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Saint Peter Nolasco (1189 – 6 May 1256), ''Pere Nolasc'' in Catalan, ''Pierre Nolasque'' in French and ''Pedro Nolasco'' in Spanish, is a Catholic saint, born at Mas-des-Saintes-Puelles, Languedoc, today's France, although some historians claim he was born in Barcelona (see ''Encyclopædia Britannica''). It is clear that he was in Barcelona when he was a teenager, became part of an army fighting the Moors in the Iberian peninsula, and was appointed tutor to the young king, James I of Aragon. In 1218 he formed a congregation of men that became the Royal and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy of the Redemption of the Captives (the Mercedarians) with approval by Pope Gregory IX in 1230. ==Background== Between the eighth and the fifteenth centuries medieval Europe was in a state of intermittent warfare between the Christian kingdoms of southern Europe and the Muslim polities of North Africa, Southern France, Sicily and portions of Spain. According to James W. Brodman, the threat of capture, whether by pirates or coastal raiders, or during one of the region's intermittent wars, was a continuous threat to residents of Catalonia, Languedoc, and the other coastal provinces of medieval Christian Europe.〔(Brodman, James William, ''Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain:The Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic Frontier )'', 1986〕 Raids by militias, bands, and armies from both sides was an almost annual occurrence.〔Ibn Khaldun, Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique septentrionale, ed. Paul Casanova and Henri Pérès, trans. William MacGuckin, baron de Slane (Paris, 1925-56), 3: 116-17〕 Alfonso VIII's 1182 incursions into Andalusia in 1182 are said to have brought him over 2,000 captives and thousands in ransom,〔Ambrosio Huici Miranda, Historia política del imperio almohade (Tetuán, 1956-57), 1:286〕 while in 1191 the governor of Córdoba, took 3,000 prisoners and 15,000 head of cattle in an attack on Silves.〔lbn Abi Zar' al-Fasi, 2: 213; Roudh el-Kartas [], Histoire des souverains du Maghreb, trans. M. Beaumier (Paris, 1860), 307-8〕 For over six hundred years, these constant armed confrontations produced numerous war prisoners on both sides. Any Christian or Muslim near the ever-shifting territorial borders was in danger of capture. Captives were considered war booty. Those not ransomed were sold as slaves. In the lands of Visigothic Spain, both Christian and Moslem societies had become accustomed to the buying and selling of captives. In the thirteenth century, in addition to spices, slaves constituted one of the goods of the flourishing trade between Christian and Moslem ports.〔[http://orderofmercy.org/ Order of the Blessed Virgin of Mercy]〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Peter Nolasco」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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