Augustinians


Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13th centuries:
There are also some Anglican religious orders created in the 19th century that follow Augustine's rule. These are composed only of women in several different communities of Augustinian nuns.
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Charism

In a religious community, "charism" is the particular contribution that each religious order, congregation or family and its individual members embody. The teaching and writing of Augustine, the Augustinian Rule, and the lives and experiences of Augustinians over sixteen centuries help define the ethos and special charism of the order.
As well as telling his disciples to be "of one mind and heart on the way towards God", Augustine of Hippo taught that "Nothing conquers except truth and the victory of truth is love", and the pursuit of truth through learning is key to the Augustinian ethos, balanced by the injunction to behave with love towards one another. It does not unduly single out the exceptional, especially favour the gifted, nor exclude the poor or marginalised. Love is not earned through human merit, but received and given freely by God's free gift of grace, totally undeserved yet generously given. These same imperatives of affection and fairness have driven the order in its international missionary outreach. This balanced pursuit of love and learning has energised the various branches of the order into building communities founded on mutual affection and intellectual advancement. The Augustinian ideal is inclusive.
Augustine spoke passionately of God's "beauty so ancient and so new", and his fascination with beauty extended to music. He taught that "whoever sings prays twice" and music is also a key part of the Augustinian ethos. Contemporary Augustinian musical foundations include the famous Augustinerkirche in Vienna, where orchestral masses by Mozart and Schubert are performed every week, as well as the at Sankt Florian in Austria, a school conducted by Augustinian canons, a choir now over 1,000 years old.
Augustinians have also produced a formidable body of scholarly works.

Orders, groups, and societies

Canons Regular

The Canons Regular follow the more ancient form of religious life which developed toward the end of the first millennium and thus predates the founding of the friars. They represent a clerical adaptation of monastic life, as it grew out of an attempt to organize communities of clerics to a more dedicated way of life, as St. Augustine himself had done. Historically it paralleled the lay movement of monasticism or the eremetical life from which the friars were later to develop. In their tradition, the canons added the commitment of religious vows to their primary vocation of pastoral care. As the canons became independent of the diocesan structures, they came to form their own monastic communities. The official name of the Order is the Canons Regular of St. Augustine.

Like the Order of St. Benedict, it is not one legal body, but a union of various independent congregations. Though they also follow the Rule of St. Augustine, they differ from the friars in not committing themselves to corporate poverty, which is a defining element of the mendicant orders. Unlike the friars and like monks, the canons are generally organized as one large community to which they are attached for life with a vow of stability. Their houses are given the title of an abbey, from which the canons then tend to various surrounding towns and villages for spiritual services. The religious superior of their major houses is titled an abbot. Smaller communities are headed by a prior or provost.
The distinctive habit of canons regular is the rochet, worn over a cassock or tunic, which is indicative of their clerical origins. This has evolved in various ways among different congregations, from wearing the full rochet to the wearing of a white tunic and scapular. The Austrian congregation, as an example, wears a sarozium, a narrow band of white cloth—a vestige of the scapular—which hangs down both front and back over a cassock for their weekday wear. For more solemn occasions, they wear the rochet under a violet mozzetta.
Communities of canons served the poor and the sick throughout Europe, through both nursing and education. They include the canons of the Great St. Bernard Hospice at Great St. Bernard Pass in the Alps on the border of Switzerland, where they have served travelers since the mid-11th century. This community is the one which developed the familiar breed of St. Bernard to assist the canons in their ability to find travelers buried by avalanches. The Congregation of the Great St. Bernard is a member of the Confederation of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine.
The Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem are a newly founded Tridentine rite congregation.

Augustinian Friars

The 2008 Constitutions of the Order of St. Augustine states that the Order of Saint Augustine is composed of the following:
In addition to these three branches, the Augustinian family also includes other groups:
a) religious institutes, both male and female, formally aggregated to the Order by a decree of the Prior General other groups of lay Augustinians; c) lay faithful affiliated to the Order.
The Augustinian, or Austin, friars They do not take vows of stability, meaning that they can live in one house They are engaged in apostolic activity, such as mission work, education, prison ministries, etc. The Order is under the supervision of a Prior General in Rome, and as an international Order they are divided into various Provinces throughout the world, with each Province being led by a Prior Provincial. As an Order, they have a special commitment to corporate poverty as opposed to simply the poverty professed by the individual friar. While this is not currently legislated as it was in the origins of the Order, this is to be a distinguishing mark of their lives as a community.
As consecrated religious, Augustinians profess the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience. They follow the Rule of St. Augustine, written sometime between 397 and 403 for a monastic community Augustine founded in Hippo, and which takes as its inspiration the early Christian community described in the Acts of the Apostles, particularly Acts 4:32: "The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.".
By decree of the Holy See, the Augustinian Order is granted exempt status, which places it under the direct dependence on the Pope, meaning that bishops have no jurisdiction with regards to the internal affairs of the Order.

