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Santa Casa de Misericórdia (Chinese: 仁慈堂; English: Holy House of Mercy) is a Portuguese charity founded in Lisbon in 1498 by Queen Leonor of Portugal. It is located in Sé, Macau, China.
It declares itself to be a Catholic lay brotherhood and to work through 14 Works of Mercy, seven of a spiritual nature: to teach the humble, to give good advice, to punish those who do wrong, to console the sad, to pardon offenses, to suffer patiently, to pray for the living and for the deceased; and seven of a corporeal nature: to visit the ill and imprisoned, to free captives, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry and thirsty, to shelter travelers and to bury the dead. It is currently the oldest working NGO in the world, if not the first. It isn't supervised by the Church or the State.
After the Lisbon Santa Casa da Misericóridia de Lisboa, similar organizations were created in many other cities and towns of Portugal and of the former Portuguese Empire, like in Brazil, Macau and even in Nagasaki, Japan.