15. We have already made it clear that the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary originated in the province of Tuscany and the city of Florence. For a better comprehension of what was to follow, we have considered, though only briefly and in a general way, the nature of religious life and some few pertinent facts about it[27]. There remains to explain, for the benefit of those interested, how the Order began. I take up this task now with trust in God and great devotion and reverence.

We start with the fact that there were in Florence, in the province of Tuscany, seven men, each of them worthy of respect and honor. As the conjunction of the seven stars of the Pleiades brings to an end, in a spiritual sense, the rotation of Arcturus[28], Our Lady brought them together and precisely through this forming of one spirit and one body she started the Order that was to be her own and that of her Servants.

We could wonder why Our Lady chose to begin with a group of seven. I have no doubt that it was to convince everyone that she wished her Order endowed in a special way with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It was to make clear that down through the ages she would keep it alive, as one generation followed another each with a number of men rich in these seven gifts of the Spirit. A final motive was to witness to all that she would love this Order of hers, filled with these same gifts, until the end of time, the so-called seventh age[29].

16. There are four aspects under which we can consider these men before they came together to begin our Order: one is in regard to the Church, another in regard to civil society; a third in regard to honor given Our Lady and finally in regard to their spiritual perfection.

We look at them first in their relationship to the Church. All the members of the faithful live out and preserve their faith within the Church in one of three states: some are virgins, choosing continence and never entering into marriage; others marry; and still others, freed from the bonds of marriage either through mutual consent of the spouses or through the death of one of them, choose for love of God to live in chastity for the rest of their lives. We find that these seven men of ours, before they came together, were living good lives in all three of these states. A number of them had decided to observe virginity or chastity for life and so remained unmarried; others were already married and the rest were widowers.

What an expression of great and wonderful love! What a tremendous mystery! Our Lady, in selecting these men to begin our Order, had chosen to reveal through the number seven that her Order´s perfection should always consist in the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. But now she had something else to reveal to the whole world, intimated in the fact that these seven men came from all three states of life: that anyone, no matter what his condition in the faith or in the Church, no matter whether sinner in need of healing of soul or saint looking for growth, would be welcome to this Order of hers. Anyone who fled to it as to the furthermost of the six spiritual cities of refuge and remained there, faithful in his service to her until death, would be rewarded by herself and by her Son with grace and glory. So much for the first aspect. It is to this that the little book of the old constitutions[30] which they observed in the world before they came together is referring when it says, "Because some of them were married and therefore unable to pursue a stricter way of life, they decided to choose a middle and more common way, easy for both the married and unmarried to observe".

Because it has been long-standing and has had many holy members, both men and women, it has acquired, in a rather unique way, a special title of eminence. And so, even though there are many other societies of Our Lady in Florence, each with its own generic Marian title, this particular one has the special name of "The Greater Society of Our Lady"[34]. It was to this group that these seven men who began our Order belonged before they came together and within it that their exceptional love for Our Lady found expression.

Since it appears evident that our Order had its origin in Tuscany and the city of Florence and in fact from the Greater Society of Our Lady, it follows that all our friars should wholeheartedly love and honor that city and province and its citizens, that society and its members. That God preserve these places and sanctify these people should be their constant and devoted prayer.

But on the other hand it is also true that the people from the province of Tuscany, from Florence in particular and especially the members of the Greater Society of Our Lady have an obligation to appreciate the great favor Our Lady has bestowed on them. They should respect all the friars of the Order of the Servants of Saint Mary and the Order itself throughout the world, never stinting in their efforts to procure for this Order whatever would bring honor to the Virgin and benefit to the friars.

Bologna is renowned because it was there that blessed Dominic began the Order of Preachers, and Assisi likewise for blessed Francis and the Friars Minor. In the same way Florence can boast of its blessed Philip, of these seven men and the Order of Our Lady which originated there.

And just as the Bolognese have to promote the Order of Friar Preachers as much as they can, and the people of Assisi have to help the Order of Friars Minor for the same reason, so too the Tuscans, but especially the people of Florence and the members of the Greater Society have a special responsibility to help Our Lady´s Order grow. It was among them that it was first planted, like a treasure specially commended to them by Our Lady. In her honor and out of reverence for her, they should assist it and preserve it in Florence and all over the world.

This third aspect of their life, their reverence for Our Lady, appears in the little book of constitutions mentioned once before. There we read: "These men were not unaware of their imperfections, which is precisely why they did the wise thing: in total devotion they humbly placed themselves and their hearts at the feet of the Queen of Heaven, the glorious Virgin Mary. It was she who would have to mediate for them and, in her abundant love, supply for their own deficiencies. It was for her to reconcile and commend them to her Son and, taking pity on them, win for them a wealth of merit. That is why the moment they bound themselves to honor God through service of the Virgin Mary they wanted to be known as the Servants of Saint Mary, and adopted a specific rule of life on the advice of prudent men".

