The Order of the Servants of Mary reached Siena in 1250, a few years after its foundation on Mount Senario (1233) near Florence. The bishop of Siena, Bonfiglio degli Ugurgeri, was particularly well disposed towards the new mendicant orders, and for this reason invited Alessio Falconieri, one of the Seven Holy Founders, to Siena to have him build a convent here. Initially, the Servites settled near the area of Castel Montorio, on the south side of Siena but outside the city walls, on land granted them by the Piccolomini family, highlighting the Order’s original inclination towards a life detached from that lived by the population in the city, differently from the Franciscans and Dominicans who were immediately immersed in the active life of the new towns. Soon, however, both the Captain of the People and the bishop began to insist that the friars move inside the city walls. The propitious occasion came in 1259, when the parish priest was forced to leave the ancient church of San Clemente, located in the Castel Montorio area, because of the great disrepair into which it had fallen. The bishop of Siena, Fra Tommaso, offered the Servites this site to build their new convent, and work began in 1263. The importance acquired by the Servite Order in just a few years is demonstrated by the indulgence promulgated by Bishop Rinaldo in the closing years of the thirteenth century for those . . .