I have chosen you to be my first Servants, and under this name you are to till my Son’s Vineyard. Here, too, is the habit which you are to wear; its dark color will recall the pangs which I suffered on the day when I stood by the Cross of my only Son. Take also the Rule of Saint Augustine, and may you, bearing the title of my Servants, obtain the palm of everlasting life.
A vision of the Virgin Mary granted to Saint Alexis Falconieri and the other six founders of the Holy Order of the Servites.
The Servites in the 1930s popularized the vernacular Novena in Honor of the Sorrowful Mother from their Mother Church in Chicago, the Church, (later Basilica) of Our Lady of Sorrows on Friday nights. This service became the occasion of countless miracles and favors granted in Chicago and then throughout the world, creating a flood of pilgrims to the church in the 1930s and actually establishing a world record for church attendance. A beautiful painting of Saint Alexis and the other Seven Holy Founders can still be seen in that Basilica. So many favors were granted through this Novena that the Servites for many years published a weekly nationwide bulletin highlighting the amazing results of these public congregational prayers to Our Lady