02:11
Irapuato
134.4K
Feb. 17 The Seven Servite Founders. breski1 | February 19, 2010 The Servite Order is one of the five original Catholic mendicant orders. Its objects are the sanctification of its members, preaching …More
Feb. 17 The Seven Servite Founders.

breski1 | February 19, 2010 The Servite Order is one of the five original Catholic mendicant orders. Its objects are the sanctification of its members, preaching the Gospel, and the propagation of devotion to the Mother of God, with special reference to her sorrows. The members of the Order use O.S.M. (for Ordo Servorum Beatae Mariae Virginis) as their post-nominal letters. The male members are known as Servite Friars or Servants of Mary.
Irapuato shares this
1117
February 17 - The Seven Servite Founders
Irapuato
Irapuato
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
DAILY PRAYER WITH REGNUM CHRISTI
CAN CHRIST COUNT ON ME?
February 17, 2011
Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Mark 8:27-33
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea
Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say
that I am?" And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others,
Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." He asked …More
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
DAILY PRAYER WITH REGNUM CHRISTI
CAN CHRIST COUNT ON ME?
February 17, 2011
Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Mark 8:27-33
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea
Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say
that I am?" And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others,
Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." He asked them, "But
who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the
Messiah." And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great
suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the
scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all
this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said,
"Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine
things but on human things."
Introductory Prayer: Lord, reveal to me the awesome mystery of your
person. In you is hidden my beginning; in you is hidden the mission
for my life; in you is hidden my future happiness. Let me not
measure the future by what I think I can do for you, but rather by
what your power can do with my generosity. May this prayer convince
me of the necessity of welcoming you daily through prayer,
contemplation, and a sacramental life of grace and conversion.
Petition: Lord, grant me an experience of you strong enough to
overcome all spiritual laziness and tepidity.
1. Who Has Christ Been for You? Our prayer must lead us to respond
to Christ's question, "Who do you say that I am?" This is the only
test, the only examination question we need to pass in life. We must
reflect and respond to the question from this perspective: "Who has
Christ been for you?" This question does not so much define Christ,
but the one who answers it. What experiences have we had of him?
What have we been learning about Christ personally, through
experiences that we cannot have known by solemn definitions, by
routine external piety or by what others say? Christ's history and
our personal history must intertwine to become a single chapter which
we both share.
2. Who Have You Been for Christ? If I have little to say as far as
my firsthand knowledge of Jesus, if my interior experiences have been
eclipsed by a mundane and materialistic spirit, I must take Christ's
question to the next level: "Who have I been for Christ?" Who I have
been for Christ will be determined largely by who I have been for him
in prayer. The "inner Christ" is known only by those to whom it is
revealed. It will not happen by a merely flesh-and-blood approach,
nor by just going with the flow of human events. Peter's interior
life was fertile ground for the Father. His testimony was not luck,
but was a divine intervention in his soul from which his faith drew
its strength. "For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but
my Father in heaven" (Matthew 16:17). May I seek in a special way the
grace of greater sensitivity to let my interior life of prayer define
me and shape my character.
3. Can Christ Count on Me? Poor Peter! In one moment he is
revealing the thoughts of the Father, in the next, Satan's. Peter's
living experience of Christ is the target of Satan's attempts to
break his faith. Christ's suffering will be the pledge that the
faith of the apostle will not fail: "I have prayed for you..." (Luke
22:32). Ultimately Christ's prayer would prevail: Peter is reborn on
Pentecost, fearlessly accepting and launching the mission of the
Church. A strong interior foundation in Christ ultimately leads to
one last reality check of the spiritual life: Can Christ build on me
because I am built on him? Christ's fidelity will uphold me if I stay
in the battle, if I hold firm and don't let the reality of my falls
keep me from advancing. Satan cannot break my faith if I keep
fighting, and for this I always have to have new goals, to begin
fresher, better and more generously than before.
