Joan Gilabert Jofré

Joan Gilabert Jofré (1350–1417), 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, he will be influenced by the hospital sidi fredj of Fez in Morocco , in Valencia, Crown of Aragon (today in Spain).

Pare Jofré was born in Valencia on 24 June 1350. He studied law in Lleida, before returning 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. 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 canonisation as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

For main article see Order of Mercy

The Order of Mercy, founded in 1218, was one of numerous popular institutions concerned with charitable works and motivated by religious piety that were established throughout Europe during the 12th and 13th century. 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 an 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. The Constitutiones were modelled on the constitutions of the major orders of preaching friars. The friars of the order were required to preach and collect alms for a redemption fund, to be used only for redeeming captives. Initially the Order's work was carried out in Valencia and the Balearic Islands, because of their proximity, but as the Spanish Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula proceeded, captives were redeemed from slavery further afield, in Andalusia and North Africa.

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