The Seven Holy Founders of the Order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary
February 12, 2025
According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite this feast is celebrated on February 12.
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 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, they witnessed a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary advising them to withdraw from the world and devote themselves entirely to eternal things. They followed this advice, 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.
Mary said to them: "Beloved and elect Servants, I have come to grant your prayers. Here is the habit which I wish you to wear henceforth. It is black that it may always remind you of the keen sorrows which I experienced through my Son's Crucifixion and Death. This scroll bearing the words 'Servants of Mary' indicates the name by which you are to be known. This book contains the Rule of St. Augustine. By following it you will gain these palms in Heaven, if you serve me faithfully on earth!"1
In the new Calendar, this Feast Day appears to be listed as an optional memorial celebrated on February 17.
Optional Memorial of Seven Founders of the Order of Servites
https://www.salvemariaregina.info/SalveMariaRegina/SMR-101.html