Order de la Merci
The Orden de la Merci (also spelled Mercy), also known as the Order of Grace and Order of Our Lady of Grace , was originally a Spanish order of knights . It was donated in 1230 by a Frenchman in the Spanish service as court master at the court of the Aragonese Prince Pierre Novalesque. The purpose of the order in the time of the Crusades was to support and ransom Christian prisoners from the hands of the Saracens , as the Trinitarians or Cölestiner orders did. The Order de la Merci was also called the Order of the Ransom of Poor Christian Slaves .
Later the knightly order changed into an order of monks . A part joined the bare feet . The order emblem was the coat of arms of Aragon on the scapular . The main seat of the order was the monastery in Barcelona . The order he spread in France, Italy and America. A female branch was later created.
literature
- Hermann Weiss, costume studies: Handbook of the history of the costume and the device, Verlag Ebner and Seubert, Stuttgart 1864, p. 710.
- Karl Julius Weber, Karl Julius Weber's complete works, Volume 9, Hallberger'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1836, p. 146.