Conversation with Christ: Lord, according to the riches of your
glory, grant that I may be strengthened in my inner being with power
through your Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in my heart through
faith. Being rooted and grounded in love, I pray that I may have the
power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and
length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that
surpasses knowledge, so that I may be filled with all the fullness
of you. (Cf. Ephesians 3:16-20)
Resolution: I will spend some time before our Lord in the Eucharist
today, asking that he deepen my experience of him.
meditation.regnumchristi.org
2 more comments from Irapuato
Irapuato
The city of Florence bore the seven youths who formed the nucleus of the order: Buonfiglio dei Monaldi (Bonfilius), Giovanni di Buonagiunta (Bonajuncta), Amadeus of the Amidei (Bartolomeus), Ricovero dei Lippi-Ugguccioni (Hugh), Benedetto dell' Antella (Manettus), Gherardino di Sostegno (Sostene), and Alessio de' Falconieri (Alexius); they belonged to seven patrician families of that city, and had …More
The city of Florence bore the seven youths who formed the nucleus of the order: Buonfiglio dei Monaldi (Bonfilius), Giovanni di Buonagiunta (Bonajuncta), Amadeus of the Amidei (Bartolomeus), Ricovero dei Lippi-Ugguccioni (Hugh), Benedetto dell' Antella (Manettus), Gherardino di Sostegno (Sostene), and Alessio de' Falconieri (Alexius); they belonged to seven patrician families of that city, and had early formed a confraternity of laymen, known as the Laudesi, or Praisers of Mary. They are also known as the Seven Holy Founders.
While engaged in the exercises of the confraternity on the feast of the Assumption, 1233, the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to them, advising them to withdraw from the world and devote themselves entirely to eternal things. They obeyed, and established themselves close to the convent of the Friars Minor at La Camarzia, a suburb of Florence. Desiring stricter seclusion than that offered at La Camarzia, they withdrew to Monte Senario, eleven miles north of Florence. Here the Blessed Virgin again appeared to them, conferred on them a black habit, instructed them to follow the Rule of St. Augustine and to found the order of her servants (April 15, 1240). The brethren elected a superior, took the vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty, and admitted associates.

Servite church in Innsbruck, Austria
In 1243, Saint Peter of Verona (St. Peter Martyr), Inquisitor-General of Italy, recommended the new foundation to the pope, but it was not until March 13, 1249, that the first official approval of the order was obtained from Cardinal Raniero Capocci, papal legate in Tuscany. About this time St. Bonfilius obtained permission to found the first branch of the order at Cafaggio outside the walls of Florence. Two years later (October 2, 1251) Pope Innocent IV appointed Cardinal Guglielmo Fieschi first protector of the order.
The next pontiff, Pope Alexander IV, favored a plan for the amalgamation of all institutes following the Rule of St. Augustine. This was accomplished in March 1256, and about the same time a Rescript was issued confirming the Order of the Servites as a separate body with power to elect a general. Four years later a general chapter was convened at which the order was divided into two provinces, Tuscany and Umbria, the former of which St. Manettus directed, while the latter was given into the care of St. Sostene. Within five years two new provinces were added, namely, Romagna and Lombardy.
Suppression and expansion
After St. Philip Benizi was elected general of the order on June 5, 1267, which had long been the object of unjust attack from jealous enemies, entered into the crisis of its existence. The Second Council of Lyons in 1274 put into execution the ordinance of the Fourth Lateran Council, forbidding the foundation of new religious orders, and absolutely suppressed all mendicant institutions not yet approved by the Holy See. The aggressors renewed their assaults, and in the year 1276 Pope Innocent V in a letter to St. Philip declared the order suppressed. St. Philip proceeded to Rome, but before his arrival there Innocent V had died. His successor lived but five weeks. Finally Pope John XXI, on the favourable opinion of three consistorial advocates, decided that the order should continue as before. The former dangers reappeared under Pope Martin V (1281), and though other popes continued to favour the order, it was not definitively approved until Pope Benedict XI issued the Bull "Dum levamus" (February 11, 1304). Of the seven founders, St. Alexis alone lived to see their foundation raised to the dignity of an order. He died in 1310.
We must here make mention of St. Peregrine Laziosi (Latiosi), whose sanctity of life did much towards increasing the repute of the Servite Order in Italy. Born at Forlì in 1265, the son of a Ghibelline leader, Peregrine, in his youth, bitterly hated the Church. He insulted and struck Philip Benizi, who, at the request of Martin V, had gone to preach peace to the Forlivese. Peregrine's generous nature was immediately aroused by the mildness with which St. Philip received the attack and he begged the saint's forgiveness. In 1283 he was received into the order, and so great was his humility it was only after much persuasion he consented to be ordained a priest. He founded a monastery in his native Forlì, where he devoted all his energies to the restoration of peace. His humility and patience were so great that he was called by his people a second Job. He died in 1345. His body remains incorrupt to the present day. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726, and his feast is celebrated on April 30.
