17/02/2023
This will be the second year that SSVP celebrates this date
On February 17th, the Holy Church celebrates the liturgical date of the “Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order”. The congregation, whose official name is the Secular Order of the Servants of Mary, was founded in 1233 in Italy.
The names of the Seven Holy Founders, who were canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1888, are the following: Bonfiglio Monardi, Bonaiuto Manetti, Amadio de Amadei, Ugoccio de Ugoccioni, Sostenio de Sosteni, Maneto d’Antela and Aleixo Falconieri.
Dating back to the 12th-13th centuries, there were numerous confraternities and religious orders that sprang up in Europe, established by Christians who sought a life full of Gospel values in opposition to greed, luxury and mundane pleasures.
The Order of the Servants of Mary was founded by seven young men who, as a token of holiness, gave up luxury to live a holy life based on prayer, penance, self-denial and devotion to the Holy Mother of God.
We, at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, should be inspired by the example of the Servites to praise the life of our seven founders, equally holy men who dedicated their lives to family, to charity, to the Church and to the creation of a more equal and fraternal world: Bailly de Surcy, Ozanam, Lallier, Devaux, Le Taillandier, Clavé and Lamache.
On February 17th, the Council General International kindly encourages the entire Vincentian community to commemorate the memory of the SEVEN FOUNDERS OF THE SOCIETY OF SAINT VINCENT OF PAUL and requests all the Vincentian Conferences of the world to recite the Lord’s Prayer, for the souls of our “seven holy founders”.