Rule of Saint Augustine

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Saint Augustine surrounded by Augustinian monks (Paduan school, 15th century), relief in the portal tympanum of the former Augustinian convent of Santo Stefano in Venice. The book inscription is the beginning of the Rule of Saint Augustine: ANTE O[MN]IA FRATRES CARISSIMI DILIGATVR DEVS DEINDE PROXIMVS QVIA ISTA PR[A]ECEPTA SVNT N[O]B[IS] DATA - "First of all, most beloved brothers, God shall be loved, thereafter the neighbour, for these instructions have been given to us." 7395 - Venezia - Ex convento di S. Stefano - An. padovano - S. Agostino e frati (sec. XV) - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto, 12-Aug-2007.jpg
Saint Augustine surrounded by Augustinian monks (Paduan school, 15th century), relief in the portal tympanum of the former Augustinian convent of Santo Stefano in Venice. The book inscription is the beginning of the Rule of Saint Augustine: ANTE O[MN]IA FRATRES CARISSIMI DILIGATVR DEVS DEINDE PROXIMVS QVIA ISTA PR[A]ECEPTA SVNT N[O]B[IS] DATA - "First of all, most beloved brothers, God shall be loved, thereafter the neighbour, for these instructions have been given to us."

The Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about the year 400, is a brief document divided into eight chapters and serves as an outline for religious life lived in community. [1] It is the oldest monastic rule in the Western Church. [2]

Contents

The rule, developed by Augustine of Hippo (354–430), governs chastity, poverty, obedience, detachment from the world, the apportionment of labour, the inferiors, fraternal charity, prayer in common, fasting and abstinence proportionate to the strength of the individual, care of the sick, silence and reading during meals. It came into use on a wide scale from the twelfth century onwards and continues to be employed today by many orders, including the Dominicans, Servites, Mercederians, Norbertines, and Augustinians.

Monastic life of Saint Augustine

In 388, Augustine returned from Milan to his home in Thagaste. He then sold his patrimony and gave the money to the poor. The only thing he kept was the estate, which he converted into a monastic foundation for himself and a group of friends with whom he shared a life of prayer. Later as bishop he invited his priests to share a community life with him. [2]

Augustine followed the monastic or religious life as it was known to his contemporaries, drafting rules for the monks and nuns of Roman Africa. Like St. Basil, Augustine's view diverged from that of the earlier eremitical approach of strict physical austerities. In The Ways of the Catholic Church, Augustine observed contemporary criticisms of the methods of the Eastern hermits in the Egyptian desert. It was said that their extreme isolation and excessive asceticism "were no longer productive" for the church or society. In response to this, "Augustine promoted poverty of spirit and continence of the heart while living in the milieu of a town such as Hippo." [3]

In Hippo, the members of his monastic house lived in community while yet keeping to their pastoral obligations. For Augustine, 'the love of neighbour was simply another expression of the love of God." [3] He saw the call to service in the church a necessitas (necessity) to be heeded, even if it compromised a personal desire for contemplation and study. [3] One of the elements of communal living was simplicity of lifestyle. Regarding the use of property or possessions, Augustine did not make a virtue of poverty, but of sharing. Augustine wrote frequently on prayer, but prescribed no specific method, system, or posture; although he highly endorsed the psalms.

Several of his friends and disciples elevated to the episcopacy imitated his example, among them Alypius at Tagaste, Possidius at Calama, [4] Profuturus and Fortunatus at Cirta, Evodius at Uzalis, and Boniface at Carthage.

Origins of the rule

The title, Rule of Saint Augustine, has been applied to each of the following documents:

The last is a treatise on eremitical life by Saint Ælred, Abbot of Rievaulx, England, who died in 1166. The two preceding rules are of unknown authorship. Letter 211 and Sermons 355 and 356 were written by Augustine. [5]

Letter 211

Saint Augustine wrote this letter in 423 to the nuns in a monastery at Hippo that had been governed by his sister and in which his cousin and niece lived. Though he wrote chiefly to quiet troubles incident to the nomination of a new superior, Augustine took the opportunity to discuss some of the virtues and practices essential to religious life as he understood it: he emphasised such considerations as charity, poverty, obedience, detachment from the world, the apportionment of labour, the mutual duties of superiors and inferiors, fraternal charity, prayer in common, fasting and abstinence proportionate to the strength of the individual, care of the sick, silence, and reading during meals. [5] This letter contains no such clear, minute prescriptions as are found in other monastic rules, such as that of Saint Pachomius or the anonymous document known as "the Rule of the Master". Nevertheless, the Bishop of Hippo is considered to have been a "law-giver" and his letter was to be read weekly, that the nuns might guard against or repent of any infringement of it. He considered poverty the foundation of the monastic life but attached no less importance to fraternal charity, which consists in living in peace and concord. The superior, in particular, was recommended to practice this virtue (though not, of course, to the extreme of omitting to chastise the guilty). Augustine leaves her free to determine the nature and duration of the punishment imposed, in some cases it being her privilege even to expel nuns that have become incorrigible. [5]

