a female title, and had joined Catalonia to Aragon, making
Barcelona their chief residence and capital.
2. F. Tonron, in the life of St. Raymund, p. 20, quotes an original
letter of St. Raymund, which mentions this revelation. The
authenticity of this letter cannot be called in question, being
proved by F. Bremond, Bullar. Ord. Praed. t. 1, not. in Constit. 36,
Greg. X. The same revelation is inserted in the bull of the saint's
canonization, in the Histories of Zumel, Vargas, Penia, &c. Benedict
XIV. also mentions it, Canoniz. SS. l. 1, c. 41, and proves that it
cannot reasonably be contested.
3. This Order consisted at first of some knights, who were dressed like
seculars, wearing only a scarf or scapular; and of friars who were
in holy orders, and attended the choir. The knights were to guard
the coast against the Saracens, but were obliged to choir when not
on duty. St. Peter himself was never ordained priest; and the first
seven generals or commanders were chosen out of the knights, though
the friars were always more numerous. Raymond Albert, in 1317. was
the first priest who was raised to that dignity; and the popes
Clement V., and John XXII., ordered that the general should be
always a priest after which, the knight were incorporated into other
military Orders, or were rarely renewed. It is styled, "The royal
military religious Order of our Lady of Mercy for the redemption of
Captives." It is divided into commanderies, which in Spain are very
rich. It has eight provinces in America, three in Spain, and one,
the poorest, in the southern part of France, called the province of
Guienne. Whereas this Order is not bound to many extraordinary
domestic austerities, a reformation, obliging the members to go
barefoot, was established among them in the sixteenth century, and
approved by pope Clement VIII. It observes the strictest poverty,
recollection, solitude, and abstinence, and has two provinces in
Spain, and one in Sicily, besides several nunneries. It was erected
by F. John Baptist Gonzales, or of the holy sacrament, who died in
the year 1{}18, and is said to have been honored with miracles.
4. Podoniensis.
5. Ps. cx. 9.
6. S. Chrys. Hom. in illud: Vidua eligatur, &c. t. 3, p. 397. Ed. Ben.

ST. SERAPION, M.

HE was a zealous Englishman, whom St. Peter Nolasco received into his
Order at Barce