One of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order, a Florentine layman who left behind wealth and status in 1233 to live a life of penance and prayer dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Saint Bartholomew, known in Servite tradition by the surname Amidei, was one of seven Florentine laymen who in 1233 withdrew together from civic and commercial life in Florence to found what became the Order of Friar Servants of Mary, or the Servites. According to the order’s tradition, the seven, members of a Marian confraternity troubled by civic strife and moral laxity in their city, retreated first outside Florence’s walls and later to the remote hill of Monte Senario, adopting a life of penance and prayer that gradually developed into a structured religious order devoted especially to the sorrows of Mary at the foot of the cross. Bartholomew died in 1266, having seen the small community grow well beyond its original founders. He and his companions were canonized together in 1888 as the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order.

Quick Facts

• Born: date unknown, in Florence, Italy
• Died: April 18, 1266
• Feast Day: February 17 (Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order)
• Canonized: January 15, 1888, by Pope Leo XIII (with his six companions)
• Patron of: the Order of Friar Servants of Mary (Servites)

Who Was Saint Bartholomew Amidei?

Saint Bartholomew, remembered in Servite tradition by the surname Amidei, was one of seven laymen from Florence who, in 1233, gave up their positions in the city’s merchant and civic life to withdraw together into a life of penance, prayer, and devotion to the Virgin Mary, an act that became the founding moment of the Order of Friar Servants of Mary, better known as the Servites. According to the order’s own tradition, the seven men, members of a Marian confraternity active in Florence, experienced a shared call to leave the world during a period of civic strife and moral laxity in the city, retreating first to a house outside the city walls and later to the more remote site of Monte Senario in the hills above Florence, where they adopted a hermit’s life of extreme simplicity. Over time, the small community they formed developed into a structured religious order under the Rule of Saint Augustine, combining contemplative withdrawal with active preaching and pastoral care, and devotion to the sorrows of Mary at the foot of the cross became one of its distinctive spiritual emphases. Bartholomew, along with his six companions, is honored as a co-founder of this new religious family, and he died in 1266, having lived to see the order he helped establish grow beyond its original small circle.

Historical Setting

Bartholomew’s founding act belongs to the vibrant and often turbulent world of thirteenth-century Florence, a rapidly growing commercial city whose wealth and civic ambition were matched by intense political factionalism and, according to Servite tradition, a degree of public moral laxity that troubled devout laypeople of the time. This was also the great century of the mendicant orders, the era in which the Franciscans and Dominicans, founded within a generation of the Servites, transformed religious life across Europe by combining vowed poverty with active ministry among ordinary people rather than confining religious life to enclosed monasteries. The Servite founders’ movement from a Marian confraternity of laymen into a formally recognized religious order reflects this broader thirteenth-century pattern, in which lay devotional groups increasingly organized themselves into structured communities under Church approval, seeking a way of life that combined ascetic withdrawal with genuine engagement in the pastoral needs of the city they had left.

Why the Church Venerates Saint Bartholomew Amidei

The Church venerates Bartholomew, together with his six companions, as a founder of one of the enduring religious orders to emerge from the thirteenth century, honored collectively because the tradition surrounding the order’s origin emphasizes their shared and simultaneous call rather than the initiative of any single leader among them. Their veneration highlights the value the Church places on communal discernment and cooperative founding, a contrast to religious orders traced to a single charismatic figure, and their particular devotion to the sorrowful Mother of Christ at the foot of the cross has shaped the distinctive Marian spirituality the Servite order carries to this day. Bartholomew’s individual biography is less documented than the collective story of the seven, and the Church honors him chiefly as part of that shared founding witness rather than for actions distinctly his own.

Canonization and Feast Day

Bartholomew and his six companions were canonized together as the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order by Pope Leo XIII on January 15, 1888, a single canonization that recognized their shared founding of the order rather than separating out individual causes. Their joint feast is celebrated on February 17, commemorating all seven founders together, and the date is observed with particular solemnity by the Servite order and its affiliated communities worldwide. Because the founders are venerated collectively, individual biographical or chronological details about Bartholomew himself, including his exact birth date, are less firmly documented than the shared narrative of the order’s founding.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

The witness of Bartholomew and his fellow founders speaks to the value of communal, rather than purely individual, discernment in responding to a call from God. None of the seven is remembered in Servite tradition as the sole architect of the new order; instead, the tradition insists that they arrived together at the same conviction and acted on it as a group, a pattern that offers a corrective to any tendency to think of significant spiritual initiative as necessarily the work of one dominant personality. For Catholics today discerning major decisions, whether a vocation, a new ministry, or a significant change of life, the Servite founders’ example suggests real value in seeking out companions who share a similar call, and in trusting a decision confirmed by a shared community rather than reached in isolation.

A Prayer to Saint Bartholomew Amidei

Saint Bartholomew, one among seven who together left the comforts of Florence to seek God in poverty and prayer, you show that a call from God is sometimes best answered not alone but alongside companions who share the same conviction. Help me to seek out and value the community of faith around me, and to trust the wisdom that comes from discerning together rather than only in isolation. You and your companions turned your gaze toward the sorrows of Mary at the foot of the cross; teach me to keep that same compassion before my eyes, especially toward those who suffer near me. Pray for the Servite family you helped found, and for all who seek to answer God’s call in the company of others. Amen.

Sources

• the Order of Friar Servants of Mary (Servite Order) historical records
• the Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent)
• Vatican.va (canonization records, 1888)
• the Roman Martyrology