Our Lady appeared in Florence to seven noble, wealthy, upright men and recommended that they embrace a more perfect life. They founded the “Order of the Servants of Mary”, whose members are called Servites.
Newsroom (22/02/2024 14:24, Gaudium Press) On the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – August 15 – in 1233, the Virgin appeared in Florence to seven noble, wealthy, upright men and recommended that they embrace a more perfect life.
Some were single, others married or widowed. Heeding the advice of Mary Most Holy, and with the approval of the Bishop of the city, they gave up everything they owned and began to wear sackcloth and worn-out habits.
On the feast of the Birth of the Mother of God, September 8, they settled in a place near Florence, leading a life of prayer and sacrifice, with ardent devotion to Our Lady.
Shortly afterwards, they began to wander the streets, begging from door to door. At one point, some children – including St. Philip Benicio, who was only five months old – acclaimed them as servants of the Blessed Virgin. Later, they founded the “Order of the Servants of Mary”, whose members are called Servites.
One heart and one soul
St. Philip Benicio came from a noble family and studied philosophy at the University of Paris and medicine at Padua. He became a Servite and was elected Superior of the Order in 1267.
After the death of Clement IV, during the long conclave of Viterbo in 1269, the cardinals wanted to elect him Pope, but he refused and Blessed Gregory X was chosen.
The seven Founders moved to the slopes of Mount Senario, near Florence, and lived there in caves.
On Good Friday, Our Lady appeared to them and recommended that they wear a black habit, adding that the new Order should pay special homage to the sorrows she suffered at the foot of Calvary.
The Servites built an Oratory in the place where they lived, expanded greatly and received the enthusiastic support of St. Peter of Verona, Inquisitor of Lombardy – Northern Italy.
In 1888, Leo XIII canonized them together, and their memory is celebrated on February 17, the day on which the last of them, already a centenarian, died in 1310.
On Mount Senario, a single tomb held the remains of these men of God, who were so united that they had become one heart and one soul.
Index of spiritual health and high civilization
About the seven Founders, Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira made comments that we summarize below.
“In this narration, there are several magnificent facts as an index of spiritual health, of virtue, of high civilization, which used to occur, but no longer do in our days, which indicates the deep putrefaction in which the modern world finds itself. […]
“This is one of the oldest Orders specially founded to spread devotion to Our Lady. It is very beautiful that they bear the title of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
As is evident, this title foreshadows St. Louis Grignion de Montfort’s devotion of slavery to Our Lady, with a complete divestment of all present, past and future goods, including spiritual goods, which are the merits of our good works, placed in the hands of Mary Most Holy.[1]
St. Peter of Verona, Counselor of the Servites
Here are a few facts about St. Peter of Verona – a priest in the north-east of Italy – who helped the Servites a lot.
His parents were Cathars, but they allowed him to study at a Catholic school, to which he was converted as a teenager. Due to his outstanding intellectual capacity, he entered the University of Bologna, was ordained a priest, became a Dominican and received the habit from the hands of St. Dominic de Gusmao.
A great orator, he preached throughout northern Italy, strengthening Catholics and denouncing heresy. In Florence, he was an advisor to the Servite Order.
In 1252, while he was on his way to Milan, a man paid by a heretical bishop murdered him. Eleven months after his death, he was canonized by Innocent IV, and his memory is celebrated on April 6.
It’s important to note that St. Peter of Verona was an inquisitor. There were other saints who also held this office, such as Saint Raymond of Peñafort, Superior of the Order of Preachers, and Pope Saint Pius V.
The latter encouraged and organized the war against the Mohammedan Turks who were threatening to conquer Europe, and who were defeated miserably at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.
Christendom: family of Christian nations
Daniel-Rops, a member of the French Academy, says: “The Inquisition was, in the exact sense of the term, a tribunal for the public salvation of Christendom.”[2]
Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira explains what medieval Christendom was.
In the Middle Ages, Europe, homogeneously Catholic, formed a family of nations under the vigorous and constant spiritual direction of the Popes, and the more or less effective temporal presidency, and more or less honorific, of the emperors of the Holy German Roman Empire. This was Christendom.
“Theoretically, and often also in practice, this family of nations constituted a single block to defend Christian civilization against the Mohammedans, or against the barbarians who infested the eastern frontiers of Christendom.”[3]
“It is interesting to note how there is a sweetness in the word Christendom, a certain majestic, serene and unparalleled softness.”[4]
Investing against the Church and Christendom, there were heresies that preached doctrines advocating, for example, social egalitarianism and the abolition of the family. In Germany, the Gnostic sect of the Luciferians worshipped Satan.
As well as promoting the perdition of souls, these heresies were an attack on the state itself. Therefore, many sovereigns requested the Church’s help to combat them.
In 1231, Pope Gregory IX instituted the “Permanent Tribunals to fight heresy”, entrusted to the Dominicans and Franciscans. It was the monastic inquisition. Those accused of heresy had the right to be assisted by defense lawyers.
Pope Innocent IV – pontificate from 1243 to 1254 – established the jury, composed of “Catholics known for the purity of their faith and who were to be the guarantors of ecclesiastical justice. (…) The jury therefore existed five hundred years before 1789 – the year in which the French Revolution broke out – alongside the courts of the Inquisition.”[5]
At that time in history, the civil courts sentenced criminals to terrible punishments. “The Inquisition court was the most equitable of the courts, marking real progress in criminal law.”[6]
By Paulo Francisco Martos
Notions of Church History
[1] CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Senso hierárquico e contrarrevolucionário, In Dr. Plinio. São Paulo. Ano XXV, n. 287 (February 2022), p. 28, 30.
[2] DANIEL-ROPS, Henri. The Church of Cathedrals and Crusades. São Paulo: Quadrante. 1993, v. III, p. 6605.
[3] CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Catolicismo. Campos dos Goitacazes, June 1954.
[4] Idem. Cristandade, a chave de prata do papado. In Dr. Plinio. Ano II, n. 18 (September 1999), p. 21
[5] DANIEL-ROPS, op. cit., v. III, p. 611.
[6] VILLOSLADA, Ricardo Garcia. History of the Catholic Church – Middle Ages. 3. ed. Madrid: BAC. 1963, v. II, p. 759.
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
