Historians have generally held, from internal evidence, that this unsigned and undated narrative is the work of Prior General Peter of Todi, who was present in 1317 when the remains of St. Philip Benizi were exhumed and placed in a chapel of the Servite church in Todi. This experience inspired him to seek into and write down the origins of the Servite Order as a prologue to a life of St. Philip.
But in the past forty years, historians have shown that this narrative is the work of two, or possibly three, authors, the last of which was Peter of Todi. They believe that the central section of the Legenda dates back to perhaps 1256/1257, but certainly before the Second Council of Lyons in 1274, and therefore it gives an almost contemporary account of the spirituality of the Seven Holy Founders on Monte Senario. It is thought that Peter of Todi, the final redactor, merely inserted one or possibly two earlier compositions into his final version, without giving the earlier writer or writers credit. Some hypothesize that one of the authors might be St. Philip Benizi himself.2 This earlier section then becomes a point from which further evolution can be judged.
We shall therefore look especially at three periods of the formation of the Servite Order to note the development of the Marian element of Servite spirituality: first, from the lay confraternity to the first community at Monte Senario; second, the evolution which took place in the small, new Order in the late 1250s and 1260s; third, the period after the Second Council of Lyons, 1274.
1. From a lay confraternity to the first community on Monte Senario
The confraternity to which the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order belonged while still laymen involved in business and living in Florence (then one of the important commercial centers of Europe) was characterized by the penitential spirit common to the Brothers of Penance with whom they were in close contact, by a spirit of service exercised through the administration of a local hospital or hospice, and by a Marian spirit as shown by the name of the group, the Servants of Saint Mary. When these three elements of penance, service, and devotion to Mary were linked to a desire for greater poverty, prayer, and contemplation, the Seven withdrew from the confraternity and formed a community which soon became a recognized religious foundation, first outside of the walls of Florence and then on Monte Senario, about twelve miles north of Florence. At this point the only evidence of a Marian spirituality was precisely through the name of Servants of Saint Mary, which was an integral part of their orientation toward prayer, penance, and poverty.3
The oldest part of the LDO, which treats of the experience on Monte Senario, is virtually without references to Our Lady, except for the name of the Order. The LDO gives two explanations for the origin of the name: In one place Fra Alexis, one of the Seven, is quoted as saying that he could never discover a human source for the name and therefore he and his companions believed it was Our Lady herself who gave the name to the Order.4 This paragraph, however, is the work of the final redactor of the Legenda.
2 For a brief summary of this question in English, see Peregrine graffius, O.S.M., "Introduction" to Origins and Early Saints, xix-xxvi.
3 See Franco A. Dal Pino, I frati Servi di s. Maria dalle origini all’approvazione (1233 ca.-1304) (2 vols.; Recueil de travaux d’histoire et de philologie, 4e série, fasc. 49-50; Louvain: Bureau du Recueil. Bibliotheque de l’Université, 1972), 1:761-796; summary on pp. 895, 1325-1326. This is the most complete study of the early years of the Servite Order.
4 LDO, par. 33.
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