In 1424, with the Bull Apostolica Sedis providential, MartinV ratifies the organization of the Third Order, today called ‘Secular Order of the Servants of Mary’. In the fifteenth Century, the Priory of Santissima Annunziata and the Servite Priory at Bologna became study-centers.

 It is difficult to place Servite history within the chronological limits of the sixteenth century than of other centur­ies. The difficulty rises from the complex series of events which influenced the life of the Order in the sixteenth century and from the possibility of using other dates as points of reference (for example, the beginning of the Lutheran reform, 1517; the generalate of Fra Agostino Bonucci, 1542-1553; the Council of Trent, 1545-1563; the end of the Servite Observance, 1570; the restoration of the eremitic life at Monte Senario, 1593; the events surrounding Paolo Sarpi, 1552-1623, etc.). While in the fifteenth century the Order was guided by six priors general, in the period from the death of Alabanti (1495) to the death of Fra Angelo Maria Montorsoli (1600), the Order had twenty priors general, about half of whom were personally named by the pope.  Furthermore, in the early decades of the century, the Observance, already in decline, was seriously divided from the rest of the Order; by the end of the century (1570), however, the Servants were fully reunited.       

The Priors General Agostino Bonucci (1542-1553) and Lorenzo Mazzocchino (1554-1557) represented the Order in the Council of Trent. Inspired by the reform promoted by the Council of Trent, the Order set about reviewing and updating its Constitutions. We have already spoken of the "Constitutions" of Bonucci pro­mulgated by the general chapter of Budrio in 1548.  The first entirely revised constitutional text was printed in, Rome in 1556 during the generalate of Mazzocchio and then in 1569. The finally revised text was printed in the year 1580 during the generelate of Fra. Giacomo Tavanti.

At the end of the sixteenth century, two eminent Servants of Mary were working for the reform of the Order. They were Fra Lelio Baglioni and Fra Angelo Maria Montorsoli.  Both were priors general: the first from 1590 to 1597, the second from 1597 to 1600. Montor­soli was the nephew of the sculptor Giovannangelo Montorsoli (1507-1563), a disciple of Michelangelo and a Servite friar, well known for the fountains of Messina, the marble main altar of Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna and noteworthy works of art in Genoa. Fra Lelio Baglioni is credited with reforming the Order "from the top," by a series of concrete directives and by beginning the Congregation of Hermits at Monte Senario. In 1570, the Congregation of the Observance was reunified with the Order. At the end of the fifteenth century, there were 240 Servite Priories. And there were more than 1800 friars in the Order.

 It must be noted that the seventeenth century represents a particularly remarkable period in the history of the Order for the great figure of  Fra. Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623), a man of exceptional spiritual and intellectual caliber. He was an exemplary friar but was severely opposed by the Roman Curia. Sarpi's intense activities as consultor of the Republic of Venice are well documented in Italian history.

The foundations of the Servants of Mary began at Innsbruck (1613), spread to the rest of Austria, Bohemia, Germany and Hungary, and formed the Germanic Observance.  From the begin­ning they were marked by the spirituality of the hermits of Monte Senario. And it was much insisted and developed by Anna Caterina Gonzaga. The official end of Germnaic Observance came in 1908.

The Pope Innocent X, after having made a detailed census of the religious Orders, with the constitution Instauran­dae regularis disciplinae of 1652 insisted that the houses that could not support their religious should be suppressed and impeded the desired reform of religious orders and the renewal of regular observance. The application of the papal directive required the suppression of 102 of the Order’s 261 houses existing in Italy in 1650. The Annals of the Order considered this entire affair to have been a disaster, but the history of the Order in succeeding decades belies that judgment. The annals of the order was first published in 1618. And Collegio Gandavense was given new life in 1666 and new academic diplomas in Theology were conferred. The Pontifical Theological Faculty Marianum succeeded the Collegio Gandavense. And in the year 1671 Philip Benizi was canonized and it was celebrated very solemnly. The life-style of the friars in Monte Senario influenced the whole Order during the generelate of Giulio Arrighetti who was Prior general from 1682 to 1700.

Some important figures in the Servite history of the 17th century are: Arcangelo Gianni (…-1623), Luigi M. Garbi (…-1722), Placido Bonfrizieri (…-1732), the artists Giovanni Angelo Lottini, Arsenio Mascagni who made the paintings in the Castle and the Cathedral of Salzburg, painter Giovanni Battista Stefaneschi, and Pierre Paul Perrier  Duprè. And also a few others who are worthy of mention are: Maria Bendetta (Elisabetta) Rossi (…-1648), founder of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie di Burano (Venice), and Arcangela Biondini, founder of the Monastery of Arco.    