History of the Friars

The Augustinian friars originated after the older Canons Regular. The friars represented part of the mendicant movement of the 13th century, a new form of religious life which sought to bring the religious ideals of monastic life into an urban setting which allowed the religious to serve the needs of the People of God in an apostolic capacity. At this time a number of eremitical groups lived in such diverse places as Tuscany, Latium, Umbria, Liguria, England, Switzerland, Germany, and perhaps France. In 1243 the Tuscan hermits petitioned Pope Innocent IV to unite them all as one group. On 16 December 1243 Innocent IV issued the bull Incumbit Nobis, an essentially pastoral letter which, despite its brevity, basically served as the magna carta initiating the foundation of the Order as it is known today. This papal bull exhorted these hermits to adopt the Rule and way of life of the Blessed Augustine, to profess this Augustinian manner of life in a way that they themselves would decide with regards to their specific charism and apostolate, and to elect a Prior General. The bull also appointed Cardinal as their supervisor and legal guide. The importance of this man in the foundation of the Order cannot be overstated.
As decreed by the Bull Praesentium Vobis, the Tuscan hermits came together for a general chapter in March 1244, a chapter presided over by Cardinal Annibaldi. At this chapter the Order formally adopted the Rule of St. Augustine and determined to follow the Roman office with the Cistercian psalter, and to hold triennial elections of the Prior General. The first Prior General was Friar Matthew, followed by Adjutus and Philip. In the papal bull Pia desideria, issued on 31 March 1244, Pope Innocent IV formally approved the foundation of the Order.
In 1256 Innocent's successor Alexander IV called together various other hermit groups from around the Catholic world and ultimately joined them to this existing Augustinian Order. From June to July 1255 he issued 22 bulls of instruction, encouragement, and protection of the young Order. His bull Cum Quaedam Salubria summoned all the hermits of St. Augustine and St. William to send two representatives to Rome for a General Chapter, again to be held under the supervision of his nephew, Cardinal Annibaldi. During this Chapter the following groups of hermits, inter alia, were amalgamated to the Order, which up to then had only consisted of the groups of the Tuscan hermits:
This historical union has subsequently been termed the Grand Union of 1256. At this Chapter Lanfranc Settala, the leader of the Bonites, was elected Prior General. The 12-year-old religious Order of friars now consisted of 100 or more houses.
On 22 August 1256 the Italian Williamites, unhappy with the arrangement of the Grand Union, left the Order and adopted the Rule of St. Benedict.
The early years in the order's history featured a great devotion to learning, to study, to prayer, to service of the poor, and to defense of the Pope and the Church – a particular charism of the Order rooted in the fact that it is the only Order in the history of the Church to be founded directly by a Pope. In his work The Life of the Brothers, the 14th-century Augustinian historian and friar Jordan of Saxony writes:"It is certain that in its modern state the Order is principally founded on spiritual works, those that pertain to the contemplative life. These are as follows: the singing of the divine office; the service of the altar; prayer; psalm singing; devotion to reading or study of sacred scripture; teaching and preaching the word of God; hearing confessions of the faithful; bringing about the salvation of souls by word and example."
The Augustinians count among their number over a dozen saints and numerous members declared blessed by the Church.

Organization of the order

The Augustinian Hermits, while following the rule known as that of St. Augustine, are also subject to the Constitutions, first drawn up by Augustinus Novellus, Prior General of the Order from 1298 to 1300, and by Clement of Osimo. A revision was made at Rome in 1895. The Constitutions were revised again and published at Rome in 1895, with additions in 1901 and 1907. Today, the Order follows the Constitutions approved in the Ordinary General Chapter of 2007.
The government of the order is as follows: At the head is the Prior General, elected every six years by the General Chapter. The Prior General is aided by six assistants and a secretary, also elected by the General Chapter. These form the Curia Generalitia. Each province is governed by a Prior Provincial, each commissariat by a Commissary General, each of the two congregations by a Vicar General, and every monastery by a Prior and every college by a Rector. The members of the Order number both priests and lay brothers. The Augustinians, like most religious orders, have a Cardinal Protector.
The choir and outdoor dress of the friars is a tunic of black woolen material, with long, wide sleeves, a black leather girdle, and a large shoulder cape to which is attached a long, pointed hood reaching to the girdle. The indoor dress consists of a black tunic and scapular, over which the shoulder cape is worn. In many monasteries, white was formerly the color worn in areas where there were no Dominicans. In hot climates Augustinians tend to wear white habits as they are easily distinguishable with the Dominicans.
The Augustinians follow the rule of St. Augustine which is divided into 8 chapters. The Augustinians also use the charism or "gift from the Holy Spirit" to guide the communal life.

