[1] The expression "godly men", is taken from Sir 44, 1, and is used frequently in the Legenda to indicate the "fathers" of the Order, that is, those who were the initiators or outstanding men in the early years of the Order. The reference to Sirach is a literary commonplace of the period and is found in similar medieval narratives. These initial paragraphs (nos. 1-6) introduce an account of the examples of these "fathers", from whom the figure of St. Philip emerges. The narrative of the true origins of the Order begins only with paragraphs 7 and 8.
[2] Sir 1, 3 (Vulgate). "Who hath searched out the wisdom of God that goeth before all things?" (Douay Version).
[3] Mt 11,29. The adverb "coraliter" (here translated as "humility of heart") is of Latin and Provencal origin. It is used often in thirteenth century Italian literature, and occurs ten times in the Legenda. It indicates both the heart of the person and the profound bond which unites the members of a community so that it becomes precisely "one heart".
[4] For the "way of truth" see Ps 119, 30; Tb 1, 3; Wis 5, 6; 2 Pt 2, 2.
[5] Sir 44, 10-13.
[6] 2 Mc 7, 6 (which cites Dt 32, 36). This passage is reflected better in the Douay (Vulgate) version.
[7] For the cities of refuge see Nm 35, 6; Dt 19, 1-10; Jos 20, 1-3. [8]Heb 4, 14-15; 9, 11.
[9] For the image of holiness as a mirror in which the soul can see its true self, see Gregory the Great, Moralia sive Expositio in Job, I, II, chap. 1, n. 1 (in PL 75, 553-554) from which the Legenda has taken several expressions. See also St. Augustine, Exposition on the Psalms, 103, 1, 4-6; Discourse 49, 5; and also at the conclusion of the Rule: "As in a mirror, you will be able to see in it [the book of the Rule] whether there is anything you are neglecting or forgetting".
[10] The translation of the relics of St. Philip Benizi was promoted by Fra Peter of Todi, the final redactor of the LO and prior general from August 1314. He was in Todi in June of 1317. The Legenda "Vulgata" of St. Philip, no. 33 (Monumenta OSM, II, Bruxelless, 1898, p. 81), gives the precise date of the translation: 10 June 1317.
[11] Gregory the Great, Homilia 21 in Evangelia, 1 (in PL 76, 1169-1170). The LO does not cite the entire quotation. It omits the second part of the phrase ("charitas ministrat").
[12]
Phil 3, 8.
[13] Jn 6, 12-13.
[14] Fra Forte, in the world known as Forte da Sommaia, made his profession in 1315. In 1317 he deposited a sum of money at SS. Annunziata in Florence for his sister Buta, who had been born illegitimately. This is deduced from the book of Ricordanze, an administrative register of SS. Annunziata for the years 1295 to 1332.
[15] Paragraphs 7 and 8, which explain the particular relationship existing between the Order of Servants of Mary and the Virgin Mary, are similar in terminology and mentality to the spiritual and hagiographical writings of the Cistercians and Dominicans, two orders which are more specifically Marian.
[16] Cf. Ps 101, 2.[17]Jn 5, 35; Mt 5, 15; Mk 4, 21; Lk 8, 16. The image of the lamp and lampstand is found several times in the LO (cf. Nos. 13, 50, 56, 58). It places the story of the origins of the Order in close relationship with St. Philip. Gregory the Great had already applied this image to St. Benedict in the second book of his Dialogues (in PL 66, 130).
[18] 18 St. Peter of Verona began his apostolic activity between 1232 and 1234. More will be said about him in nos. 33, 50-53, and 58 of the LO.
[19] Ugolino of Segni was pope from 1227 to 1241 with the name of Gregory IX.
[20] Lk 2, 8-20
[21] Mt 2, 1-12.[22]James Savelli, pope from 1285 to 1287. In the last months of his pontificate he granted a series of privileges to our priories in Borgo Sansepolcro, Bologna, Foligno, Siena, Cafaggio, and Lucca. He thus made the survival of the Order more secure in a moment of uncertainty.[23]The Servants of Mary obtained the church of St. Peter in Vetera on 27 September 1260 from the bishop of Orvieto. In 1265,perhaps for security reasons, they moved inside the city walls and built the church and priory of St. Mary´s.
[24] Cf. Introduction.
[25] The number "seven" occurs in several other hermit communities in the Middle Ages, for example St. Bruno and his six companions. It is also found in the biographies of St. Francis. It has a symbolic value deeply rooted in the religious consciousness of the period, so that probably the beginnings of a religious group naturally sought for the number seven.
[26] Cf. Introduction.
