St. Petersburg Mercedarians Celebrate 800 Years

800 Years and Counting

In the year 1218, St. Peter Nolasco, through the intervention and guidance of Our Lady of Mercy, founded Mercedarian Religious Order, known officially as the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy. There is much history and sacrifice in the story of both this saint and the Order. This year – 2018 – is a very big year of celebration for this religious order. Celebrations of faith with the Meredarian friars and friends have been had in the Philadelphia area, Cleveland, and recently in St. Petersburg, Florida. All of these celebrations have been a huge blessing with beautiful Masses with many of the Mercedarian friars, bishops and the Mercedarian family. In addition, the Mercedarian Third Order and other friends attended.

When the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy come together for prayer and celebration, good things happen!

Our Friars and the Celebration of 800 Years

I had an opportunity to ask some of the Mercedarian friars about the celebration of 800 Years including the Mass and reception. Our friars from the St. Petersburg area shared with me some of their thoughts on the topic.

From Father Daniel Bowen, "It was a joyous celebration of our 800 years of doing what every Christian, as an authentic follower of Jesus is called to do: to lay down our lives for others. It all started with a beautiful Mass presided by Bishop Gregory Parkes, and concelebrated by several Mercedarians in addition to a number of priests from the diocese and other religious communities. Father Joseph Eddy gave a stirring homily. Following Mass was a wonderful reception filled with friendship, fellowship, food, music and laughs. There was a slide show of images of our local community and the US vicariate through the years. Father Tony Fortunato, one of the first friars assigned to our first Florida community shared his thoughts about this experience at the celebration reception with all of us."

In addition to Father Daniel's comments, I was able to hear from some of our other Mercedarian friars on the experience of the celebration. Father Tony Fortunato commented, "It was a great celebration with great people of God in the St. Pete area. I felt very much at home with everyone from St. Jude and the Sacred Heart Churches. Joy was very much around us with terrific Mexican dancers and cool music with it. Surely, Our Lady of Mercy and St. Peter Nolasco were both happy being with us all."

Father Tony definitely enjoyed the warmth and love the the celebration!

Father Kenneth Breen commented, "Our St. Petersburg Celebration of our Order was such a blessing particularly because the greatest deed we can do in celebrating our 800th anniversary is to be inspired in fulfilling precisely more deeply the very redeptive vocation that we are all about. And the most wonderful thing is that we could do it not only in our celebrating the most Holy Eucharist, but even more by bringing forth its fruit in coming together as a family of faith and inviting our brothers and sisters in Christ. We do this to help offer alms and free those who are in danger of denying their faith. No greater deed could possibly be done or imagined than this. It is with profound joy we do this charitable and redemptive work. All for the glory of God and the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy".

Father Joseph Eddy of St Petersburg, along with many other friars, did much in preparation for this joyous celebration.

Please pray for the Mercedarian Religious Order in all of their endeavors to bring the Lord and his love and mercy to all they meet.

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