The Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of Lucca are a Roman Catholic congregation of priests.
They were founded by Saint Giovanni Leonardi, son of middle-class parents, who was born in 1541 at Diecimo, Republic of Lucca. He was ordained on December 22, 1572.
His congregation may be said to have begun in 1574. Two or three young laymen, attracted by his sanctity and the sweetness of his character, had gathered round him to submit themselves to his spiritual guidance and help him in the work for the reform of manners and the saving of souls which he had begun even as a layman. Giovanni rented the beautiful little church of Santa Maria della Rosa and in a quarter close by, something like community life was started. It was here, when it became evident that Giovanni's lay helpers were preparing for the priesthood and that something like a religious order was in process of formation, that a storm of persecution broke out against the devoted founder. The Fathers of the republic seem to have had a real fear that a native religious order, if spread over Italy, would cause the affairs of the little state to become too well known to its neighbours. The persecution, however, was so effective and lasting, that Leonardi practically spent the rest of his life in banishment from Lucca, only being now and again admitted by special decree of the Senate, unwillingly extracted under papal pressure. In 1580 Giovanni acquired secretly the ancient church of Santa Maria Cortelandini (popularly known as Santa Maria Nera) which his sons hold to this day.
In 1583, the congregation was canonically erected at the instigation of Pope Gregory XIII by Alessandro Guidiccioni, Bishop of Lucca, and confirmed by the papal Brief of Clement VIII "Ex quo divina majestas", 13 October 1595. The congregation at this time only took simple vows of chastity, perseverance, and obedience, and was known as the Congregation of Clerks Secular of the Blessed Virgin.
In 1596, Clement VIII nominated Leonardi commissary Apostolic for the reform of the monks of the Order of Monte Vergine and in 1601 the cardinal protector appointed him to carry out a similar work among the Vallombrosans. In 1601, he obtained the church of S. Maria in Portico in Rome. In the same year, Cardinal Baronius became protector of the congregation. Giovanni Leonardi died in Rome 9 October 1609, aged sixty-eight, and was buried in Santa Maria in Portico.
The present church of the congregation in Rome, obtained in 1662, is Santa Maria in Campitelli (called also Santa Maria in Portico) interesting to Englishmen as the first titular church of the Cardinal of York. The body of the founder was removed to this church and lies there under the altar of St. John the Baptist. Giovanni Leonardi was declared Venerable in 1701, beatified by Pius IX in 1861, and canonized by Pius XI on 17 April 1938. His feast day is celebrated on 9 October in the General Calendar of the Catholic Church.
In 1614, Paul V confided to the congregation the care of the so-called Pious Schools. It is in his Brief "Inter Pastoralis" that the congregation is first called "of the Mother of God", having until then been known by its original name of "Clerks Secular of the Blessed Virgin". The care of these schools being considered outside the scope of the congregation, it was relieved of their charge by the same pontiff in 1617.
It was not until 3 November 1621 that Gregory XV, carrying out what was always in the founder's mind, erected the congregation into a religious order proper by permitting its members to take solemn vows, and it henceforth became the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God.
Giovanni Leonardi received many offers of churches during his life, but with a view of conciliating the governing body of the republic thought it better to refuse them. In all its history the Order has never had more than fifteen churches. In 2008 it had eight, all of them in Italy. They include Santa Maria Cortelandini, in Lucca, and Santa Maria in Campitelli, in Rome.
In the sacristy of Santa Maria Cortelandini is preserved a large portion of a hair-shirt of St. Thomas of Canterbury whose feast is celebrated there with considerable ceremony; in 1908 half of this relic was presented to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Thomas, Erdington, England. The former residence of the clerks, who kept a large boys' school until the suppression in 1867, became the public library of Lucca.
Two of the original companions of the holy founder, Cesare Franciotti and Giovanni Cioni, have been declared Venerable. The order is known for numerous scholars and writers. Suffice it to mention Giovanni Domenico Mansi, editor of the "Councils" and a hundred other works.
The arms of the order are azure, Our Lady Assumed into Heaven; and its badge and seal the monogram of the Mother of God in Greek characters.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.