[27] In truth, the author has not treated this subject. [28]Jb 38. 31. The number of the stars in the Pleiades and the relationship with Arcturus or Orion – two particulars which Job does not provide – are inspired more by a commentary by Gregory the Great, Moralia sive Expositio in Job, 29, 31 (in PL 76, 515-519). There the seven stars are considered as signs of the gifts of the Spirit and of the New Testament, while Arcturus symbolizes the Old Testament and the tormented path followed by the Church.[29]The division of history into seven ages goes back to St. Augustine: cf. Books 11-18 of The City of God and also in Genesis against the Manichees 1, 23-41. It retraces the week of creation, so that the seventh day is the Sabbath day of rest for humanity. This vision of history was amply developed in medieval theology.
[30] We have no further information about this legislative text, other than another reference to it in no. 18, relative to service to Mary. It probably served to regulate the penitential life of persons living in the world.
[31] Mt 13, 45-46.
[32] Mt 19, 21; Lk 12, 33.
[33] This new work, that is, to bring men and women to the service of God and Our Lady, is the profession which the fathers left their followers as an inheritance, as is stated in paragraph 1.
[34] This society, which was perhaps founded by St. Peter of Verona during his stay in Florence, appears for the first time in a document of 28 March 1245. In this document Arrigo di Baldovino and two other lay "Servants of Saint Mary" donate the hospice of Santa Maria in Fonte Viva to the society of the Virgin Mary, whose members are also called "Servants of Saint Mary".
[35] Literally "habit of Christian religion". Habit is an important concept in Aristotelian ethics. By nature the human person has the capability of virtue and vice; the capability or potentiality is actualized by exercise, that is, the repetition of a series of acts of the same type. The repetition of these acts creates a customary way of acting (ethos) and the result of this repetition is a habit, which remains in us as a quality or disposition or stable thought which then facilitates acts of the same type. The "habit of Christian religion" is therefore a vital and stable orientation which faith, concretely lived and reaffirmed each day, creates in the person.
[36] Is 7, 9.
[37] Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, II, 6: "Virtue then is a state of deliberate moral purpose, consisting in a mean relative to ourselves, the mean being determined by reason, or as a prudent man would determine it". Instead of "in medietate" (a mean) the LO has "in mente". This definition of virtue was taken up by St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica I-II, q. 58, art. II, n. 4.
[38] Mt 13. 43-46
[39] Nicomachean Ethics, II, 6.
[40] Nicomachean Ethics, II, 3.
[41]The text here has the difficult term of "domina", due perhaps to a mistaken reading by the copyist or, more probably, to the Aristotelian source.
[42] Cf. Lk 10, 38-42.
[43] "To know and possess only heavenly goods" is a variant of "vacare Deo", that is, to be free from all things in order to dedicate oneself to God. This is an expression which occurs often in the Middle Ages to indicate the commitment and sense of contemplation. For "vacare contemplationi" (to dedicate oneself to contemplation) cf. no. 30 of the LO.
[44] Phil 3, 20.
[45] Phil 1, 23.
[46] Dt 6, 5; Mt 22, 37. See also the beginning of the Rule of St. Augustine: "Before all else, brothers, we must love God".
[47] The literature of the time saw in the renewal brought about by Francis and Dominic a new period in the history of the Church, symbolized by the gifts of the Spirit, according to the prophecies of Joachim of Fiore († 1202), which found a hearing especially in Franciscan circles.
[48] Mt. 11, 29. The gospel text is read in the light of the comment of St. Augustine in his Discourse 69, 2.
[49] Jn 13, 15.34.
[50] Mt 7,22.
[51] Mt 25, 12.
[52] Mt 7, 23.
[53] At that period the expression "Rule of St. Augustine" designated the legislative text attributed to the saint (The Rule of the Servants of God), to which was added the opening expression of the Ordo monasterii, a contemporary text which was thought to be the work of St. Augustine: "Before all else, brothers, we must love God and our neighbor because these are the greatest commandments". Ardingo, the bishop of Florence, between 1243 and 1247 approved for the friars of Monte Senario some "statutes" which were to be observed "always under the Rule of St. Augustine".
[54] The title continued with the phrase "and the names of his companions and the time of their death", but the copyist cancelled this phrase with a series of dots, since it no longer corresponded to the contents of the chapter.
[55] The priory in Siena, called St. Mary´s or St. Clement´s, was founded in 1250 under the patronage of Bonfilius, the local bishop. This was shortly after the foundation of the Florentine priory at Cafaggio. Cafaggio and Siena were the first twofoundations made by the community at Monte Senario.
[56] Cf. Wis 2, 24.
[57] Mt. 20, 12.
[58] Mt 11, 8.
[59] The Constitutiones Antiquae permitted the sick to use a mattress (chap. XI). For the frugal, humble, and penitential life of Fra Alexis see also the prescriptions of the Constitutiones Antiquae regarding fasting (chap. VII), food (chap. VIII), and clothing (chap. XII).
