Augustinian

Augustinian, member of any of the Roman Catholic religious orders and congregations of men and women whose constitutions are based on the Rule of St. Augustine. More specifically, the name is used to designate members of two main branches of Augustinians—namely, the Augustinian Canons and the Augustinian Hermits, with their female offshoots. The Rule comprises instructions on the religious life written by St. Augustine, the great Western theologian, and widely disseminated after his death in 430 ce.

The Augustinian Canons, or Austin Canons (in full the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine), were in the 11th century the first religious order of men in the Roman Catholic Church to combine clerical status with a full common life. The moral impulse emanating from the Roman synods of 1059 and 1063 and the Gregorian Reform led many canons to give up private ownership and to live together according to monastic ideals. By 1150 the adoption of the Rule of St. Augustine by these canons was almost universal. The order grew and flourished until the Protestant Reformation, during which time many of its foundations perished. The French Revolution also put an end to a number of its houses. Modern emphasis has been on mission, educational, and hospital work.

The Augustinian Hermits, or Austin Friars (in full the Order of the Hermit Friars of Saint Augustine; O.S.A.), were one of the four great mendicant orders of the Middle Ages. Dispersed by the Vandal invasion of northern Africa (c. 428), a number of congregations of hermits who had been following the Rule of St. Augustine founded monasteries in central and northern Italy. These remained independent of one another until the 13th century, when Pope Innocent IV in 1244 established them as one order and Alexander IV in 1256 called them from their solitary seclusion as hermits to an active lay apostolate in the cities. The order spread rapidly throughout Europe and took a prominent part in university life and ecclesiastical affairs; perhaps its most famous member was the Protestant reformer Martin Luther in the 16th century. Its members now dedicate themselves to several activities, including foreign missions, as well as to the advancement of learning by teaching and scholarly research.

An offshoot of the Augustinian Hermits is the Augustinian Recollects (O.A.R.), formed in the 16th century by friars who desired a rule of stricter observance and a return to the eremitic ideals of solitude and contemplation. In 1588 the monastery at Talavera de la Reina in Spain was designated for the Recollects, and Luis de León was directed to devise constitutions for their government, but the movement proved so popular that soon it required four monasteries. In 1602 the Recollects were established as a distinct province of the Augustinians and in 1912 as an independent order. They now engage in high-school and college teaching, administer parishes, and conduct retreats and missions.

Among nuns, the term Second Order of St. Augustine applies only to those nuns who are jurisdictionally dependent upon the Augustinian Friars. They were founded in 1264 and remained strictly cloistered until 1401, but at that date they began to accept third-order affiliates—women who desired to perform apostolic works outside the cloister, in schools, hospitals, and missions.

A distinct group is the Hospital Sisters of Hôtel-Dieu and Malestroit. Sisters following the Rule of St. Augustine were staffing the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris at least from about 1217. They not only survived the French Revolution but were even allowed to continue their work. Though expelled in 1907, they managed to open other hospitals and today maintain several institutions.