SEVEN FOUNDERS OF THE ORDER OF THE SERVANTS OF MARY, saints. — The precise date of their birth is unknown. Their names, preserved in a list by the historian of the Order Paolo Attavanti (1468), are those of Bonusfilius, Bartholomaeus, Iohannes, Benedictus, Gerardinus, Ricoverus, Alexius; later (16th–17th century) it was believed that their names could be established as follows: Buonfiglio Monaldi, Giovanni di Buonagiunta, Manetto dell’Antella, Amedeo degli Amedei, Ugo di Uguccione, Sostegno de’ Sostegni, Alessio Falconieri. They were all Florentine merchants and lived religiously in the world, each in the state proper to him, whether celibate, married, or widowed.
Because of the great devotion they felt toward the Mother of God, they enrolled in the Company (later called the Major Company) of s. Maria, already very flourishing in their city at that time; there they had the opportunity to meet one another and to bind themselves together by bonds of holy friendship. The author of the Legenda de origine Ordinis Servorum Sanctae Mariae, writing immediately after the death of s. Alessio, the last survivor of the Seven, calls them exceptionally devoted to Our Lady, from whom they received the vocation to abandon the world and withdraw to an eremitical life on Monte Senario, not far from Florence. In 1240 they descended to Florence, and according to tradition this occurred following a vision of the Virgin, in order to discuss with Bishop Ardingo a first rudimentary organization of the new religious family (v. SERVI DI MARIA). Their good spirit having been attested by the Dominican s. Pietro Martire, who was in Florence in 1245, the Seven and their companions, scattered here and there especially throughout Tuscany, led a predominantly eremitical life until about 1250. Then, when some of them descended to Florence to found there a new convent dedicated to Our Lady, they began to emphasize its cenobitic and apostolic character, which subsequently, especially through the activity of s. Alessio and of his contemporary and beloved disciple s. Filippo Benizi, eventually prevailed (1267–85). Since, however, the Servants of Mary in many places in fact lived on alms, not a few believed that the Order had been suppressed by the Second Council of Lyons (1274), although it was evident that the institution had been equivalently approved several times by the popes as early as 1256 and 1263. S. Alessio (who died in 1310 at the age of 120) was able to witness the complete triumph of the new religious family, with the definitive papal approval of the Order (11 February 1304), which was subsequently included among, and received the privileges of, the mendicant Orders.
They are known to have been venerated with collective worship as early as the 14th century, but only the cult of S. Alessio was confirmed ab immemorabili on 1 December 1717 as that of a blessed, and that of the other six on 30 July 1725 (cf. Benedetto XIV, De Servorum Dei beatificatione, lib. II, XXIV, nn. 143–45, 161–66 and lib. IV, part 2ª, XVIII, n. 15). Subsequently, however, as a result of new miracles obtained through their collective invocation in the final decades of the 19th century, Pope Leo XIII canonized them on 15 January 1888. Feast on 12 February.