Charism of the Order of St. Augustine

Like the rule it has three parts: spirituality ; fraternity ; and ministry.

Discalced and Recollect friars

The Discalced Augustinians were formed in 1588 in Italy as a reform movement of the Order and have their own constitutions, differing from those of the other Augustinians. Their fasts are more rigorous and their other ascetic practices stricter. They wear sandals, not shoes, a practice which accounts for their name. In an effort to preserve their roots in the hermit life, the Discalced Augustinians practice strict silence and have in every province a house dedicated to recollection situated in some retired place, to which friars striving after greater perfection can retire in order to practice severe penance, living only on water, bread, fruits, olive oil and wine.
The Augustinian Recollects developed in Spain in 1592 with the same goal. Currently, though, they are primarily found serving in pastoral care.

The Augustinians in North America

The North American foundation of the Order took place in 1796, when Irish friars arrived in Philadelphia. Michael Hurley was the first American to join the Order, the following year. The friars established schools throughout the Americas, including the two Augustinian institutions of higher learning in the United States: Villanova University in Pennsylvania and Merrimack College in Massachusetts.
The following high schools were also established: Malvern Preparatory School in Pennsylvania ; Augustinian Academy, Staten Island, NY. St. Rita of Cascia High School in Chicago ; St. Augustine High School in San Diego, California ; Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai, California ; Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa, Oklahoma ; Mendel Catholic High School ; Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania ; St. Augustine College Preparatory School in South Jersey ; Austin Preparatory School in Reading, Massachusetts ; Augustinian Academy, St. Louis, Missouri ; Providence Catholic High School, Diocese of Joliet in Illinois ; St. Thomas of Villanova College in King City, Ontario ; Austin Catholic High School, Diocese of Detroit in Michigan.

Aggregated communities

Other orders and groups belong within the Augustinian family either because they follow the Rule of Augustine, exist as independent societies, or have been formally aggregated through their constitutions into the worldwide Augustinian Order. These are not counted comprehensively in this article only because the Catholic Church's system of governance and accounting makes just the numbers of ordained clerics relatively accessible and verifiable. Some of these include:
Delegations of Central America
Vicariate of Antilles
Vicariate of Apurimac
Vicariate of Argentina
Province of Belgium
Province of Bolivia
Delegation of Brazil
Vicariate of Brazil
Province of Cebu
Province of California
Province of Canada
Province of Castille
Province of Chile
Vicariate of Chulucanas
Province of Colombia
Vicariate of the Congo
Delegation of Cuba
Province of Germany
Province of Spain
Vicariate of India
Vicariate of Iquitos
Province of Italy
Vicariate of Japan
Delegation of Kenya
Delegation of Korea
Province of Madrid
Province of Mechoacan
Province of Mexico
Province of Nigeria
Vicariate of the Orient
Vicariate of Panama
Delegation of Indonesia
Province of Peru
Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines
Province of Santo Niño de Cebu, Philippines
Province of Poland
Province of Quito
Delegation of Tanzania
Vicariate of Venezuela
Vicariate of Vienna

Augustinian lay societies

The lay societies are voluntary groups, generally made up of people who are either married or single and have sympathy with, and interest in, the Augustinian approach to life. These lay people do not take monastic vows, but offer support to the work of the Augustinian Order in voluntary work, gifts of money and goods, and of study and promotion of St. Augustine and Augustinian teaching.
The primary among these are the Third Orders associated with the various branches of the mendicant Orders. These are the Augustinian Lay Community and the Secular Augustinian Recollects. They make a formal and public commitment as laity to follow as best as possible the life and charism of the Order.
Other associations which support the spirit and work of the friars and Sisters include: the Brotherhood of the Virgin Mary of the Belt in Italy, the Friends of Augustine in the Philippines, and the Augustinian Friends in Australia.