In another place the Legenda quotes from a rule book which, it says, the Seven observed while still in the world. No further information about this "rule book" has been found. This quotation gives an explanation for the title, couched in clearly medieval terms:

Fearing their own imperfection, upon wise counsel, they [the Seven] humbly brought themselves with the most complete heartfelt devotion to the feet of the Queen of Heaven, the glorious Virgin Mary, that she, as mediatrix and advocate, might reconcile and commend them to her Son, and filling up their imperfection with her abundant love, might mercifully obtain for them an overflowing fullness of merit. Thus it was that, for the glory of God, giving themselves over into the service of the glorious Virgin His Mother, they wished henceforth to be called Servants of Saint Mary, taking up a way of life upon the counsel of wise men.⁵ 

This quotation then gives a clue to the earliest Marian spirituality of the Order.

The ultimate motive for their action is the glory of God, but the immediate motivation is the fear of their own imperfection. That is, they are aware of their own powerlessness to achieve their purpose. Their motivation is similar to that displayed in feudal society whereby an individual placed himself as a "servant" or vassal in the service of a more powerful ruler, because he recognized his own inability to protect himself from the predators of society. This passage uses the familiar feudal terms of commending oneself and giving oneself into the service of another (mancipare), and Mary is given the titles of Advocate and Mediatrix. The tone of this passage contrasts, for example, with the writing of St. Ildephonsus of Toledo, in seventh-century Visigothic Spain. The motivation there is more positive:

Jesus, my God become Son of Man, grant me so to serve your Mother, that You may accept this service as done to you. May she so order my life that I may be confident of pleasing You. May her rule so guide me in this life that You may be Lord for all eternity.⁶ 

By the time of the great Marian prayers of St. Anselm of Canterbury (+1109), the all-prevailing sense of sinfulness on the part of the author, who identifies himself as a servant of Our Lady, is clearly evident. The sinner who knows his guilt and the justice of Christ the Judge turns to the Mother of Christ to be his advocate, because she is the one closest to the mercy of her Son’s heart. One commentator on this prayer notes that the rest of Anselm’s theological writings indeed makes clear the unity between Mary and her Son; but then she adds: "After Anselm, this unity was lost in the West, and became a source of division—mercy belonged to Mary, justice to her son."⁷ 

⁵ LDO, par. 18. Dal Pino believes this text has characteristics of both the earlier and later redactions, and so concludes that it probably belongs to the earlier version but has been considerably modified by the later writer (I frati Servi di s. Maria, 1:282-285), while par. 33 is from the hand of the final redactor ( 317-320). But Peregrine Graffius believes that both 18 and 33 are from the hand of the second of three authors, writing between 1274 and 1285 (see "Introduction," p. xxv).

 ⁶ De virginitate, chap. XIII (PL 96:105-110).

⁷ The Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm, translated and with an introduction by Sister Benedicta Ward, S.L.G. (New York: Penguin Books, 1973), 62.

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