The Seven Holy Founders - Bonfilius, Alexis, Manetto, Amideo, Hugh, Sostene, and Buonagiunta - were noble merchants of Florence who, amidst the civic and spiritual turmoil of the 13th century, were united by a singular intervention of Divine Providence and a deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin. In the year 1233, inspired by a vision of Our Lady on the Feast of the Assumption, and renouncing their riches, families, and social positions, they withdrew first to the solitude of La Camarzia and later to Monte Senario, seeking a life of penance, contemplation, and evangelical poverty. There, they laid the foundations of the Order of Servants of Mary (Servites), adopting the Rule of Saint Augustine and dedicating themselves especially to the meditation on the Sorrows of Mary and the Passion of Christ. The community distinguished itself by a fraternal charity so perfect that they were said to have "one heart and one soul," living the evangelical promise of the hundredfold even on this earth through spiritual joy. The Order received definitive approval and spread rapidly throughout Europe, serving as a bulwark of faith and Marian devotion. The seven founders surrendered their souls to God on various dates between 1261 and 1310 - the year Saint Alexis Falconieri died, the last to depart, at 110 years of age - but they were canonized collectively by Pope Leo XIII in 1888, venerated together as a single body of sanctity, whose mortal remains rest in the same sepulcher at Monte Senario.
🎶 Introit
Justi decantavérunt, Dómine, nomen sanctum tuum, et victrícem manum tuam laudavérunt páriter: quóniam sapiéntia apéruit os mutum et linguas infántium fecit disértas. Ps. Dómine, Dóminus noster, quam admirábile est nomen tuum in univérsa terra!
The just have chanted Thy holy Name, O Lord, and have praised Thy victorious hand: because wisdom hath opened the mouth of the dumb, and made the tongues of infants eloquent. Ps. O Lord our Lord, how admirable is Thy Name in the whole earth!
✉️ Epistle
Laudémus viros gloriósos et paréntes nostros in generatióne sua. Multam glóriam fecit Dóminus magnificéntia sua a sǽculo. Dominántes in potestátibus suis, hómines magni virtúte et prudéntia sua prǽditi, nuntiántes in prophétis dignitátem prophetárum, et imperántes in præsénti pópulo, et virtúte prudéntiæ pópulis sanctíssima verba. In perítia sua requiréntes modos músicos, et narrántes cármina scripturárum. Hómines dívites in virtúte, pulchritúdinis stúdium habéntes: pacificántes in dómibus suis. Omnes isti in generatiónibus gentis suæ glóriam adépti sunt, et in diébus suis habéntur in láudibus. Qui de illis nati sunt, reliquérunt nomen narrándi laudes eórum. Et sunt, quorum non est memória: periérunt, quasi qui non fúerint: et nati sunt, quasi non nati, et fílii ipsórum cum ipsis. Sed illi viri misericórdiæ sunt, quorum pietátes non defuérunt: cum sémine eórum pérmanent bona, heréditas sancta nepótes eórum, et in testaméntis stetit semen eórum: et fílii eórum propter illos usque in ætérnum manent: semen eórum et glória eórum non derelinquétur. Córpora ipsórum in pace sepúlta sunt, et nomen eórum vivit in generatiónem et generatiónem. Sapiéntiam ipsórum narrent pópuli, et laudem eórum núntiet Ecclésia.
Let us now praise men of renown, and our fathers in their generation. The Lord hath wrought great glory through his magnificence from the beginning. Such as have borne rule in their dominions, men of great power, and endued with their wisdom, showing forth in the prophets the dignity of prophets, and ruling over the present people, and by the strength of wisdom instructing the people in most holy words. Such as by their skill sought out musical tunes, and published canticles of the scriptures. Rich men in virtue, studying beautifulness: living at peace in their houses. All these have gained glory in their generations, and were praised in their days. They that were born of them have left a name behind them, that their praises might be related. And there are some, of whom there is no memorial: who are perished, as if they had never been: and are become as if they had never been born, and their children with them. But these were men of mercy, whose godly deeds have not failed: good things continue with their seed, their posterity are a holy inheritance, and their seed hath stood in the covenants. And their children for their sakes remain for ever: their seed and their glory shall not be forsaken. Their bodies are buried in peace, and their name liveth unto generation and generation. Let the people show forth their wisdom, and the church declare their praise.
📖 Gospel
In illo témpore: Dixit Petrus ad Jesum: Ecce, nos relíquimus ómnia, et secúti sumus te: quid ergo erit nobis? Jesus autem dixit illis: Amen, dico vobis, quod vos, qui secúti estis me, in regeneratióne, cum séderit Fílius hóminis in sede majestátis suæ, sedébitis et vos super sedes duódecim, judicántes duódecim tribus Israël. Et omnis, qui relíquerit domum, vel fratres, aut soróres, aut patrem, aut matrem, aut uxórem, aut fílios, aut agros, propter nomen meum, céntuplum accípiet, et vitam ætérnam possidébit.
At that time, Peter said to Jesus: Behold we have left all things, and have followed Thee: what therefore shall we have? And Jesus said to them: Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.
✝️ The fruitful renunciation and the wisdom of the Cross
Today's liturgy weaves an admirable connection between the radical detachment required by the Gospel and the glorification of spiritual friendship celebrated in the Epistle, finding its perfect synthesis in the life of the Seven Holy Founders. When Peter asks the Lord: "Behold we have left all things... what therefore shall we have?", he exposes the divine exchange that these seven Florentine nobles made; they abandoned the ephemeral honor of the world to become "rich men in virtue" and "peace-makers in their houses," according to Ecclesiasticus. Saint Augustine, whose Rule these saints adopted, teaches that "the main purpose of your congregation is that you live harmoniously in the house and have one soul and one heart directed towards God" (Praeceptum, I, 2), a reality that the Servites embodied by transforming their community into a reflection of the Most Holy Trinity. They understood, as St. Thomas Aquinas explains, that the religious state is a spiritual holocaust where man offers himself and all that he possesses to God (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 186, a. 1), and that the "hundredfold" promised by Christ is not material wealth, but the consolation of fraternal charity and freedom of spirit. By contemplating the Sorrows of Mary, these "men of mercy" learned that true wisdom, which "opens the mouth of the dumb," is born from the silence of the Cross. Their flight to Monte Senario was not a rejection of humanity, but an immersion into the mystery of divine compassion; by leaving houses and lands "for the sake of the Name" of Jesus, they gained an eternal spiritual family, proving that whoever loses his life for Christ, truly finds it glorified.