Day 2: The Servant of Mary

The second day of the Saint Peregrine Novena turns to the religious order of which Saint Peregrine was a member: the Order of Servants of Mary (the Servites). The Servite charism is the contemplation of the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the foot of the Cross, and the particular Servite devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows is the spiritual matrix in which Saint Peregrine's own sanctity was formed.

Today's invocation

O great Saint Peregrine, you have been called the Mighty, the Wonder-Worker... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The Order of Servants of Mary was founded in Florence in 1233 by seven prosperous Florentine merchants who, after a Marian apparition, withdrew together to a hermitage on Monte Senario outside the city to live a contemplative religious life. The seven, known to the Catholic tradition as the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order, were canonized as a single group by Pope Leo XIII in 1888. The Order they founded developed throughout the late medieval period as one of the principal mendicant orders of the Catholic Church, alongside the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Augustinians, and the Carmelites.

The distinctive Servite devotion is the Seven Sorrows of Mary: the seven moments in the life of the Mother of God in which her soul was pierced by sorrow, beginning with Simeon's prophecy at the Presentation (Luke 2:35) and culminating in the Burial of the Lord. The Servite Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows of Mary (a Marian rosary structured around the seven sorrows, with seven beads for each sorrow) is the principal Servite devotional prayer and was, for centuries, prayed daily by every Servite friar and nun.

Saint Peregrine, as a Servite, was formed in this devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. The night he spent in the chapel before the Crucifix on the eve of his amputation was, in the Servite spirit, a participation in Mary's vigil at the foot of the Cross. The Mother of God had stood, three centuries before the Servite Order was founded, in the same disposition that the Servites took as their charism: silent, present, sharing in the Lord's Passion.¹

Today's intention

Today, in addition to your principal intention, ask Our Lady of Sorrows to stand with you in your suffering as she stood with her Son. Mother of Sorrows, who shared your Son's Passion at the foot of the Cross, stand with us in our own suffering. Through the prayers of Saint Peregrine, your servant, obtain for us the patience and the trust that you yourself bore on Calvary.

If you are praying this novena for a particular cancer patient, today is an appropriate day to bring that patient under the patronage of Our Lady of Sorrows. The traditional Servite practice is to give a copy of the Seven Sorrows Chaplet to the patient and to teach them, where possible, to pray it during the long sessions of treatment.

Reflection

The Catholic devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows is not a Catholic glorification of suffering. The Catholic Church does not teach that suffering is good in itself; it teaches that suffering, joined to the Cross of Christ and offered with Mary at the foot of the Cross, becomes a means of grace. The Mother of Sorrows is the Catholic model of how to suffer well: silently, in faith, present to the suffering Lord, refusing to despair.

The Saint Peregrine devotion is, in this sense, joined inseparably to the devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. The two devotions reinforce each other. Saint Peregrine prays for the healing of the body when it is according to the Lord's will; Our Lady of Sorrows obtains the strength to bear the suffering when healing is delayed or denied. The Catholic patient who prays to both is fully equipped for the long journey of serious illness.

Closing prayers

Conclude with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us. Saint Peregrine, Servant of Mary, intercede for us.

Footnotes

1. The Servite Order's history and the Seven Sorrows devotion are documented in Mary Bridget Sheehy, The Servites: Five Centuries of Devotion (1937) and in the Servite Order's official archive at the Servite General House in Rome. Pope Leo XIII, canonization bull for the Seven Holy Founders (1888). ↩