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 SERVITES

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SERVITES

Archbishop of Antivari, who, since March, 1911, has been Father Matthew Cardun of the Dahnatian province of the Franciscans.

N'ovAKOviTCH, Serbische Bibliographic 17^1-1867 (Belgrade, 1S69) (in the Servian language); Jovanovitck, An English Bib- liography on the Xew Eastern Question (Belgrade, 1909); Gopce- vic, Serbien und die Serben (Leipzig, 1888) ; Tcma, Serbien (Han- over, 1894) ; De Gubernatis, La Serbie et les Serbes (Paris, 1898) ; CoQtJELLE, Le Royaume de Serbie (Paris, 1901); Lazard and HoGGE, La Serbie d'aujourJ'hui (Gembloux, 1900); Hogge, La Serbie de nos jours (Brussels, 1901); Cvijic, Siedlungen der serbia- chen Lander (6 vols., Belgrade, 1902-09) (in the Servian lan- guage); Davelut, La Serbie (Brussels, 1907); Mijatovitch, Ser- ria and the Servians (London, 1908); Stead, Servia by the Ser- vians (London, 1909); Kaxitz, Das K6nigreich Serbien und das serbische Volk ton der Romerzeit bis zur Gegenwart (two vols., Leipzig, 1904-09); Laz.uiovich-Hrebelianovitch, The Servian People (New York, 1910); von Radic, Die Verfassung der ortho- dox-serbischen und rumdnischen Partikularkirchen (1880). Con- cerning the historj- of the countrj-, cf. Hilferding, Geschichte der Serben und Bulgaren (2 pts., Bautzen, 1856-64) ; von KAt>- L.4.T, Geschichte der Serben (2 vols., Budapest and Leipzig, 1877- 1885); R.1XKE, Serbian und die Tiirkei imneumehnlen Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1879); Mij.vtovitch, History of Modern Servia (Lon- don, 1872); CuNiBERTi, Serbia e la dinastia Obrenovic, 1804-93 (Turin, 1893); Yakschitch, L' Europe et la resurrection de la Ser- bie (Paris, 1907); Gavrilovic, Miloch Obrenovitch (Belgrade, 1908) (in French); Barre, La tragedie serbe (Paris, 1906); Geor- gevic. Das Ende der Obrenovic (Leipzig, 1905) ; Idem, Die ser- bische Frage (Leipzig, 1908) ; von Kallay, Geschichte des ser- bischen Aufstands 1807-10 (Vienna, 1910); Jikecek, Geschichte der Serben (Gotha, 1911) (vol. I extends to 1371, and the work con- tains a bibliography of Servia).

Joseph Lins.

Servites, Order of (Servants of Mary), is the fifth mendicant order, the objects of which are the sanctification of its members, preaching the Gospel, and the propagation of devotion to the Mother of God, with special reference to her sorrows. In this article we shall consider: (1) the foundation and history of the order; (2) devotions and manner of life; (3) affiUated associations; (4) Servites of dis- tinction.

Foundation and History. — To the city of Flor- ence belongs the glory of gi%'ing to the Church the seven youths who formed the nucleus of the order: Buonfiglio dei Monaldi (Bonfilius), Giovanni di Buonagiunta (Bonajuncta), Bartolomeo degli Amidei (Amideus), Ricovero dei I.,ipi)i-Ugguccioni (Hugh), Benedetto dell' Antella (Munettu.s), Gherardino di Sostegno (Sosteneus), and Alessio de' Falconieri (.Alexius); they belonged to seven patrician families of that city, and had early formed a confraternity of laymen, known as the Laudesi, or Praisers of Mary. While engaged in the exercises of the confraternity on the feast of the Assumption, 1233, the Blessed Virgin appeared to them, advised them to withdraw from the world and devote themselves entirely to eternal things. They obeyed, and established them- selves close to the convent of the Friars Minor at La Camarzia, a suburb of Florence. Desiring stricter seclusion than that offered at La Camarzia, they withflrew to Monte Senario, eleven miles north of Florencxi. Here the Blessed Virgin again appeared to them, conferred on them a hlnck habit, instructed them to follow the Rule of St. Augustine and to found the order of her servants (15 April, 1240). The brethren elected a superior, took the vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty, and admitted as.sociates.