In Augustine's conception, the superior shares the duties of her office with certain members of her community, one of whom has charge of the sick, another of the cellar, another of the wardrobe, while still another is the guardian of the books which she is authorised to distribute among the sisters. The nuns make their own habits, which consist of a dress, a cincture, and a veil. Prayer, in common, occupies an important place in their life, being said in the chapel at stated hours and according to the prescribed forms, and comprising hymns, psalms, and readings. Certain prayers are simply recited while others, especially indicated, are chanted, but Augustine enters into no minute details, and leaves it to the custom of the local diocese, although it is clear from his other writings that the community celebrates daily Eucharist with the local Church. [6] Those sisters desiring to lead a more contemplative life are allowed to follow special devotions in private.

Fasting and abstinence are recommended only in proportion to the physical strength of the individual, and when the saint speaks of obligatory fasting he specifies that such as are unable to wait for the evening or ninth hour meal may eat at noon. The nuns partook of very frugal fare and, in all probability, abstained from meat. The sick and infirm are objects of the most tender care and solicitude, and certain concessions are made in favour of those who, before entering religion, led a life of luxury. During meals some instructive matter is to be read aloud to the nuns. Although the Rule of Saint Augustine contains but a few precepts, it dwells at great length upon religious virtues and the ascetic life, this being characteristic of all primitive rules.

De vitā et moribus clericorum suorum (On the Life and Practices of His Clergy)

In his sermons 355 and 356 the saint discourses on the monastic observance of the vow of poverty. Augustine sought to dispel suspicions harboured by the faithful of Hippo against the clergy leading a monastic life with him in his episcopal residence. Goods were held in common in conformity with the practice of the early Christians. This was called "the Apostolic Rule". At the same time, individuals do not receive precisely the same treatment in Augustine's Rule, since the needs of each person are different. [6]

De opere monachorum

Bishop Aurelius of Carthage was greatly disturbed by the conduct of monks who indulged in idleness under pretext of contemplation, and at his request St. Augustine published a treatise entitled De opere monachorum wherein he proves by the authority of the Bible, the example of the Apostles, and even the exigencies of life, that the monk is obliged to devote himself to serious labour. In several of his letters and sermons is found a useful complement to his teaching on the monastic life and duties it imposes. In his treatise, De opere monachorum, he inculcates the necessity of labour, without, however, subjecting it to any rule, the gaining of one's livelihood rendering it indispensable. Monks of course, devoted to the ecclesiastical ministry observe, ipso facto, the precept of labour, from which observance the infirm are legitimately dispensed.

These, then, are the most important monastic prescriptions found in the rule of and writings of Saint Augustine.

De vitā eremiticā ad sororem liber

"De vitâ eremiticâ ad sororem liber" is a treatise on eremitical life by St. Ælred, Abbot of Rievaulx, England, who died in 1166.

Early medieval influence

Between 430 and 570 Augustine's rule was carried to Europe by monks and clergy fleeing the persecution of the Vandals, [7] and was used by small groups of hermit monks and nuns, as well as by diocesan priests living in cathedral communities with their bishop. [2]

Augustine's writings influenced the development of Western monasticism. His Letter 211 was read and re-read by Saint Benedict, who borrowed several important texts from it for insertion in his own rule. Saint Benedict's chapter on the labour of monks is inspired by the treatise De opere monachorum. The teaching concerning religious poverty is formulated in the sermons "De vitâ et moribus clericorum suorum".

The influence of Augustine, however, was nowhere stronger than in southern Gaul in the fifth and sixth centuries. Lérins and the monks of that school were familiar with Augustine's monastic writings, which, together with those of Cassianus, were the mine from which the principal elements of their rules were drawn. Saint Caesarius, Archbishop of Arles, the great organiser of religious life in that section chose some of the most interesting articles of his rule for monks from St. Augustine, [8] and in his rule for nuns quoted at length from Letter 211. Saints Augustine and Caesarius were animated by the same spirit which passed from the Archbishop of Arles to Saint Aurelian, one of his successors, and, like him, a monastic Iawgiver. Augustine's influence also extended to women's monasteries in Gaul, where the Rule of Caesarius was adopted either wholly or in part, as, for example, at Sainte-Croix of Poitiers, Juxamontier of Besançon, and Chamalières near Clermont.