Pope Boniface IX granted the Servites the power to confer theological degrees on January 30, 1398, and the order established the Marianum in Rome.[1]
The new foundation enjoyed considerable growth in the following decades. Even in the thirteenth century there were houses of the order in Germany, France, and Spain. Early in the fourteenth century the order had more than one hundred convents including branch houses in Hungary, Bohemia, Austria, Poland, and Belgium; there were also missions in Crete, the Philippines (St. Peregrine-Philippine Vicariate) and India.
The disturbances during the Protestant Reformation caused the loss of many Servite convents in Germany, but in the south of France the order met with much success. The Convent of Santa Maria in Via (1563) was the second house of the order established in Rome; San Marcello al Corso had been founded in 1369. Early in the eighteenth century the order sustained losses and confiscations from which it has scarcely yet recovered. The flourishing Province of Narbonne was almost totally destroyed by the plague which swept Marseilles in 1720. In 1783 the Servites were expelled from Prague and in 1785 Emperor Joseph II desecrated the shrine of Maria Waldrast. Ten monasteries were suppressed in Spain in 1835. A new foundation was made at Brussels in 1891.
After the Risorgimento in 1870, the government of Italy closed the Marianum along with many other papal institutions. The institute was re-founded as the College of Sant Alessio Falcioneri in 1895.
England and America
At this period the order was introduced into England and America chiefly through the efforts of Fathers Bosio and Morini. The latter, having gone to London (1864) as director of the affiliated Sisters of Compassion, obtained charge of a parish from Archbishop Manning in 1867. His work prospered: besides St. Mary's Priory at London, convents were opened at Bognor Regis (1882) and Begbroke (1886). In 1870 Fathers Morini, Ventura, Giribaldi, and Brother Joseph Camera, at the request of Bishop Joseph Melcher of Green Bay, Wisconsin, took up a mission in America, at Neenah. Father Morini founded at Chicago (1874) the monastery of Our Lady of Sorrows. A novitiate was opened at Granville, Wisconsin, in 1892. The American province was formally established in 1908.
In 1910 the order numbered 700 members in 62 monasteries, of which 36 were in Italy, 17 in Austria-Hungary, 4 in England, 4 in North America (at Chicago, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Superior); and Denver, Colorado), and 1 in Brussels, Belgium.
Twentieth century
The order continued to expand geographically throughout the twentieth century, taking responsibility for missions in Swaziland in 1913, Acre in Brazil in 1919, Aisén, Chile in 1937, and Zululand in South Africa. It also made foundations in Argentina from 1914 and more solidly since 1921; Transvaal in South Africa since 1935, Uruguay 1939, Bolivia 1946, Mexico 1948, Australia 1951, Venezuela 1952, Colombia 1953, India 1974, Mozambique 1984, Philippines 1985, Uganda, Albania 1993, and also the refoundations in Hungary (Eger) and the Czech Republic.[2]
Pope Pius XII, through the Congregation of Seminaries and Universities, elevated the Marianum to a pontifical theological faculty on 30 November 1950.[1]
After the Second Vatican Council, the order renewed its Constitutions starting with its 1968 general chapter at Majadahonda, Madrid, a process which was concluded in 1987. In the same year, Prior General Michael M. Sincerny oversaw the creation of the International Union of the Servite Family (UNIFAS).[2]
The twentieth century also saw the beatification (1952) and the canonization of Friar Antonio Maria Pucci, the canonization of Clelia Barbieri (d. 1870), foundress of the Minime dell’Addolorata, the beatification of Ferdinando M. Baccilieri of the Servite Secular Order (1997), and the canonization of Sr. Maria Guadalupe Ricart Olmos (2001), a Spanish cloistered nun who was martyred during the Spanish Civil War.
Devotions, manner of life

Ceiling in the Servite mother church, Santissima Annunziata, Florence
In common with all religious orders strictly so called, the Servites make solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The particular object of the order is to sanctify first its own members, and then all men through devotion to the Mother of God, especially in her desolation during the Passion of her Divine Son.
