St. Alexis Falconieri

St. Alexis Falconieri was born about 1200 at Florence in Italy, of a prosperous merchant family, and was himself engaged in the commerce of the city. A devout member of a confraternity honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary, he was one of seven wealthy Florentines who, moved by a common desire to leave the world and its strife, withdrew together about 1233 to a life of prayer and penance, first outside the city and then on the solitude of Monte Senario.

These seven, honored together as the Seven Holy Founders, established the Order of the Servants of Mary, the Servites, devoted especially to meditation on the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin at the foot of the cross. Of the seven, Alexis alone chose to remain a lay brother rather than be ordained a priest, judging himself unworthy, and he served the young order humbly, begging alms and laboring for his brethren. He lived to a very great age, the last survivor of the founders, and is said to have died about 1310, over a hundred years old. The Seven Holy Founders were canonized together in 1888, and are celebrated on 17 February.