Interior search
Augustine’s spirituality begins with the restless human heart seeking truth and finding its rest in God.
The Order of Saint Augustine
A history shaped by community
The Augustinian Order did not begin as a community personally founded by Saint Augustine. Its spiritual roots lie in his life and Rule; its institutional form arose centuries later when the Church united groups of hermits into a single mendicant order.
“One mind and one heart intent upon God.”
Common life
Prayer, friendship, shared possessions, humility, and mutual care make the community itself a witness to the Gospel.
Service to the Church
Contemplation opens outward into preaching, education, pastoral care, mission, justice, and service wherever the Church has need.
From Africa to the world
The historical journey
Augustine of Hippo
After his conversion and baptism in 387, Augustine returned to North Africa and formed a community at Tagaste devoted to prayer, study, common life, and service. As priest and later bishop of Hippo, he continued this communal ideal and established communities of laymen and clerics.
The Rule of Saint Augustine
Augustine’s short Rule gave religious communities a durable pattern: live together in harmony, share possessions, seek God inwardly, pray faithfully, and place charity above individual preference. It became one of the most influential rules in Western religious life.
The first union
Pope Innocent IV issued Incumbit nobis on 16 December 1243, calling several Tuscan hermit communities to unite under Augustine’s Rule. Their founding chapter met in Rome in March 1244, elected a prior general, and formed the Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine.
The Grand Union
With Licet Ecclesiae Catholicae, Pope Alexander IV brought several additional eremitical congregations into one Order. Meeting at Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, the new federation united roughly 180 houses spread across much of Europe.
From hermitage to the cities
The Augustinians became mendicant friars: religious brothers living in community while preaching, teaching, hearing confessions, serving the poor, and working in growing European towns. Their identity joined contemplative roots to an active apostolic mission.
Reform, mission, and upheaval
Observant reform movements sought a stricter common life, while Augustinian missionaries carried the Gospel beyond Europe. The Order also endured the Reformation, religious conflict, state suppression, and the closure or loss of many houses.
Renewal and worldwide service
Communities were restored and new missions, parishes, schools, universities, and social ministries developed across the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. The Order increasingly expressed its ancient charism within diverse local cultures.
One mind and one heart
The Order of Saint Augustine is an international Catholic brotherhood serving in 49 countries. Its friars profess poverty, chastity, and obedience and serve through parish ministry, education, scholarship, missions, social outreach, and care for those in need.
A living inheritance
What remained constant
Across changing centuries, Augustinian life has held together four elements: Augustine’s teaching, the hermits’ contemplative inheritance, the fraternity created by the papal unions, and the outward-facing mission of a mendicant order. The result is an apostolic brotherhood that seeks God together and serves the Church from the life it shares in common.