Editing Servite Order (section)

==History==

===Foundation===
[[Image:Amadio 123.JPG|thumb|right|200px|[[Amadeus of the Amidei]] (d. 1266), one of the seven founders of the Servite Order.]]

The order was founded in 1233 by [[Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order |"the seven holy founders"]], each a member of a patrician family of Florence, Italy. These cloth merchants left their city, families, and professions and withdrew to [[Monte Senario]], a mountain outside the city of Florence, for a life of poverty and penance.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tylenda |first1=Joseph N. |title=Saints and Feasts of the Liturgical Year |date=2003 |publisher=Georgetown University Press |isbn=978-0-87840-399-8 |page=39 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=61MmDwAAQBAJ&q=Benedict+dell%E2%80%99Antella+canonization&pg=PA39 |language=en}}</ref> The seven were: Bonfilius of Florence, born Bonfilius Monaldi (Buonfiglio dei Monaldi); Alexis of Florence, born [[Alexis Falconieri]] ({{langx|it|Alessio Falconieri|italic=no}}) (1200 – 17 February 1310); Manettus of Florence, born Benedict dell'Antella (Benedetto dell' Antella); [[Amadeus of the Amidei |Amideus of Florence]], born Bartholemew Amidei (died 1266) (also known as Bartolomeo degli Amidei); [[Hugh dei Lippi Uggucioni|Hugh of Florence]], born Ricovero Uguccioni (Hugh dei Lippi Uggucioni (Ricovero dei Lippi-Ugguccioni)); Sostene of Florence, born Gerardino Sostegni (Gherardino di Sostegno); and Buonagiunta of Florence, born John Manetti (Giovanni di Buonagiunta (Bonajuncta)).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=William M. |title=Encyclopedia of Monasticism |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-78716-4 |page=1153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iepJAgAAQBAJ&q=Benedict+dell%E2%80%99Antella+canonization&pg=PT1211 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Tylenda |first1=Joseph N. |title=Saints and Feasts of the Liturgical Year |date=2003 |publisher=Georgetown University Press |isbn=978-0-87840-399-8 |page=39 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=61MmDwAAQBAJ&q=Benedict+dell%E2%80%99Antella+canonization&pg=PA39 |language=en}}</ref> They were canonized by Pope Leo XIII on 15 January 1888.<ref name=grotto>[https://thegrotto.org/the-servites/ "The Servites", The National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother]</ref>

[[Image:Sant Alessio Falconieri.gif|thumb|200px|[[Alexis Falconieri]] (d. 1310), one of the seven founders of the Servite Order.]]
The members of the order dedicated themselves to Mary under her title of Mother of Sorrows ({{langx|it|Madonna Addolorata|italic=no}}).<ref name=grotto/> Dedicating their devotion to the mother of Jesus, they adopted Mary's virtues of hospitality and compassion as the order's hallmarks.<ref name="owen">{{Cite news|url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-06-13/news/0806120662_1_virgin-mary-servites-order|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150718113602/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-06-13/news/0806120662_1_virgin-mary-servites-order|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 18, 2015|title=West Side basilica celebrates Servite order's 775th anniversary|work=tribunedigital-chicagotribune|access-date=2017-05-25|language=en}}</ref> The distinctive spirit of the order is the sanctification of its members by meditation on the Passion of Jesus and the Sorrows of the Virgin Mary, and spreading abroad this devotion.<ref name="servants">[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09750a.htm "Servants of Mary (Order of Servites)." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.{{PD-notice}}</ref>

The [[Bishop of Florence]], Ardengo Trotti (Ardengo Dei Foraboschi), approved the group as a religious order sometime between 1240 and 1247. The Servites, like other new orders before them such as the [[Trinitarian Order|Trinitarians]] and the [[Order of Preachers|Dominicans]], decided to live by the ancient [[Rule of St. Augustine]], and added to the rule further guidelines that were the expression of their own Marian devotion and dedication. By 1250 a number of Servites had been ordained to the priesthood, thus creating an order with priests as well as brothers.<ref name="secular">{{Cite web|url=http://website.lineone.net/~alexis_pottinger/ssi/order.htm|title=The Servite Order|website=website.lineone.net|access-date=2017-05-25}}</ref>

[[Pope Alexander IV]] favored a plan for the amalgamation of all orders which followed the Rule of St. Augustine. This was accomplished in March 1256, but about the same time a [[rescript]] was issued confirming the Servite Order as a separate body with power to elect a general. Four years later a general chapter was convened at which the order was divided into two provinces, Tuscany and Umbria, the former being governed by Manettus and the latter by Sostene. Within five years two new provinces were added, that of Romagna and that of Lombardy.<ref name="griffin">[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13736a.htm Griffin, Patrick. "Order of Servites." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912{{PD-notice}}</ref>