[60] The paragraph ended with an uncompleted phrase which was then cancelled by the copyist with a series of dots: "the names then of the six companions of Fra Alexis [who] with him [began] our [Order]...".
[61] Hos 11, 4.
[62] The "three steps indicated earlier" seem to refer to paragraph no. 31 where the community life of the Seven begins only after three conditions are realized: freeing themselves completely from the world, arranging their families and possessions according to justice, and familiarizing themselves with the practices they intended to observe.
[63] About well ordered love, see St. Augustine, The City of God, 15, 22; 19, 13; On Christian Instruction 1, 22-41.
[64] Dt 6, 5; Mt. 22, 37.
[65] Gal 5, 17.
[66] Ez 1, 12.
[67] Literally "on the bed of conscience", an allusion to Sg 3, 1.
[68] The corporal penance of the Seven is drawn in the light of various passages of Scripture: Sir 33, 25 (necessary food); Ps 45, 7 (scepter of justice); Jb 11, 12 (the foal of the wild ass). The norm for corporal penance is discretion (equilibrium), the ideal of thegreat monastic tradition.69 Ps. 18, 2.
[70] Jb 13, 15. The LO here adds the title "my maker". The author may have been citing from memory (as occurs in other places), and he might have had in mind other passages of Job where this title is found (4, 17; 32, 22).
[71] Acts 5, 41.
[72] The passage of Mt 25, 1-10 is combined with Lk 12, 35-36. Paragraph 46, without reference to the parable of the virgins, takes up again this anxious waiting of the Seven which becomes a vast echo attracting many people to Monte Senario.
[73] Cf. Mt 25, 1-10 [74]Eph 4, 14.
[75] Gn 12, 1, 4; cf. Acts 7, 3.
[76] Ps 27, 13.
[77] Already by the ninth century monastic texts present the penitential pilgrimage toward solitude as Abraham´s journey from his homeland to Canaan.[78].Acts 4, 32.
[79] Cf. Mk 6, 31-32
[80] Ps 145, 19.
[81] Cf. Introduction.
[82] Gn 22, 2.
[83]Ps 125, 1-2.
[84] Is 2, 2.
[85] Is 2, 3.
[86] Gn 19, 14-17.
[87] Ps 84, 6-7.
[88] I Jn 2, 27.
[89] Ps 101, 2.
[90] Ps 27, 3.
[91] Is 11, 2.
[92] Ps 25, 15.
[93] 2 Chr 20, 12.
[94] I Sm 3, 10.
[95] Ps 51, 13.
[96] The movement of the hand alludes to David who played the harp to alleviate Saul´s sadness (1 Sm 16, 23). Here it is a symbol of the exemplary life of the fathers, now become a melody bringing joy.
[97] 2 Cor 2, 14-15.
[98] Is 2, 5.
[99] The LO is inspired by chapter 25 and 26 of Exodus, which describes the construction of the ark and the tabernacle, whose model had been presented to Moses on Mount Sinai. Monte Senario is now the new Sinai.
[100] Ex 25, 40; 26, 30; Heb 8, 5.
[101] Prv 9, 1.
[102] Is 54, 3.
[103] Ps 84, 2-3.8.
[104] Mk 16, 20.
[105] Cf. Sg 1, 3.
[106] Cf. Is 2, 2-3.
[107] Lk 2, 15.
[108] Is 2, 3.
[109] Sg 1, 3.
[110] Cf. Mt 13, 8.23; 25, 15
[111] Acts 5, 41.
[112] This entire passage is based on Gregory the Great, Moralia sive Expositio in Job, x, 29 (in PL 76, 947).
[113] This passage repeats the theme of the second part of no. 39, and stresses the religious experience of the absence or presence of Christ, the Beloved, the Friend, the Spouse. The
biblical background is provided by the spouse´s voice in Sg 2, 8- 10; 3, 1-4; 5, 1-2; by the parable of the virgins in Mt 25, 1-12; by the groanings of the Spirit which are made one with the eager expectation of creation, in Rom 8, 26-27; and by Christ who stands at the door and knocks, in Rev 3, 20.
[114] Mt 5, 3. The LO interprets the "poor in spirit" as the "humble", following Augustinian exegesis.
[115] Rom 12, 16.
[116] Is 11, 2-3 (gifts of the Spirit) and Mt 5, 3-9 (beatitudes) were placed together by St. Augustine in his commentary De sermone Domini in monte, 4, 11 (in PL 34, 1234-1235; CCL, 35, p. 9-10).
