The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order

In the early thirteenth century, seven men of Florence, prosperous merchants who belonged to a lay confraternity devoted to the Virgin Mary, decided to leave their businesses and families' wealth to live in poverty and prayer. According to the Order's tradition, they began this new life in 1233 on a feast of the Assumption, and later withdrew to Monte Senario, a mountain outside the city.

There they lived as hermits, devoting themselves to penance and to Mary, especially in her sorrows at the foot of the Cross. Others came to join them, and they founded the Order of the Servants of Mary, the Servites, which received papal approval in 1304. One of them, Alexis Falconieri, lived to about 110 and died in 1310. The seven were canonized together by Pope Leo XIII in 1888: Bonfilius, Alexis, Manettus, Amideus, Hugh, Sostene and Buonagiunta.

The Servites spread devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows and the Seven Sorrows Rosary, and their friars and sisters serve in Italy, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, the United States and many other countries.

In Chicago, the National Shrine of Our Sorrowful Mother is a Servite church that draws many pilgrims, and Monte Senario near Florence remains a place of retreat.