinces of New Spain. It was to be invested with the legislative authority of the new government. The courts already established were to exercise the judicial power, and Viceroy Iturrigaray was to be captain general (commander of the military) and, provisionally, chief executive. This was the government of a republic; there was no provision for a king.
Viceroy Iturrigaray was perceived to have some sympathy for this path. On the night of September 15, 1808 a group of rich Spaniards who had no such sympathy arrested the viceroy, Talamantes, and members of the Ayuntamiento. An investigation of the papers of Talamantes revealed him to be a leader in the movement. Many radical political tracts written by him were found in his house. Also many books were found, including some banned ones (for instance the works of Montesquieu and Adam Smith).
The detention of the viceroy and the others was followed by charges and cruelties. Talamantes was brought before a biased court. He was denied a lawyer. His enemies, among whom were members of his religious order, accused him of "disloyalty to the king and adhesion to the doctrines of independence". His trial lasted more than six months. He was convicted and sentenced to death, then ordered transferred to Spain for the execution of the sentence.
Fray Talamantes died of yellow fever in San Juan de Ulúa, Veracruz as he was being transferred in chains and under guard to Spain. He was provided no medical assistance, and indeed his chains were not removed until the moment of his burial, in a common grave.
He is honored today in Mexico as one of the protomartyrs of independence.
Saint Pedro Armengol (c. 1238 - 27 April 1304), born Pedro Armengol Rocafort, was a Spanish Roman Catholic who was of noble stock and was a thief during his adolescence. He became a professed member of the Mercedarians after he experienced a sudden conversion and devoted himself from liberating persecuted Christians from the Moors.Armengol is best known for being hanged while a captive of the Moors but survived the attempted killing.He received canonization as a saint on 8 April 1687 after Pope Innocent XI approved his sainthood and his long-standing "cultus" - or devotion.
Raymund Nonnatus, O. de M. (Catalan: Sant Ramon Nonat, Spanish: San Ramón Nonato, French: Saint Raymond Nonnat, Maltese: San Rajmondo Nonnato), (1204 – 31 August 1240) is a saint from Catalonia in Spain. His nickname (Latin: Nonnatus, "not born") refers to his birth by Caesarean section, his mother having died while giving birth to him.
Raymund is the patron saint of childbirth, midwives, children, pregnant women, and priests defending the confidentiality of confession.
Saint Peter Nolasco's Vision of Saint Peter the Apostle is a 1629 painting by Francisco de Zurbarán, now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. It is signed at the bottom FRANCISCUS Đ ZURBARAN/ FACIEBAT. 1629..
It shows Peter the Apostle crucified upside-down appearing to Peter Nolasco, founder of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, which redeemed Christian slaves from Muslim owners during the Reconquista period in Spanish history. When he was prevented from making a hoped-for trip to Rome to visit St Peter's tomb, he received a consolatory vision from St Peter instructing him to convert Spain. It forms a pair with the same artist's The Vision of Saint Peter Nolasco, in which the saint dreams of the Heavenly Jerusalem.
Both works were produced the year after Nolasco's canonisation for the Convent of Mercy in Seville, which he had founded and which now houses the city's Museum of Fine Arts The two works formed part of a group of 22 paintings commissioned by the monastery from various artists to mark the canonisation - only eleven now survive. In 1808 the work was bought by Manuel López Cepero, dean of Seville Cathedral, who thirteen years later gave it to Ferdinand VII of Spain.
The Scapular of Our Lady of Mercy is a Roman Catholic devotional scapular that traces its roots to the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy also known as Our Lady of Ransom (Latin: Ordo Beatae Mariae de Mercede redemptionis captivorum) which was founded by St. Peter Nolasco in the city of Barcelona, at that time in the Kingdom of Aragon, for the redemption of Christian captives.
Saint Serapion of Algiers (1179 – 14 November 1240) was an English Roman Catholic Mercedarian priest and martyr. Thomas O'Loughlin says Serapion was Scottish by birth. Serapion is acknowledged as a proto-martyr. He was the first of his Order to merit the palm of martyrdom by being crucified and cut to pieces.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria also known as Our Lady of Fair Winds is a Marian title associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary as Star of the Sea and patron of sailboats. In addition, it is first associated with a Roman Catholic shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary located in Cagliari, Sardinia (Italy).
The Shrine is part of a complex of buildings which include the Basilica of Our Lady of Bonaria, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bonaria and the monastery which houses the friars of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy. The Basilica and the other structures are under the administration of the Mercedarians, a religious order which has overseen the care of the shrine continuously since October 17, 1335.
Mary under this Marian title, is often portrayed carrying the Child Jesus, along with a golden sailboat and a candle in her right arm is invoked as the Patroness of Sardinia as well as Buenos Aires, Argentina, to which Pope Francis is also a known devotee.
Blessed Teresa of Jesus, Child (1622–1627) was a Spanish girl who has been beatified by the Roman Catholic Church.
Teresa became a member of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy at the Convent of Our Lady of Bethlehem in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain when she was five. She received holy communion before her death.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Bonaria is a Roman Catholic shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary located in Cagliari, Italy. The Basilica is part of a complex of buildings which make up the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria. The Basilica and the other structures are under the administration of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, a Religious Order which has overseen the care of the shrine continuously since 1335.
Tirso de Molina (24 March 1579 – 12 March 1648) was a Spanish Baroque dramatist, poet and Roman Catholic monk. He is primarily known for writing The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest, the play from which the popular character of Don Juan originates. His work is also of particular significance due to the abundance of female protagonists, as well as the exploration of sexual issues.