When the Mercedarians built their first church in 1249, they dedicated it to Saint Mary, whose image began to be known as Santa María de la Merced, and from there their worship would spread to all the churches where the Mercedarians established themselves.
In the evangelization of America, from 1493, the second voyage of Columbus, with the mercedarians Mary of Mercy always went there. Popular devotion modified her name, calling her Our Lady of Mercy. That is to say, she is the distributor of all the gifts that her Redeemer Son has deposited in her hands.
As devotion to Mary, in her invocation of Mercy, acquired great diffusion, the Church in 1616, with Pius V, in 1684 and in 1696, extended her cult to all of Christendom. The current Constitutions of the Order of Mercy proclaim the following. "For his intervention in the beginning and life of the Order that bears his name, we Mercedarians call upon Mary, Mother of Mercy. And we venerate her as the inspirer of his work of redemption".
Patron Saint of Barcelona
September 24 is the feast of the Mother of God of La Mercèpatron saint of Barcelona. You can see the history and the celebration in the city of Barcelona in the mercedarian web. Only a few features are shown here.
Already in 1255 there was a Confraternity dedicated to the Virgin of Mercy. The convent enjoyed great prestige in the city, as it was customary for the freed captives to walk through some of the streets of Barcelona in procession. The city thanked the Mare de Deu de la Mercé for her help during the plagues of 1651 and the drought of 1680. At the end of the locust plague of the same year, Maria de la Merced was declared Patron Saint of Barcelona.
On October 21, 1888 the image of the Mare de Déu de la Mercé was crowned in the cathedral by the bishop of Barcelona, with the approval of Pope Leo XIII on May 31.
Some saints have turned to Our Lady of Mercy at various times, for example St. Josemaría Escrivá. All the invocations of the Virgin Mary that he knew found a place in his heart. And some of them took on special relevance at specific moments: the Virgen de la Merced, patron saint of Barcelona, was one of them.
