Brothers of Mercy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

The institute was founded at Mechlin (Flanders, capital of the ecclesiastical province coinciding with Belgium) in 1839 by Canon Victor Scheppers (1802 - 1877) for the instruction and care of prisoners and of the sick.

They were invited to S. Balbina in Perugia by Cardinal Pecci, afterwards Leo XIII, who had witnessed their work while he was nuncio in Belgium at Brussels.

[1] A few years before, Xavier de Mérode had been appointed to a papal office which entailed the direction of the Roman prisons.

Historians have documented Mérode's efforts to improve the penitentiary system in Rome.

[2] In 1855 Cardinal Manning invited them to London, where they have undertaken the care of the prisoners in Catholic reformatories and the education of the children of the poor.