The events and the life of the Order in the eighteenth century look like a kaleidoscope of contrasting and even contra­dictory features.  In the first half of the century the Servants of Mary reached the highest number of friars in their entire history.  But the suppressions at the end of the century and in the first decade of the nineteenth century brought about the closing of a large number of priories and the dispersal of the majority of their friars.

A detailed program of studies (Methodus studi philosophici et theologici) prepared by Fra Francesco Raimondo Adami in 1769.  Taken together, these constitute a true and proper Ratio studiorum of the Order around the middle of the eighteenth century.

In the hundred years from 1770 to the fall of Rome in 1870 the Order experienced a series of suppressions that decimated its presence in Europe.  These suppressions, beginning in the eighteenth century, were part of a general policy directed against religious orders first in the France of Louis XV, then in the Hapsburg Empire, and finally under Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1778-79, the Hermetical Congress of Monte Senario was suppressed.

From 1719, the Servites Giovanni Domenico Fabris and Sos­tegno M. Viani took part in the legation of Carlo Ambrogio Mezzabarba to China in the context of the Chinese rites controversy, which was not finally settled until the time of Pope Pius XII.

 The distinguished servites of this period are: Uguccione (Antonio) M. Dias Quaresma who got special constitutions approved by Pope Clement XII in 1734 for a Servite Third Order Regular to be established in Brazil; Fra. Filippo M. Serrati who tried to found the Servite Order in China (1738-1744); Carlo Francesco M. Caselli, Theological consultant to Giuseppe Spina and later to Cardinal Consalvi in the negotiations for a concordat between Napoleon and the Holy See; Fra Amadio Berton­celli who was executed in Ancona on 16 September 1809, as he was accused of being in possession of alarming correspondence with the Holy See.

A few other figures worthy of mention are: Maria Luisa Masturzi who is said to be in connection with the foundation of the Monastery of Rome (Colle Fanella), and Mary Maddalena di Gesù (Piazza), founder of the monastery of Montecchio Emilia.

In looking at the servite history during the nineteenth Century in general terms, 1815 stands out as the beginning of a short-lived revival, whereas the later 1800s and early 1900s would see a solid and lasting rebirth, starting slowly and gradually increasing right through to the 1960s. In the very middle of this time-span (1815-1964) we find the canonization of the Seven Holy Founders of the Order (1888), an event which is closely bound up with the revitalization of the Order in the twentieth century. For an Order of limited size like the Servants of Mary which had already suffered under previous assaults and which was located almost entirely in Italy, the laws of suppression proved almost fatal. A letter from the prior general, Fra Bonfiglio M. Mura, in 1863 urges remedial action and speaks of "a question of life or death." In 1864, the first non-­Italian prior general, Bonfiglio M. Mura (1859-1868) sent Fra. Filippo M. Bosio and Fra. Agostino M. Morini to England to found the Order there. In 1874 Fra. Agostino Morini founded the Order in the United States of America. It was during this period of renewed devotion to Servite saints and blessed that the Order took up again the process for the canonization of the Seven Founders. In 1884 Pope Leo XIII personally decreed that the cause of the Seven could go ahead, after an interval of nearly 150 years, with four miracles obtained by invoking the Seven as a group considered sufficient. The decree approving the four miracles that had been presented was published on 27 November 1887. On the 15th of January 1888, the Seven Founders were canonized in Rome. Fra. Antony M. Pucci was also present for the canonization rite of the Seven Holy Founders. Four years after the canonization of the Seven Holy Founders Fra. Antony M. Pucci died and was canonized in 1962.

The canonization, which occurred during a period in which the repressive laws against religious institutes in Italy were being gradually eased, gave renewed confidence to the entire Order. And if its achievement is linked to the name of the prior general, Fr. Pier Francesco M. Testa (1882-1888), its earlier preparation must be attributed to predecessors like Fr. Giovanni Angelo M. Mondani (1868-1882), and even to Fr. Bonfiglio M. Mura, a close friend of Pope Leo XIII.

From the middle of the nineteenth century onward a number of congregations of sisters from different parts of the world have come to join the wider family of the Servants of Mary.