From ‘The Saint Andrew Daily Missal’
The Blessed Virgin appeared in the thirteenth century to St. Peter Nolasco, St. Raymund of Pennafort, and to James, king of Aragon, requesting them to found a religious institute with the object of delivering Christian captives from the barbarous Saracens (Collect), who then held a great part of Spain.
In consequence of this, on August 10th, 1218, King James established the royal, military and religious Order of our Lady of Ransom, and granted to its members the privilege of bearing on their breasts his own arms. Most of them were knights, and while the clerics recited divine office in the commanderies, they guarded the coasts and delivered prisoners. This pious work spread everywhere and produced heroes of sanctity and men of incomparable charity and piety who devoted themselves to the collection of alms for the ransom of Christians, and who often gave themselves up as prisoners to deliver captives.
This feast, originally kept only by the Order, was extended to the whole Church by Innocent XII in the seventeenth century.
COLLECT
O God, who by means of the most glorious Mother of Thy Son wast pleased to give new children to Thy Church for the deliverance of Christ’s faithful from the power of the heathen; grant, we beseech Thee, that we who love and honour her as the foundress of so great a work may, by her merits and intercession, be ourselves delivered from all sin and from the bondage of the evil one. Through the same Lord. Amen.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
A friend commented, “The members of the order of Our Lady of Ransom certainly were ‘heroes of sanctity and men of incomparable charity and piety,’ especially when you consider that the ‘Saracens’ of the thirteenth century may have beheaded some of their hostages just as the ‘Saracens’ do today.”
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Reblogged this on Solutio Problematis Omnes (aka "The Catholic Linker") and commented:
Our Lady of Ransom and Mercy please pray for us and for the conversion of all Muslims and Mormons to the one true faith.
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How revitalising it is to hear words of such clarity as these taken from the beautiful old ‘Saint Andrew Daily Missal’. No beating around the bush or PC talk in those former days!
In many countries (e.g. Spain) the title “Our Lady of Ransom” has been changed to “Our Lady of Mercy” (Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes), which is a pity I think. Whilst there is no doubt that Our Lady showed her most Merciful Heart in calling for the rescue of the Christian captives, ‘mercy’ does not fully conjure up the act of offering a ‘ransom’ (all that one possesses, even one’s own life) to save the life of another.
The Mohammedan (Hilaire Belloc’s name for the followers of Islam) was exactly just that – a heathen – and a continuous warring threat to all Christians 800 years ago, just as much as he is today… In fact far more so in these times with the current growth and spread of his savage acts of satanical cruelty being committed all over the globe, but most especially in the Middle East and parts of Africa.
Just in case anyone protests saying these are the exceptions among the members of the (ahem) ‘Religion of Peace’, let’s remember that these murderous islamists are in fact the ones being most obedient to the countless calls to violence written in the Koran! Mohammad’s own life was one of war, murder, extortion, and extreme brutality. “By their fruits…”
So are we going to allow these dangerous “heathens” to overrun our countries once more?
Infiltrated among the genuine cases of distraught refugees and asylum seekers fleeing war-torn Syria, Iraq, etc., and now entering Europe in their thousands, are hardened jihadists ready to start off an islamic take-over in our spiritually weakened (and much envied) continent. Why are we pretending this is not true? Islamic leaders in the ME have already boasted they are doing just that! Few Europeans, like Hungarian Bishop Laszlo Kiss-Rego, have dared to speak out publicly about their concern:
Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, received on Monday an extraordinary rebuff from the top Catholic leader in southern Hungary, Bishop Laszlo Kiss-Rigo, who said the pontiff was wrong in saying that Catholics had a moral duty to help the hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern refugees streaming into Europe.
“They’re not refugees. This is an invasion,” said Kiss-Rigo. “They come here with cries of ‘Allahu Akbar.’ They want to take over.”
Europe is being overwhelmed by non-believers posing as refugees who pose a serious threat to the continent’s “Christian, universal values,” he said.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/pope.francis.is.wrong.in.appealing.for.aid.to.sea.of.refugees.this.is.actually.a.muslim.invasion.of.europe.says.hungarian.bishop/64104.htm
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A very challenging comment, kathleen, on your part, I must say.
Still I think it is the whole world that needs to help to resettle these folk, not just European nations. Islamic demi-paradises, especially, such as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states need to rise to the occasion, notably the Saudis and Qatar who have had such a large hand in the conflicts.
Our own demi-paradise here, I note, has not taken one of them or indicated an intention to do so, though they were reasonably open to to Bosnians during the conflicts there. They opened pizza shops here, called them Italian restaurants and sold beer and wine too.
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kathleen, I myself had only heard of this order as the “Mercederians” or the Order of Our Lady of Mercy (O de M) founded in 1218. I see these days they have all of 711 friars and run 160 parishes, mainly in the Hispanic world.
Only goes to show that the idea of “mercy” is not necessarily a 2013 discovery, but has long been with us, if you get what I mean?
Their badge worn on their habit looks like it could be the insignia of the Aragon football team, if there is such a thing.
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A very challenging comment, kathleen, on your part, I must say.
Yes, GC, I know, but I am really scared about the future for our continent with such vast quantities of Muslims swarming in. There are already enough no-go areas for any European in some parts of the UK, and even more of them in France, where the radical islamists are now in the majority. The police and our politicians turn a blind eye to these trouble spots – they don’t know how to cope with them – but the worry is that there will be more and more of them in the near future. (And this will come about not only through this uncontrolled invasion of Muslim immigrants, but also because we Europeans are contracepting ourselves towards extinction, whilst Muslims are not!!)
I quite agree with you that Islamic nations are the ones who should be helping their co-religionists – I’ve noticed many articles in blogs and in the MSM state just that – but instead these countries, Saudi Arabia in particular, slam their gates shut and point them towards Europe, while at the same time having to import workers (mostly from the Philippines) to work in their oil fields. So much for islamic charity to their own homeless!
Another point to take into consideration is that it is a fact that an estimated 80% of these immigrants are strong young males, and not families with little children as we are made to think! Why are they not remaining in their countries to help sort out the problems there? Sometimes the Media cameraman has to search hard before finding a poor, pathetic, frightened woman clutching a crying child, to send us images aimed to touch the West’s sensibilities.
We all know that the majority of Muslims are not terrorists of course – and thank God for that – but the more they increase in numbers among us, the more threat we are under. The militant Islamists have already, and are, making great headway in radicalising the more peaceful ones. Let’s wake up to the very real danger we are putting the future of our families and countrymen in!
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Why do I get this sinking feeling that the end has arrived?
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Where have all the men owners on this blog gone? (Not that I don’t like women):
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Oh right, here they are: That’s me on the far left. Not an owner of this blog obviously. I can’t decide which of the others in the picture is The Raven and which is Brother Burrito and which is Toad:
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…and that’s Kathleen (or MMVC or GC) sitting next to me, and Gertrude is the woman sitting next to the priest on the far right.
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The Dear Old Generalissimo would know what to do with these rascally Muslim johnnies. Up against the wall, the whole boiling of ’em! Pim-pam! Next! Like we did with the Reds.
(Using his loyal Moorish troops to do the job, of course,)
I agree The Middle East, particularly “The Holy Land,” (there’s an oxymoron and a half for yer)
is incontestably the most loathsome and detestable spot on the entire planet. The humans there should be “relocated” and the place returned to its rightful owners – the camels.
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