The Servites give missions, have the care of souls, or teach in higher institutions of learning. The Rosary of the Seven Dolors is one of their devotions, as is also the Via Matris.
The fasts of the order are Advent, Lent, and the vigils of certain feasts.
All offices in the order are elective and continue for three years, except that of general and assistant-generals which are for six years.
Canonized Servite saints are: St. Philip Benizi (feast day on August 23), St. Peregrine Latiosi (April 30), St. Juliana Falconieri (June 19). The seven founders of the order were canonized in 1888, and have a common feast day on 17 February. The date first assigned to this feast day was 11 February, the anniversary of the canonical approval of the order in 1304. In 1907 this date was assigned to the celebration of Our Lady of Lourdes and the feast day of the Seven Holy Founders was moved to 12 February. In accordance with liturgical tradition, the date was changed in 1969 to the anniversary of the death of one of them, Alexis Falconieri, which occurred on 17 February 1310.[3]
Affiliated associations
Connected with the first order of men are the cloistered nuns of the second order, which originated with converts of St. Philip Benizi. These sisters have monasteries in Spain, Italy, England, the Tyrol, and Germany.
The Mantellate, a third order of women founded by Juliana Falconieri, have houses in Italy, France, Spain, England, and Canada. In the United States they are to be found in the dioceses of Sioux City, Omaha, and Belville.
There is also a third order for seculars, as well as a confraternity of the Seven Dolours, branches of which may be erected in any church.
Mariology and the Marianum
The Pontifical institute Marianum which is now one of the leading centers of Mariology traces its roots to the Servite Order. In 1398 Pope Boniface IX, granted the order the right to confer theological degrees and in 1895 the school reopened under the name Sant Alessio Falcioneri.
In 1939 Father Gabriel Roschini OSM founded the journal Marianum and directed it for thirty years. In 1950, he founded the Marianum Theological Faculty, which, on December 8, 1955 became a Pontifical faculty by Decree Coelesti Honorandae Reginae of the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities under the authority of Pope Pius XII.[4]
Servites of distinction
A few of the most distinguished members are here grouped under the heading of that particular subject to which they were especially devoted; the dates are those of their death. Ten members have been canonized and several beatified.
Sacred Scripture:
Angelus Torsani (1562?);
Felicianus Capitoni (1577), who wrote an explanation of all the passages misinterpreted by Martin Luther;
Jerome Quaini (1583);
Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli(1600), commentary in 5 vols.;
James Tavanti (1607), whose "Ager Dominicus" comprises 25 vols.;
Julius Anthony Roboredo (1728).
Theology:
Laurence Optimus (1380), "Commentarium in Magistrum Sententiarum"; Ambrose Spiera (1454); Marian Salvini (1476); Jerome Amidei (1543); Laurence Mazzocchi (1560); Gherardus Baldi (1660), who was styled by his contemporaries "eminens inter theologos"; Amideus Chiroli (1700?), celebrated for his "Lumina fidei divinae"; Julius Arrighetti (1705); Callixtus Lodigerius (1710); Gerard Capassi (1737), who Benedict XIV called the most learned man of his day; Mark Struggl (1761); Caesar Sguanin (1769) ; Gabriel Roschini (1924).
Canon Law: Paul Attavanti (1499), "Breviarium totius juris canonici"; Dominic Brancaccini (1689), "De jure doctoratus"; Paolo Canciani (1795?), "Barbarorum leges antiquae"; Theodore Rupprecht, eighteenth-century jurist; Bonfilius Mura (1882), prefect of La Sapienza before 1870.
Philosophy and Mathematics: Urbanus Averroista, commentator of Averroes; Andrew Zaini (1423); Paul Albertini (1475), better known as Paolo Veneto; Philip Mucagatta (1511); John Baptist Drusiani (1656), the "Italian Archimedes"; Benedict Canali (1745); Raymond Adami (1792); Angelus Ventura (1738).
History and Hagiography. James Philip Landrofilo (1528); Octavian Bagatti (1566); Raphael Maffei (1577); Paolo Sarpi (1623);Archangelus Giani (1623); Philip Ferrari (1626); Archangelus Garbi (1722); Placidus Bonfrizieri (1732); Joseph Damiani (1842); Austin M. Morini (1910).
