Who They Are

The Servants of Mary, also known as the Servite Sisters, are part of the international Servite Order, which traces its origins to 1233 in Florence, Italy. This branch was founded in 1912 to minister to St. Mary’s Parish School in Ladysmith, Wisconsin.

The congregation has a long legacy of teaching and caring for the sick in communities across the Midwest. Today, it includes around 21 women religious in the United States.

The Servite Sisters’ mission is “to be, like Mary, a compassionate presence in people’s lives” with the hope “all may know the presence and love of God and live in harmony with creation.”

Their Story

The Servants of Mary trace their roots to 1233, when seven Florentine merchants founded the Servite Order in response to a vision of the Virgin Mary. Nearly seven centuries later, that same call to serve echoed in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, where six women religious answered an invitation from the Servite Friars to staff St. Mary’s Parish School. Those six sisters became the congregation’s American founders in 1912.

From the start, the sisters shaped the community around them. In 1918, they established Ladysmith’s first hospital, opening its doors just as the Spanish flu swept across the country. Their response to that crisis revealed a pressing gap: more skilled caregivers were needed. The sisters addressed it directly, founding St. Mary’s School of Nursing, which trained 43 nurses before it closed in 1934.

As the congregation grew, the sisters extended their reach well beyond Ladysmith, staffing nearly 30 Catholic elementary schools across Florida, Illinois, and other states. They also founded Servite High School, which operated from 1959 to 1969, and Mount Senario College, a teacher preparation institution that served students from 1962 to 2002.

In 1932, the sisters acquired a 400-acre farm they named Our Lady of the Pines. It supplied eggs, meat, milk, and vegetables to the hospital and convent, and offered the sisters a welcome respite from convent routines. Though the property was sold in 1973, the Sisters’ Farm Trail System remains open to the community today.

Contributions and Legacy

Education has always been the heart of the Servants of Mary. The congregation began in 1912 when the Servite Friars invited women religious to serve at St. Mary’s Parish School. Six Sisters responded to this call, becoming the congregation’s founders.

Today, lay people carry on many of the Servite Sisters’ ministries in the United States, but they continue to respond to the call of God. Their charism — rooted in Mary’s own compassionate response to those in need — calls them to be a loving presence among God’s people and to find deep gladness in meeting the world’s deep need.