===Centuries of growth===
[[Image:Santa Maria dei Servi (Padua) - Altare dell'Addolorata - San Filippo Benizi.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Philip Benizi de Damiani]] (1233-1285)]]
[[Philip Benizi]] was elected general on 5 June 1267, and afterwards became the great propagator of the order.<ref name=servants/> The [[Second Council of Lyons]] in 1274 put into execution the ordinance of the 1215 [[Fourth Lateran Council]], forbidding the foundation of new [[religious orders]], and suppressed all mendicant institutions not yet approved by the [[Holy See]]. In the year 1276 [[Pope Innocent V]] in a letter to Benizi declared the order suppressed. Benizi set off for Rome to appeal the decision, but before his arrival there Innocent V had died. His successor lived only five weeks. Finally [[Pope John XXI]], decided that the Servite Order should continue as before. It was not definitively approved until [[Pope Benedict XI]] issued the [[Papal bull|bull]] "Dum levamus" on 11 February 1304. Of the seven founders, Alexis alone lived to see their foundation raised to the permanent dignity of an order. He died in 1310.

On 30 January 1398 [[Pope Boniface IX]] granted the Servites the power to confer theological degrees. It was in harmony with the tradition thus established that many centuries later the order established the [[Marianum]] faculty in Rome.<ref name="marianum">{{cite web|url=http://www.servidimaria.org/en/attualita/promotori2/promotori2.htm#THE_MARIANUM_PONTIFICAL_THEOLOGICAL_FACULTY |title=The Marianum Pontifical Theological Faculty |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090124183546/http://www.servidimaria.org/en/attualita/promotori2/promotori2.htm |archive-date=24 January 2009}}</ref>

[[File:2709 - Innsbruck - Servitenkirche.JPG|thumb|200px|Servite church in [[Innsbruck]], [[Austria]]]]
The new foundation enjoyed considerable growth in the following decades. Already in the thirteenth century there were houses of the order in [[Germany]], [[France]], and [[Spain]]. By the early years of the fourteenth century the order had more than one hundred houses in locations including [[Hungary]], [[Bohemia]], [[Austria]], [[Poland]], and what later became [[Belgium]]. In subsequent periods came missions in [[Crete]], the [[Philippines]] (St. Peregrine-Philippine Vicariate), and [[India]].<ref name="servants"/>

===European contraction===

The disturbances which arose during the [[Protestant Reformation]] caused the loss of many Servite houses in Germany, but in the south of France the order met with much success. The Convent of [[San Marcello al Corso]] was founded in the city of Rome in 1369 and a second house, [[Santa Maria in Via]], was established there in 1513.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.diocesidiroma.it/phpenti/ente/?ID=9 | title=Ente &#124; DIOCESI DI ROMA }}</ref> Beginning in the early part of the eighteenth century the order sustained a series of losses and confiscations from which it has yet to recover. A first blow fell upon the flourishing [[Province of Narbonne]], which was almost totally destroyed by the [[Great Plague of Marseille|plague]] which swept [[Marseille]] in 1720. Thanks to secularizing inroads made by the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], in 1783 the Servites were expelled from [[Prague]] and in 1785 the Emperor [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]] desecrated the shrine of [[Matrei am Brenner#Sights|Maria Waldrast]]. The French Revolution and ensuing hostilities throughout western Europe caused widespread losses. Ten houses were suppressed in Spain in 1835. 

After the seizure of Rome under the Italian [[Italian unification|Risorgimento]] in 1870, the government of Italy closed the Servite house of studies in the city, along with many other papal institutions. The institute was re-founded as the College of Sant Alessio Falcioneri in 1895.<ref>Annuario Pontificio 2012, p.1906</ref>

===New expansion===
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2021}}
After a gap of 25 years, in 1895 the house of studies in Rome was re-founded as the College of Sant Alessio Falcioneri. This development went hand in hand at this period with other initiatives and a new foundation was made at [[Brussels]] in 1891 and the order was introduced into [[England]] and [[United States]], chiefly through the efforts of the Servite priests Bosio and Morini. The latter, having gone to [[London]] in 1864 as director of the affiliated Congregation of the Sisters of Compassion, obtained charge of a parish from [[Henry Edward Manning|Archbishop Manning]] in 1867. The work prospered and besides St. Mary's Priory in London, convents were opened at [[Bognor Regis]] (1882) and [[Begbroke]] (1886). In 1870 Morini, Ventura, Giribaldi, and Joseph Camera, at the request of Bishop [[Joseph Melcher]] of [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay|Green Bay]], [[Wisconsin]], took up a mission in America, at [[Neenah, Wisconsin|Neenah]]. Morini founded at [[Chicago]] (1874) the [[Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica|monastery of Our Lady of Sorrows]]. A novitiate was opened at [[Granville, Wisconsin]] in 1892 and an American province was formally established in 1908.<ref>[https://servite.org/about/history/ "History", Friar Servants of Mary, USA]</ref>

