On the evening of March 24, 1908, in the church of the Sacred Heart in Como, Don Luigi Guanella and a group of his collaborators took their first simple perpetual vows as Servants of Charity.
Don Leonardo Mazzucchi, who would later be his second successor, recalls: "In that late hour, while the mysterious silence of the night made our hearts beat with unusual vigor [...] Don Luigi Guanella opened his lips to his humble, good, simple word: but it wasn't his mouth that spoke, it was his great heart, his holy soul [...]. When we heard him thank us for having given him the opportunity, by accepting his invitation and following him, to forge those blessed bonds before God [...]; oh! then our hearts could bear it no longer, and we shed tears of love, of holy exultation, of repentance, of gratitude that left a mark on our souls that will never be erased."