Foreward to the

Legenda de Origine

By: Fr. Franco M. Azzalli, OSM andFr. Gino M. Leonardi, OSM

The Legenda de Origine Ordinis fratrum Servorum Virginis Mariae (LO) – a title added by the copier at the end of the document – or

Introduction to the Legenda beati Philippi servorum beatae Virginis Mariae – as the title at the beginning has it –, narrates the history of the beginnings of the Order of the Servants of Mary: the experience of the first group of the seven from 1233 to 1249/51 and consequent developments up to 1267, the beginning of the

Generalate of Saint Philip Benizi.

The document, as it has come down to us, must

have been drawn up shortly after 1317, after

the translation of the body of Saint Philip Benizi which happened in

the 10th of June in Todi.Fra Peter of Todi, prior

general from 1314 to 1344, was present at the

translation.The document is usually attributed to him, even

though other authors have been suggested.

There isonly one manuscript

of the Legenda, preserved

in the General Archives

of the Order of the Servants of Mary in Rome, -copy of the original

one (lost)- most probably written

in 1375.

The text is divided into three parts.

An introductory part, centered on the figure of Saint Philip Benizi and his relationship

with the Order, of which the honor and the obligations deriving from the fact of having been founded directly by “Our Lady”

are underlined.

A central part which is a real Legenda de Origineand which sketches out,

without any precise references to people or dates,the spiritual journey and the first developments

Of the first group of Servites.

A third part, taking up the theme interrupted,

clarifying the role of Saint Peter

of Verona in the

evolution of the original group of Servants in the

years 1244-45 and the successive

steps of its developmentinto juridically

recognized communities, up to 1267.

You may therefore recognizean ancient nucleus, -maybe the De origine Ordinis by Phillip Benizi- focused on the religious experience of the Seven from the time when they still lived in the world up to their decision to welcome other brothers and to open new convents.

A different spiritual climate is found in the

parts that can be attributed to the final editor,in which at the

center have to be found the action of the

Virgin and the fundamental events of the life of Saint

Philip, who is the great model presented for the imitation of all

Servants.

By means of the mention of the repeated interventions

of the Virgin, the commitment to Marian service, the figure of Philip and the witness of fra

Alexis, Fra Peter of Todi seeks to harmonize the Marian

character which the Order already had at the start of

the 14th century and the fundamental primitive

elements.

The END