In 1243, Peter of Verona (St. Peter Martyr), Inquisitor-General of Italy, recommended the new foundation to the pope, but it was not until 13 March, 1249, that the first official approval of the order was obtained from Cardinal Raniero Capocci, papal legate in Tuscany. About this time St. Bonfilius obtained permission to found the first branch of the order at Cafaggio outside the walls of Florence. Two years later (2 Oct., 12.51) Innocent IV appointed Cardmal Guglielmo Fieschi first protector of the order. The next pope, Alexander IV, favoured a plan for the amalgamation of all institutes following the Rule of St. Augustine, This waa accomplished

in March, 1256, and about the same time a Rescript was issued confirming the Order of the Servites 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 of which St. Manet- tus directed, while the latter was given into the care of St. Sostene. Within five years two new po- vinces were atlded, namelj^ Romagna and Lombardy. .-Vfter St. Philip Benizi was elected general (5 June, 1267) the order, which had long been the object of unjust attack from jealous enemies, entered into the crisis of its existence. The Second Council of Lyons in 1274 put into execution the ordinance of the Fourth Lateran Council, forbidding the foundation of new religious orders, and absolutely suppressed all mendicant institutions not yet approved by the Holy See. The aggressors renewed their assaults, and in the year 1276 Innocent V in a letter to St. Philip declared the order suppressed. St. PhiHp proceeded to Rome, but before his arrival there Innocent V had died. His successor lived but five weeks. Finally John XXI, on the favourable opin- ion of three consistorial advocates, decided that the order should continue as before. The former dangers reappeared under Martin IV (1281), and though other popes continued to favour the order, it was not definitively ajiproved until Benedict IX issued the Bull, "Diim levamus" (11 Feb., 1304). Of the seven founders, St. Alexis alone hved to see their foundation raised to the dignity of an order. He died in 1310.

We must here make mention of St. Peregrine Laziosi (Latiosi), whose sanctity of life did much towards increasing the repute of the Servite Order in Italy. Born at Forli in 1265, the son of a Ghibelline leader. Peregrine, in his youth, bitterly hated the Church. He insulted and struck Saint Philip Benizi, who, at the request of Martin V, had gone to preach peace to the Forlivese. Peregrine's generous nature was immediately aroused by the mildness with which St. Philip received the attack, and he begged the saint's forgiveness. In 1283 he was received into the order, and so great was his humility it was only after much persuasion he consented to be or- dained a priest. He founded a monastery in his native city, where he devoted all his energies to the restoration of peace. His humility and patience were so great that he was called by his people a second Job. He died in 1345. His body remains incorrupt to the present day. He was canonized by Benedict XIII in 1726, and his feast is celebrated on 30 April.

One of the most remarkable features of the new foundation was its wonderful growth. Even in the thirteenth century there were houses of the order in Germany, France, and Spain. Early in the four- teenth century tiu* order had more than on(! hundred convents including branch houses in Hungary, Bohe- mia, Austria, Poland, and Belgium; there were al,so mi.ssions in Crete and India. The disturbances during the Reformation caused the loss of many Servite convents in Germany, but in the South of France the order met with much success. The Con- vent of Santa Maria in Via (1563) was the second house of the order established in Rome; San Marcello had been founded in 1369. Early in the eighteenth cen- tury the order sustained lo.sses and confi.scations from which it has scarcely yet recovered. The flourishing Province of Narbonne was almost totally destroyed by the plague which swept Marseilles in 1720. In 1783 the Servites were expelled from Prague and in 1785 Joseph II desecrated the shrine of Maria Wald- rast. Ten monasteries were suppressed in Spain in 1835. A new foundation was made at Brussels in 1891, and at Rome the College of St. Alexis waa opened in 1895. At this i)eriod the order wiis in- troduced into England and America chiefly through