Seven Holy Founders of the Servites - 17th February 2009

Today we celebrate the feast of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servites. Let us read what Dr. Plinio has to say about these saints.

On the feast of the Assumption, 1233 the Blessed Virgin appeared to seven noble Florentines exhorting them to leave the world and retire to live in solitude and prayer.

The seven retired to La Camarzia. After a time they returned to Florence and the inhabitants came outside the city to receive them in great joy. Newborn infants from the arms of their mothers called out on seeing them: “These are the Servants of Mary!”

The seven adopted that name and dedicated their lives to propagate the devotion to the Passion of Our Lord and the Sorrows of Mary. Later, on the Feast of the Assumption in 1240 Our Lady appeared to them carrying a black habit, and a nearby angel bore a scroll reading Servants of Mary. She told them:

“You will found a new Order, and you will be my witnesses throughout the world. This is your name: Servants of Mary. This is your rule: that of Saint Augustine. And here is your distinctive sign: the black scapular, in memory of my sufferings at the foot of the Cross.”

The Order developed rapidly not only in Italy but also in France and Germany, where the Holy Founders spread devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Mary. Their Order was duly approved by the Pope in 1259. They were canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1888.

Comments of Prof. Plinio:

This is one of the oldest Orders specially dedicated to spread devotion to Our Lady. It is a very beautiful title, The Servants of Mary, which was miraculously inspired when infants still unable to speak began to shout it in praise of the, Seven Holy Founders who were retuning to Florence. This title designates a special devotion to Our Lady that would reach its full form centuries later with the explications of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort in his Treatise of True Devotion to Mary.

Essentially to be a servant of Our Lady is the same thing as to be her slave. It represents the renunciation of one’s past, present, and future merits and goods – both spiritual and material. It is an excellent designation that marks the distinction between the true Catholic position and the revolutionary one.

Today many people, including progressivist theologians, think that it is shameful for the modern man to be a servant or a slave of Our Lady. It would be acceptable in the past, but since the abolition of slavery, there should no longer be servants or slaves, even for Our Lady. So, regarding our relations with Our Lady, we should call ourselves her children but not her servants or slaves, because it is not in accordance with human dignity. This is obviously an egalitarian and revolutionary affirmation.

In reality, it is an honor to be the servant of Our Lady, who is the Queen of Heaven and Earth. The principal desire of our lives is to be her true slaves. Because as her servants we are also her children, a special kind of children who desire her glory above all and renounce everything for this end.

The name of the Order of the Servants of Mary, or Servites, was clearly a name desired not only by the Seven Saints who founded it, but also by Our Lady, who affirmed their choice. This name was also endorsed when the Pope approved the Order, and when the Church canonized the Founders in the 19th century. Therefore, it is an excellent name.

It is a work of the Devil, the inspirer of the Revolution, to strive to destroy every kind of superiority, not only on this earth, but even in the supernatural order. The Revolution cannot abide acknowledging the immense inequality God put between His Mother and all other creatures – Angels, Saints and the rest of mankind. Between Our Lady and all creatures there is a veritable abyss. It is irrational to deny this or even raise a doubt about it.

Notwithstanding, this is what the Revolution does. Denial of every hierarchy is a characteristic of its spirit. It also is the root of Atheism, which in effect is hatred for the fact that there is a Lord in Heaven Who reigns over all of us. The revolutionary spirit rejects every form of lordship.

Karl Marx formulated this hatred of any superiority: he said that the goal of Marxism was to do away with every kind of alienation. This word originates from the Latin: alienatio, which is the transfer of the right of ownership from one person to another. For Marx, no one should ever cede dominion over himself to any other person. Any form of superiority and authority would be evil because it would cause an unjustifiable alienation of the inferior person, which would be to usurp his right and will, and to exploit his labor.

So, it causes alienation when the father commands his children; the husband, his wife; the teacher, his pupil, employer, his employees; the noble, his plebeians; etc. Any sort of authority would cause alienation. The worst alienation for Marx, however, is the one produced by God. According to him, God does not exist; God is a myth. Therefore, in addition to being hateful, the alienation toward God would be something empty and idiotic.

Therefore, man should be absolutely independent, complete master of himself, and never obey anyone. This is the ideal of Marxism, which coincides with the ideal of the Revolution.

It is the opposite of the true Catholic spirit. I do not think that I need to offer proof of this here.

What should we ask the Seven Holy Founders of the Servites? If these 13th century men were to resurrect and see what is going on in the Church and the world today, what would they say? What kind of indignation and censures would they make?

We should ask them to intervene for the Catholic Church and re-enkindle true devotion to Our Lady among the faithful, along with its correlated hierarchical sense and counter- revolutionary spirit.

Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - 15th August 2008

Today lets us contemplate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary using the writings of Dr. Plinio to guide us...


One often hears meditations on the sorrows of Our Lady, but people from times past, unlike contemporary men, also used to speak often about the joys of Our Lady. For this reason, one of the most famous sanctuaries in Brazil is the Church of Our Lady of the Pleasures, on Mount Guararapes, erected in honor of her joys.

Today, the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, let us consider her pleasures. There is a good reason to do this. St. Thomas Aquinas maintains that no one can subsist on earth in complete unhappiness. To support the suffering of life, a person needs to have some pleasure, even if it is small; otherwise a constant and intense sorrow is insupportable. He was not speaking of pleasures as the world imagines them, but about the good Catholic pleasures and joy.

Our Lady had many joys. The Magnificat is the expression of the supreme one, the Incarnation, but there are others, such as those celebrated in the joyful mysteries of the Rosary. None was greater, in a certain sense, than that of the Assumption. About these earthly and celestial pleasures, I will say a word.

You know about the coronation of the Queen of England – there are films, features, and photo-albums illustrating it. The Queen leaves her palace wearing a diadem and other splendid attire and enters a magnificent golden carriage. The carriage, preceded and followed by a brilliant chivalric cortege, moves along slowly and arrives at Westminster Abbey. The bells ring, the cannons roar. The Queen processes up the central aisle of the Abbey and receives the homage of the nobility, peers of the kingdom, and members of the Royal House. Then the coronation ceremony takes place. After she is crowned and seated on her throne, her joy reaches its apex. Her joy spreads over the city, kingdom and whole world. She is the Queen par excellence and it is a universal celebration of the monarchy.

The joy of the Queen gradually increases as the day progresses. She awakens glad, and her joy swells until the moment of the coronation, when it reaches the pinnacle. Then her triumph is complete, and her joy is one that reflects the dignity, honor and magnificent destiny of ruling a great people.

I am not considering that Queen Elizabeth II is an Anglican being crowned in a religious ceremony conducted by this false religion. I am considering the Catholic England of old that gave birth to this Monarchy, whose ceremonies still smolder under the ashes of that unfortunate Protestant branch. I am reflecting on this coronation as a symbol.

Now, let us consider the Assumption of Our Lady. After her most serene death and resurrection, Our Lady knew that she would be taken to Heaven. She knew because she had reached the summit of her sanctity and wisdom, which communicated to her that the hour of her glorification had come. Also her love of God had never been so intense and she felt that the moment of the Beatific Vision was near. So, Angels from the highest Choirs came down to bring her solemnly to Heaven.

I imagine that her angelic carriage, to use a metaphor, was preceded and followed by a cortege of selected Angels, perhaps warrior Angels with many victories against the Devil, similar to the military cortege of the Queen of England. Then she arrived at that most solemn place in Heaven where the inhabitants were gathered to pay her homage. She was received by her chaste spouse, St. Joseph, and together, as in a cathedral, they processed down an aisle among the ordered ensemble of Saints.

As she passed and moved toward the throne of the Holy Trinity, Who awaited her, she received the reverence of all the Saints and Angels. In this cortege of honor, she not only received the homage of each one, but she had a perfect understanding and discernment of what each homage represented. To each Saint or Angel, whom she personally recognized, she gave the proportionate retribution of affection and admiration. She took great joy in this hyperdulia of the inhabitants of Heaven honoring her because she was the Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the creature most faithful to Him.

As the procession came to an end, the feast of the Assumption reached its apex. For the first time Our Lady experienced the Beatific Vision; at that same moment she was received by the Divine Word, the Holy Ghost, and God the Father. They solemnly welcomed her, greeting her as the most beloved Daughter of the Father, the most admirable Mother of the Son, and the most faithful Spouse of the Holy Ghost. Then they proclaimed her Queen of Heaven and Earth. After this proclamation, the Three crowned her as such.

All the preceding steps of her assumption led up to that stupendous end. She ardently desired that end and it enormously pleased her. This hypothetical description gives you a faint idea of the ensemble of joys Our Lady experienced that day.

I want to stress that this is not a hyperbole, an exaggeration. I think that a feast like this actually took place in Heaven as part of the assumption of Our Lady. Her assumption, her glorification, and her coronation were three things that came together in a grand ceremony in Heaven.

A similar glorification will take place at the end of History after the Last Judgment. Following the supreme glorification of Our Lord as King of History and the solemn recognition of His victory over Satan and his cohorts and armies, it is probable that Our Lord will pay a final homage to Our Lady, and again the Holy Trinity will confirm her sovereignty over Heaven and Earth – the glorified Earth at the end of the world.

It is my opinion that this glorification of Our Lady at her resurrection and assumption had an effect on earth and nature. As at Fatima when the sun changed its colors and danced, twirling toward the earth to confirm the words she spoke to the children, on the day of her assumption, I imagine the sun was shining with a special glorified light, the air was exceptionally pure, and all nature was immensely joyful.

The face of Our Lady before her assumption would have shined with increasing brilliance expressing the great love of God she was feeling, her eagerness to be with Him, and a presentiment of the joys she would shortly have. I think that the last day of Our Lady on earth in a certain sense represents the transfiguration of Our Lady; it was her Tabor. The persons who were with her and saw her would never forget that day for the rest of their lives.

I think that she will communicate to us and to the entire earth, when the Reign of Mary predicted in Fatima will be solemnly established, some of the joy she had on the day of her Assumption and that she now has in Heaven.

There is an invocation in a Litany to Our Lord in which we ask: ut ad celestia desideria erigas, te rogamus, audi nos – that our souls be raised to the desire for celestial things, we pray Thee, hear us. This invocation should be the conclusion of our meditation on the Assumption of Our Lady. We should ask that we may love the celestial happiness of Our Lady to give her glory and that we may one day be with her in Paradise. We should also love and meditate on her joys as a way to accept with peace and resignation the sorrows and sufferings God sends us so that we might prove our love for Him.

By
Dr. plinio Correa De Olivera