[117] The expression "for the love of heaven" (literally: "for the love of the heavenly homeland") is found in the bull of Innocent IV Ut religionis vestre novella plantation of 17 August 1254, a document which tried to safeguard the original contemplative inspiration of the Servants of Mary. The "richness of a life of contemplation", toward the end of this number, recalls the "delights of holy contemplation" of the papal letter.
[118] The descent from the mountain of worldly pride to the lowest point of humility is taken from St. Augustine, Discourse, 69, 2-3.
[119] Mt. 5, 15; Lk 8, 16; 11, 33.
[120] The author of the LO correctly gives the year 1244 for the arrival of Peter of Verona in Florence, even if later this date is wrongly joined with the entrance of St. Philip into the Order, which is fixed as 1254. Peter of Verona was in Florence from 5 April or from the summer of 1244, perhaps called by Bishop Ardigno and the Dominican inquisitor, Fra Ruggero Calcagni, at a time when emperor and pope were in open conflict and anti-heretical measures were seen also as opposition to Emperor Frederick II. At Florence some orthodox lay groups worked with Peter of Verona, and among these was a group of "Servants of Saint Mary" which included, according to the LO, the founders of the Servite Order.
[121] Sinibaldo Fieschi, pope from 1243 to 1254. For his favorable action regarding the Servants of Mary see his two letters of 17 and 18 August 1254 (Ut religionis vestre and Compatientes paupertati vestre).
[122] Cf. Acts 1, 14; 2, 42.
[123] The early community of the Servants was located at Cafaggio, outside of the city of Florence, in a house which was different from the one which was constructed at the time of the final redactor of the LO. It was a fraternal community of penitents not yet juridically organized, since it did not have a true rule or its own habit.
[124] The choice of the Servants in the midst of the men of the world perhaps was suggested by the choosing of Israel among all the peoples of the world; cf. Dt 7, 6; 14, 2; 26, 18-19.[125]With the giving of the habit and the Rule of St. Augustine, the community of penitents, Servants of Saint Mary, acquired a juridical
position.

[126] 2 Tm 4, 7-8.
[127] The martyrdom of Peter of Verona occurred on 29 April 1251, which corresponds to the eighth year of Innocent IV.
[128] Mt 5, 12; Lk 8, 16; 11, 33.
[129] Another inaccurate date, for virtually all of 1254 was under the pontificate of Innocent IV. Alexander IV was elected on 12 December of that year.
[130] Mt. 5, 15; Lk 8, 16; 11, 33.
[131] This was certainly not the first privilege the Holy See granted the Order. The bull (Vestre devotionis precibus), of 26 May 1255, was addressed to the prior and friars of Monte Senario, and it does not speak of bells, contrary to what the LO affirms.
[132] Lk 2, 40.52.
[133]The bull (Religionis vestre) is dated 1 April 1259. The privilege of burial, one of those most opposed by the parochial clergy for economic reasons, had been requested by the general chapter of 5 September 1257. The Pope therefore gave his response about a year and a half later.
[134] James of Siena was the third prior general (1257-1265), after Filiolus (or Bonfilius) and Bonayunta. He presided at the chapter of 5 September 1257 which favored the development of apostolic activity. During his generalate the Order began new foundations in Umbria, Tuscany, and in Bologna. He gave his resignation at the general chapter of May 1265.
[135] Ottobuono Fieschi († 1276) probably succeeded his cousin, Cardinal William Fieschi, as protector of the Order. A cardinal protector had the responsibility, given him by the pope, to help a religious order in case of external need and to watch over the internal life of the order.
[136] It might be noted that of the numerous papal letters given to the Order, the LO cites only the three which are also found in the bull Dum levamus of 11 February 1304, with which Benedict XI definitively approved the legislation of the Order. On the other hand, those letters which could have jeopardized the future of the Order after the Second Council of Lyons in 1274 are not recorded here.
[137] Cf. Wis 4, 10-11.
[138] Cardinal Guy Fulcodi, a native of St.-Gilles (Gard) at the border of Provence, was pope from 1265 to 1268. The support given to the Servants of Mary, and also to the other mendicant orders, aligned as they were with the propapal Guelf party, must be seen also in the light of the political events of that time: the invasion of Italy by Charles of Anjou and the return of the Guelfs to Florence.
[139]Fra Manettus, prior general in the general chapter of May 1265, belonged to the first generation of Servites, as is attested by his participation in the chapter of 7 October 1251 at Cafaggio. The LO esteems him as a holy man and this explains why he has been inserted into the list of the Seven Founders of the Order. The mention of his refined nature perhaps suggests the reason for the brevity of his generalate.
[140]With this conclusion the final redactor restates the character of the LO as an introduction to a life of Blessed Philip (cf. paragraph 6).
[141] This second conclusion, which confirms the title of Legenda de origine Ordinis, is clearly an addition made by copyist.