===Twentieth century===
The order continued to expand geographically throughout the twentieth century, taking responsibility for missions in [[Swaziland]] in 1913, [[Acre (state)|Acre]] in [[Brazil]] in 1919, [[Aisén, Chile|Aisén in Chile]] in 1937, and [[Natal Province|Zululand]] in [[South Africa]]. It also made foundations in [[Argentina]] from 1914 and more solidly since 1921; [[Transvaal Province|Transvaal]] in South Africa from 1935, [[Uruguay]] in 1939, [[Bolivia]] in 1946, [[Mexico]] in 1948, [[Australia]] in 1951,<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.stdenis.com.au/temp/servite_history_australia.pdf|title=Servites in Australia - Part One|author=Christopher M. Ross OSM|date=12 January 2001|access-date=25 October 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title = Of Dreams and Realities, A history of the origins and development of Servite College (1958-1983)|page=1}}</ref> [[Venezuela]] in 1952, [[Colombia]] in 1953, [[India]] in 1974, [[Mozambique]] in 1984, [[Philippines]] in 1985, [[Uganda]], [[Albania]] in 1993, and also the refoundations in [[Hungary]] ([[Eger]]) and the [[Czech Republic]].<ref name="osmhistory1888">{{cite web|url=http://www.servidimaria.org/en/storia/canonizzazione.htm|title=A Brief History of the Servite Order: From the Canonization of the Holy Founders 1888 to 2000|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071205221621/http://www.servidimaria.org/en/storia/canonizzazione.htm|archive-date=2007-12-05}}</ref> In the United States there is currently one province of friars with headquarters in Chicago. There are four provinces of sisters with motherhouses in Wisconsin, Nebraska, and two in Illinois.<ref name=grotto/>

[[Pope Pius XII]], through the Congregation of Seminaries and Universities, elevated the Marianum to a [[pontifical university|pontifical theological faculty]] on 30 November 1950.

After the [[Second Vatican Council]], the order renewed its Constitutions starting with its 1968 general chapter at [[Majadahonda]], [[Madrid]], a process which was concluded in 1987. In the same year, Prior General Michael M. Sincerny oversaw the creation of the International Union of the Servite Family (UNIFAS).<ref name="osmhistory1888" />

The twentieth century also saw the beatification (1952) and the canonization of Friar [[Antonio Maria Pucci]]; the canonization of [[Clelia Barbieri]] (d. 1870), foundress of the Minime dell’Addolorata; the beatification in 1999 of [[Ferdinando Maria Baccilieri]] of the Servite Secular Order; the beatification in 2001 of [[Maria Guadalupe Ricart Olmos]], a Spanish cloistered nun who was martyred during the [[Spanish Civil War]]; and the beatification of Cecelia Eusepi of the Servite Secular Order.

Through the centuries, the Servite Order has spread throughout the world, including all of Europe, parts of Africa, Australia, the Americas, India, and the Philippines. The general headquarters of the Servite Order is in Rome, while many provinces and motherhouses represent the order throughout the world.

=== Twenty-first century ===
Allegations of sexual assault on children by members of the Servite order surfaced in several jurisdictions in court filings, accompanied by demands for more transparency.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |last2= |last3= |last4= |date=2022-12-09 |title=New allegations of sexual abuse against a Servite High School priest surface in court |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-08/servite-lawsuit-sexual-assault |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Priest who worked in Eastern Townships suspended after sex allegations |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/college-servite-sex-assault-allegations-lawsuit-1.4413315 |website=cbc.ca/news/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-03-01 |title=Chicago-based Catholic order is keeping secrets about child-molesting clergy around the United States |url=https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2024/02/29/servites-catholic-religious-orders-sexual-abuse-kevin-fitzpatrick-st-philips-anaheim-california-look-back-law |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=Chicago Sun-Times |language=en |quote=The Servites has had numerous priests and brothers accused of sexual abuse and faces an onslaught of new lawsuits. Unlike many dioceses and orders, the group has no public list of members deemed to have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. And other church lists are incomplete.}}</ref>