So, two weekends ago, on Saturday September 14th, my Mom was inducted into the Secular Order of the Servants of Mary, the Lay Order of the Servites. The Servites, for those of you not quite up to snuff in things Catholic, are one of the five original great medieval mendicant (begging) orders, being the least famous of the five..
Those orders (in order of foundation, just to give some historical context, a sense of the momentousness of the occasion) :
Those orders (in order of foundation, just to give some historical context, a sense of the momentousness of the occasion) :
1.) the Carmelites (whose monks according to legend first collected upon Mount Carmel in the Holy Land in the aftermath of Elijah's famous theophany there circa 970 B.C. , but who were ultimately expelled from Carmel in the aftermath of the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land in the 7th Century, whence these immigrants eventually came to establish monasteries throughout Europe, where they were canonically organized between 1206-1214) and,
2.) the Franciscans who were founded in 1209 and then
3.) my very own Dominicans, who were founded in 1215, and then,
- drumroll -
4.) the Servites who were founded in 1233, followed only by the
5.) poor benighted Augustinians in 1244, whose unfortunate lot it was and shall ever be to claim Martin Luther, the Ur-Protestant, as one of their own (but whose rule, that of Saint Augustine, upon which they are founded, is however even older than that of Saint Benedict himself) ..
The only reason the Servites are not as celebrated as the other four original 13th century mendicant orders is perhaps due to the fact that they were founded by seven co-founders, the most famous of whom is Saint Peregrine, who while being a very worthy fellow, is not quite as charismatically famous as Saints Francis, Dominic, Augustine, or the prophet Elijah (not mentioning other luminaries of Carmel such as SS. Theresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux - whom I am now making a novena to, and will be visiting again upon her feast day this coming week - or John of the Cross, etc., etc..)
The Servites, though, are unique amongst the five in that their name includes that of our Blessed Mother. They are formally known as the "Ordo Servorum Beatae Mariae Virginis," hence the "Servites." The Franciscans, Dominicans (who gave us the rosary!) and Carmelites (of our Lady of Mount Carmel) all of course have particular devotion to her. But only the Servites are named directly after her.
I now belatedly give you, my beloved readership, some few images I took that morning. When my Mom, Donna O.S.M. (as she is now able to style herself; Donna, who besides being named after her father, Donald, is also named after our Blessed Mother, donna being "lady" in Italian, you know?) took the scapular (that blue and red rectangular piece of cloth she has on there) of the Order.
Without any further extraneous commentary, those of you who know may perhaps appreciate these following:
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