February 17th, The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order.

These were seven men of well-to-do Florence families, who in the 13th. century were impelled by the corrupt state of the city to form a Confraternity and later the Order of Friars known as the Servants of Mary or the Servites. They lived outside the city as hermits on Monte Senario and initially had no intention of allowing others to join them, though they were eventually persuaded to change their minds. The Servites were then established, as an Order of friars rather than of monks, and various houses of the Order were set up, at first all in Italy. They did not arrive in England until the 19th. century. The Servites were instrumental in spreading the devotion to the Seven Sorrows of our Lady. Their principal church is the Annunziata in Florence. The last surviving of the ten original founders was St. Alexis Falconieri, who remained a lay-brother of the Order throughout his life. The seven founders were canonised in 1887.