Servant of God Joan Gilabert Jofré

Joan Gilabert Jofré (1364–1417), also known as Padre Jofré or Pare Jofré, was a member of the Christian religious Order of Mercy and the founder of what is claimed to be the first psychiatric care institution in Europe, in Valencia, Crown of Aragon, in medieval Spain. Joan Gilabert was born in Valencia on June 23, 1364. Having studied in Lleida, he returned to Valencia where he joined the Order of Mercy in 1370 and entered the Monastery of El Puig. He was ordained priest in 1375 and became a preacher. He eventually became Superior of the Order in Valencia. From 1391 he dedicated himself to the redemption of captives, for which he had royal privileges. A commitment to the poor led him to establish institutions to care for the mentally ill, abandoned children, and indigent pilgrims. After his death, he became a subject of religious veneration and he has been proposed for canonization as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. The Order of Mercy, founded in 1218, was one of the numerous popular institutions concerned with charitable works and motivated by religious piety that were established throughout Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries. The Order's founder, the Catalan Peter Nolasco, tutor to King James I of Aragón, had fought in the wars of the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula. The Kingdom of Aragón bordered on al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) and Peter Nolasco was aware of the plight of impoverished Christian captives in Muslim hands. Aristocrats and the wealthy were often able to negotiate and purchase their freedom but ordinary prisoners lacking the funds needed to obtain their release were condemned to indefinite slavery. Peter Nolasco dedicated the Order to the work of ransoming these ordinary captives. The 1327 Albertine Constitutiones in force at the time Pare Jofré joined the order, established religious worship - the Divine Office - and the redemption of Christian captives as the Order's ends and fundamental principles.