19. The fourth and final aspect under which we can consider the life of these men before they began our Order touches on the very question of why, later on, they were able to do such a worthy job of founding our Order: they were prepared for it by their own personal perfection.

To be perfect in God´s sight is a matter of how one lives, of whether one´s life is imbued with Christian religion. Any higher, supernatural life, whether baptismal or penitential in origin, can only be seen to exist in the steady practice of true Christian religion[35]. "Unless our faith is firm", says Isaiah, "we will never understand"[36].

Much less will we be able to know this supernatural life. Baptism is the sacrament of faith, since through it faith is acquired, or, should I say, is given by God. Penance on the other hand is the regaining of faith lost through heresy, or sometimes it is a return to faith´s pristine beauty, lost through sin and restored through purification. As already stated, true Christian religion consists in the practice of the supernatural life, whether originating in baptism or found through penance and contemplation on the Passion of Christ, to such an extent that we bind ourselves to God for divine worship.

With such thoughts as background, it can be said that these venerable men, the first fathers of our Order, were perfect Christians even before they came together and began our Order. For they possessed the virtue of true Christian religion by reason of the penitential life they had voluntarily adopted. Even if not every one of them had preserved baptismal innocence, they had already begun to comprehend the supernatural life of grace through the practice of religion. They had by this time already bound themselves to God for love of him, or, to express it better, they never al-lowed themselves to lose sight of the bonds they had previously assumed. They dedicated themselves wholeheartedly to the worship of God.

They had the virtue of Christian religion, beyond any doubt. A virtue is a habit one chooses to practice[37], something a prudent man thinks about, determines by his reason. These godly men, the first fathers of our Order, were divinely inspired to think profoundly about the virtue of religion and they chose it, like a precious pearl they had stumbled upon and treasured. In their desire to possess it forever they exchanged their very selves and all they owned[38].

In everything they did they used their powers of reason as best they could, guided not by the prudence of this world but by what uncreated Wisdom itself taught them in the sacred words of the Gospel. And so, as I say, they really were religious persons and to that extent were perfect in God´s sight and acted accordingly. For virtue is that which perfects its possessor and makes his works good[39]. Yet another proof that they were habitually religious persons lies in the consideration that something which is a habit causes joy or grief in the process of being performed[40]. This was the daily experience of these godly men, for we cannot imagine what joy it gave them in the Lord to realize that in everything they did they were steering the course of moderation; or if at times they wandered from this middle course, or even thought they had done so, with what tears of contrition they corrected themselves. This experience of joy and sorrow ought to convince us that, with God´s inspiration and Our Lady´s help, they were men who had the habit of religion.

20. This habitual living of true Christian religion impelled them to dwell ever more profoundly on the supernatural life of grace and glory.

For such is virtue´s[41] compelling power that it makes those who possess it want to spend time in the contemplation of heavenly life. Their virtue fortified what was already their natural inclination towards contemplation. They chose the "better part"[42], set aside all concern for the things of this world and sought to know and possess only heavenly goods[43]. Their aim was to live and communicate only with spiritual men and such as were willing to share spiritual thoughts with them, so that they could say with the Apostle, "We have our citizenship in heaven"[44].

On the basis of this love for the heavenly life, a life they now knew through contemplation, they bound themselves and their very souls to God. Perhaps it would be more correct to say, they tried to keep themselves inseparably bound to him; for they already loved the Lord so much that their greatest fear was the suffering of being separated from him. The thought of living longer in this world distressed them and they looked forward to death so that they could be with God.

Like the Apostle, they could say in their eagerness to be united with him, "We long to be freed from this life and to be with Christ"[45].

21. Bound thus to God and made over into perfect men of religion, it now became their aim to preserve this habit of religion by bringing it to its logical conclusion; and so they dedicated themselves totally to the worship of God.

There are two kinds of divine worship. One is broader in scope, proper to all the laity, to all men and women who are striving to keep free of sin after their baptism or possibly after their conversion. The other is the worship proper to those who enter a religious institute, who not only keep themselves free of sin but take on the obligations of the three religious vows.

Their single-minded goal is to serve God. Now, these religious men, the first fathers of our Order, while still living at home, were united to God through love of the supernatural life and did more than dedicate themselves to the broader kind of divine worship. They loved God above all else[46]; they oriented absolutely everything they did towards him; they honored him in every thought, word and deed.

And so, attributing to the Lord all the good they did and acknowledging it as a gift from him, they lived according to the first or broader type of divine worship. But in actual fact, they were preparing themselves for the second. For the time was soon to arrive when they would come together to live, bound forever by the three religious vows of obedience, chastity and poverty, and would freely give themselves to one duty only, to serve Our Lady.