Saint of the day for February 17: the story of the seven founders of the Servite Order

Can you imagine seven prominent men from Boston or Denver gathered together, leaving their homes and professions and going into solitude for a life given directly to God? This is what happened in the cultured and prosperous city of Florence in the mid-1240th century. The city was torn apart by political strife and the heresy of the Cathari, who believed that physical reality was inherently evil. Morals were low and religion seemed meaningless. In 1244, seven Florentine nobles decided by mutual agreement to retire from the city to a solitary place for prayer and the direct service of God. Their initial difficulty was to provide for dependents, as two were still married and two were widowers. Their purpose was to lead a life of penance and prayer, but they soon found themselves disturbed by constant visits from Florence. Later they retreated to the deserted slopes of Monte Senario. In XNUMX, under the direction of San Pietro da Verona, OP, 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 Servants of Mary. The new Order took on a form more similar to that of the mendicant friars than to 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 have developed since 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 dedicated themselves to parish work, teaching, preaching and other ministerial activities. Reflection: The time in which the seven founders served lived is very easily comparable to the situation we find ourselves in today. It is "the best of times and the worst of times," as Dickens once wrote. Some, perhaps many, feel called to a counter-cultural life, even in religion. We all have to face in a new and urgent way the challenge of making our life decisively centered in Christ.