Jesuati

Colombini had been a prosperous merchant and a senator in his native city, but, coming under ecstatic religious influences, abandoned secular affairs and his wife and daughter (after making provision for them), and with a friend of like temperament, Francesco Miani, gave himself to a life of apostolic poverty, penitential discipline, hospital service and public preaching.

The senate banished Colombini from Siena for "imparting foolish ideas to the young men of the city", and he continued his mission in Arezzo and other places, only to be honourably recalled home on the outbreak of the bubonic plague.

[1] Howard Eves[4] writes that the order was then "dedicated to nursing and burying the victims of the rampant bubonic plague."

[1] Their rule of life, originally a compound of Benedictine and Franciscan elements, was later modified on Augustinian lines, but traces of the early penitential idea persisted, e.g. the wearing of sandals and a daily flagellation.

Later in the 17th century the Jesuati became known as the Aquavitae Fathers,[1] possibly because of the alcohol they administered as medical treatment of the sick they cared for.