Today we celebrate the heroic charity and holiness of Saint Peter Nolasco (c. 1180–1256), founder of the Mercedarians. When we hear Jesus speak of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger… (cf. Mt 25:35–36), we understand better the radical nature of Nolasco’s dedication: he saw that Christ was truly present in the captives of his time.

Peter did not merely feel compassion. A merchant by profession, he knew at first hand the drama of so many Christians deprived of their freedom and, moved by mercy, began using his own possessions to ransom them. When these resources ran out, he begged for alms for them and committed his entire life to this work. The needy neighbour is not a stranger, but Christ who comes to visit us: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40).

—Peter lived a mercy that became sacrifice, detachment and self-giving. His thought and his life could be summed up in that Mercedarian logic: to visit, to set free and, if necessary, to give one’s own life.