Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Frati Gaudenti were a monk Brotherhood, which was founded in 1250 by six Cavalieri, including Bartolomeo da Breganze, Loderingo degli Andalò and Catalano dei Malavolti. The Order also belonged to the poet Fra Guittone d' Arezzo. In 1261 the Order of Pope Urban IV was recognized.

Character of the order was a Templar cross with two six -pointed stars.

The most prominent opponents of the Order, who in vain sought a reconciliation between Guelphs and Ghibellines, was a partisan of the Guelphs, the Florentine Dante Alighieri. Dante Alighieri appreciates the Order in 23 singing his Divine Comedy. In the eighth circle of Hell, where hypocrites and sanctimonious and corrupt ecclesiastical and secular dignitaries are punished, Dante meets two Frati Gaudenti. The two are doomed, consecutively running around up slowly in a circle on his head a cap made of heavy lead.

The Order existed in Bologna to 1589 and in Treviso up in 1737.