Music: Alexander Mellino (1554), choirmaster at the Vatican; Elias Zoto, John Philip Dreyer (1772); Paul Bonfichi, who received a pension from Napoleon I Bonaparte for his musical compositions
Poets: Ambrose of Racconigi, Cornelius Candidus, Jilis of Milan, Germanus Sardus
Plastic arts; Arsenius Mascagni and Gabriel Mattei, painters; Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli(Angelus Montursius) (1563), architect and sculptor, among whose works are the Neptune of Messina, the arm of Laocoon in the Vatican, and the Angels on the Ponte Sant' Angelo.
See also
Annunciade
Servites of the Immaculate Conception & Sister Servites of the Immaculate Conception
Servite Rite
Servite College in Perth, Australia
Servite High School in Anaheim, California, U.S.A.
Collège Notre-Dame des Servites in Ayer's Cliff, Quebec, Canada
Gallery of Servite churches

Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica, Chicago, 1874

Santa Maria dei Servi, Bologna, Italy

Chiesa dei Servi, Venice, Italy

San Carlo al Corso (Milan), Italy

Basilica Santuario della Beata Vergine delle Grazie, Udine, Italy
See also
Our Lady of Sorrows
References
^ a b "The Marianum Pontifical Theological Faculty". www.servidimaria.org/…/promotori2.htm.
^ a b "A Brief History of the Servite Order: From the Canonization of the Holy Founders 1888 to 2000". www.servidimaria.org/en/storia/canonizzazione.htm.
^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), pp. 88 and 117
^ Annuario Pontificio 2005, p. 1905
External links
Official site of Servite Order
Catholic Encyclopedia article
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servite_Order
Irapuato
Seven Founders of the Order of Servites(13th century) Can you imagine seven prominent men of Boston or Denver banding together, leaving their homes and professions, and going into solitude for a life directly given to God? That is what happened in the cultured and prosperous city of Florence in the middle of the thirteenth century. The city was torn with political strife as well as the heresy of …More
Seven Founders of the Order of Servites(13th century) Can you imagine seven prominent men of Boston or Denver banding together, leaving their homes and professions, and going into solitude for a life directly given to God? That is what happened in the cultured and prosperous city of Florence in the middle of the thirteenth century. The city was torn with political strife as well as the heresy of the Cathari, who believed that physical reality was inherently evil. Morals were low and religion seemed meaningless. In 1240 seven noblemen of Florence mutually decided to withdraw from the city to a solitary place for prayer and direct service of God. Their initial difficulty was providing for their dependents, since two were still married and two were widowers. Their aim was to lead a life of penance and prayer, but they soon found themselves disturbed by constant visitors from Florence. They next withdrew to the deserted slopes of Monte Senario. In 1244, under the direction of St. Peter of Verona, O.P., this small group adopted a religious habit similar to the Dominican habit, choosing to live under the Rule of St. Augustine and adopting the name of the Servants of Mary. The new Order took a form more like that of the mendicant friars than that of the older monastic Orders. Members of the community came to the United States from Austria in 1852 and settled in New York and later in Philadelphia. The two American provinces developed from the foundation made by Father Austin Morini in 1870 in Wisconsin. Community members combined monastic life and active ministry. In the monastery, they led a life of prayer, work and silence while in the active apostolate they engaged in parochial work, teaching, preaching and other ministerial activities. Comment: The time in which the seven Servite founders lived is very easily comparable to the situation in which we find ourselves today. It is “the best of times and the worst of times,” as Dickens said. Some, perhaps many, feel called to a countercultural life, even in religion. All of us are faced in a new and urgent way with the challenge to make our lives decisively centered in Christ. Quote: “Let all religious therefore spread throughout the whole world the good news of Christ by the integrity of their faith, their love for God and neighbor, their devotion to the Cross and their hope of future glory.... Thus, too, with the prayerful aid of that most loving Virgin Mary, God’s Mother, ‘Whose life is a rule of life for all,’ religious communities will experience a daily growth in number, and will yield a richer harvest of fruits that bring salvation” (Decree on the Renewal of Religious Life, 25). www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx