Servites

Servites, the common name for the order of the 'Religious Servants of the Holy Virgin,' founded in 1233 by seven Florentine merchants, who soon removed to Monte Senario, 9 miles from the city. They adopted the rule of St Augustine, with many modifications, receiving papal sanction in 1255; and in 1487 Innocent VIII. bestowed on them all the privileges of the other mendicant orders. Before the death of the founders there were 10,000 members of the order. In England there were no houses before the Reformation, but there is now one in London, with a branch at Bognor, and three convents of Servite nuns. The habit is black.