Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order

The 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia says Florence gave the Church "the seven youths who formed the nucleus of the order," and that they came from seven patrician families of the city. ¹ Vatican News calls them merchants, and Franciscan Media calls them noblemen. ³⁴ All three agree they were prosperous men of a rich city. Franciscan Media describes a Florence "torn with political strife" and troubled by the Cathar heresy, and Vatican News speaks of its "fratricidal conflicts." ³⁴

Vatican News gives their names as Bonfilius Monaldi, the leader of the group; Bonajunta Manetti, later prior; Manettus dell'Antella, who made the first foundations in France; Amideus Amidei; Sosthenes Sostegni; Hugh Uguccioni; and Alexis Falconieri. ⁴ The encyclopedia gives the same seven in a fuller and older form of their names. ¹

They already belonged to a lay confraternity in honor of the Virgin, the Laudesi, or Praisers of Mary. ¹⁴ Franciscan Media points out what leaving would cost: two of them were still married and two were widowers, and they first had to provide for the people who depended on them. ³

The sources date the break differently. The encyclopedia says that on the feast of the Assumption in 1233, while they were at the exercises of the confraternity, the Virgin appeared to them and advised them to withdraw from the world. ¹² Vatican News also puts it in 1233, and says they gave up their trade, left their homes and gave their goods to the poor. ⁴ Franciscan Media dates the decision to 1240. ³

Their first home was a house at La Camarzia, on the edge of Florence near the Franciscans. ¹² Vatican News says their chaplain, Iacopo da Poggibonsi, dressed them in the gray tunic and cloak of the Brothers of Penance, and that they spent their days praying, working and begging in the streets. ⁴ People came to them for advice and consolation, struck that men who had been rich had made themselves poor, and some asked to join. ⁴ Franciscan Media says the visitors from the city became a constant disturbance. ³

So they moved up to Monte Senario, which the encyclopedia puts eleven miles north of Florence. ¹³ Vatican News says Bishop Ardingo Foraboschi gave them land on the summit in 1234, that they lived at first in huts, and that they later built a small church to Mary on the ruins of an old castle. ⁴

How they became a religious order is told three ways. The encyclopedia says the Virgin appeared to them again on Monte Senario, gave them a black habit, told them to follow the Rule of Saint Augustine and to found the order of her servants, on April 15, 1240. ¹ Vatican News says the Rule of Saint Augustine was assigned to them in 1239, after a visit from the papal legate Goffredo Castiglioni. ⁴ Franciscan Media says that in 1244, under the direction of Peter of Verona, a Dominican, they took a habit like the Dominicans', the Rule of Saint Augustine and the name Servants of Mary. ³

The encyclopedia says Peter of Verona recommended them to the pope in 1243, and that the first official approval came on March 13, 1249, from the papal legate in Tuscany. ¹ Franciscan Media notes that the order took a shape closer to the mendicant friars than to the older monastic orders. ³ Its particular purpose, the encyclopedia says, was devotion to the Mother of God, "especially in her desolation during the Passion of her Divine Son." ¹

The order grew fast. Bonfilius was allowed to open a first house at Cafaggio, outside the walls of Florence, and the church there was finished in 1252 under the care of Alexis. ¹² The encyclopedia's article on Alexis says that within a few years ten thousand people had enrolled under the banner of the Virgin in the Servite Order. ² When the order was divided into provinces, Manettus took Tuscany and Sosthenes Umbria. ¹

The young order came close to being shut down. The encyclopedia says the Second Council of Lyons, in 1274, suppressed mendicant institutes the Holy See had not yet approved, and that in 1276 Innocent V declared the Servites suppressed. ¹ The general of the order, Philip Benizi, went to Rome; the pope died before he arrived, and his successor's successor, John XXI, decided the order should continue. ¹ Vatican News dates the council to 1247 and credits Philip Benizi with winning back papal recognition. ⁴

Definitive approval came in 1304, in the bull "Dum levamus," which Vatican News attributes to Benedict XI. ¹⁴ By then only one of the seven was alive. ¹⁴

Alexis was the son of Bernard Falconieri, whom the encyclopedia calls "a merchant prince of Florence" and a leader of the republic. ² After he left the world he went begging for his brothers in the streets where he had lately been a prominent citizen. ² He refused to be ordained a priest, thinking himself unworthy, and spent his life on the practical needs of his communities. ² His niece, Juliana Falconieri, was formed under his direction and became a saint and the foundress of the Mantellate Sisters. ²⁴

He died on Monte Senario on February 17, 1310. ² The encyclopedia gives his age as a hundred and ten; Vatican News says almost 110. ²⁴ The sources disagree, too, about where the founders lie. The encyclopedia says Alexis's body rests near the church of the Annunciation in Florence; Vatican News says a single tomb on Monte Senario holds the remains of all seven. ²⁴

Clement XI approved the veneration of Alexis in 1717 and of his six companions in 1725, and Leo XIII canonized the seven together in 1888. ²⁴

None of the sources consulted names a patronage for the Seven Holy Founders. ¹³⁴ They are remembered as the founders of the Servites, and Franciscan Media traces the order in the United States to friars who came from Austria in 1852 and settled in New York and later Philadelphia. ³

The feast of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order is February 17, as Franciscan Media and Vatican News both print it. ³⁴ Vatican News explains the date: it is the day the last of them died, Alexis Falconieri, in 1310. ²⁴

They did not leave Florence as young men with nothing to lose. Two were married and two were widowers, and the first problem they had to solve was who would provide for their families. ³ Vatican News says they gave their goods to the poor. ⁴

Nothing about them is individual. None of the sources consulted tells the story of one of them alone except Alexis, and what they remember of him is humility: begging in the streets of his own city and refusing to be ordained. ²⁴ They went together, prayed together and are kept together, on one day, with one feast. ³⁴

Their particular devotion was Mary at the foot of the cross, in what the encyclopedia calls "her desolation during the Passion." ¹ Franciscan Media compares their time to ours, a prosperous city full of conflict in which some felt called to a countercultural life. ³

The order they began nearly did not survive them, and the final approval came when six of the seven were dead. ¹⁴ Alexis lived to see it. ¹