But it was not always enough merely to adopt the teachings of Augustine and to quote him; the author of the regula Tarnatensis (an unknown monastery in the Rhone valley) introduced into his work the entire text of the letter addressed to the nuns, having previously adapted it to a community of men by making slight modifications. This adaptation was surely made in other monasteries in the sixth or seventh centuries, and in his "Codex regularum" Saint Benedict of Aniane published a text similarly modified.

For want of exact information we cannot say in which monasteries this was done, and whether they were numerous. Letter 211, which has thus become the Rule of Saint Augustine, certainly constituted a part of the collections known under the general name of "Rules of the Fathers" and used by the founders of monasteries as a basis for the practices of the religious life. It does not seem to have been adopted by the regular communities of canons or of clerks which began to be organised in the eighth and ninth centuries. The rule given them by Saint Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz (742-766), is almost entirely drawn from that of Saint Benedict, [9] and no more decided traces of Augustinian influence are to be found in it than in the decisions of the Synods of Aachen (816–819), which may be considered the real constitutions of the canons Regular. For this influence we must await the foundation of the clerical or canonical communities established in the eleventh century for the effective counteracting of simony and clerical concubinage.

The religious life of the Bishop of Hippo was, for a long time, a matter of dispute between the Canons Regular and the Hermits of St. Augustine, each of these two families claiming him exclusively as its own. It was not so much the establishing of an historical fact as the settling of a claim of precedence that caused the trouble, and as both sides could not in the right, the quarrel would have continued indefinitely had not the Pope Sixtus IV put an end by his Bull "Summum Silentium" (1484).

Medieval adoption

By the eleventh century, various monks felt that the Rule of Saint Benedict (which had been the standard model for monastic life for the last five centuries) no longer satisfied the demands of a rapidly changing society, with its increasing urbanisation, growing literacy, and shifts in distribution of wealth and power. While in some cases this resulted in reforms aimed at restoring observance of the Benedictine Rule to its original purity, trimming away later additions, there also developed groups of clerics (or 'canons') living in community in a more rigorously ascetic lifestyle than that followed by the Rule of Saint Benedict, following the set of ancient texts known as the 'Rule of Saint Augustine'. These clerics were widely known as Canons Regular (in order to distinguish them from the traditional 'secular' canons who followed the older, Carolingian 'rule of Aachen'. [10] ), 'Augustinian canons', 'canons of St Augustine', 'Austin canons' or 'Black canons', Observance of this rule was approved for members of the clergy by the Council of Lateran (1059) and another council held at Rome four years later.

Adoption of the Rule of St Augustine subsequently spread rapidly through Western Europe. The early Victorine Canons embraced the Rule of St Augustine in 1113. In the year 1120, Norbert of Xanten chose the Rule of St Augustine as he founded the Premonstratensian Order. It was adopted by John of Matha in 1198 in founding the Trinitarian Order. At the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) it was accepted as one of the approved rules of the church. It was then adopted by the Order of Preachers in 1216 when their order received papal recognition. [11] It was also adopted by the Order of St Augustine in 1256, by the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit in 1308 and by the Order of Mercy. By the fifteenth century there were over 4500 houses in Europe following the rule. [12] Over 150 communities follow it today. [13]

Related Research Articles

Monasticism, also called monachism or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially in the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican traditions as well as in other faiths such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. In other religions, monasticism is criticized and not practiced, as in Islam and Zoroastrianism, or plays a marginal role, as in modern Judaism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monastery</span> Complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplace(s) of monks or nuns

A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, and may also serve as an oratory, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds. A monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary, and outlying granges. Depending on the location, the monastic order and the occupation of its inhabitants, the complex may also include a wide range of buildings that facilitate self-sufficiency and service to the community. These may include a hospice, a school, and a range of agricultural and manufacturing buildings such as a barn, a forge, or a brewery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustinians</span> Members of religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine

Augustinians are members of several 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:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monk</span> Member of a monastic religious order

A monk is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many religions and in philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian monasticism</span> Christian devotional practice

Christian monasticism is the devotional practice of Christians who live ascetic and typically cloistered lives that are dedicated to Christian worship. It began to develop early in the history of the Christian Church, modeled upon scriptural examples and ideals, including those in the Old Testament. It has come to be regulated by religious rules and, in modern times, the Canon law of the respective Christian denominations that have forms of monastic living. Those living the monastic life are known by the generic terms monks (men) and nuns (women). The word monk originated from the Greek μοναχός, itself from μόνος meaning 'alone'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caesarius of Arles</span> Merovingian archbishop and saint

Caesarius of Arles, sometimes called "of Chalon" from his birthplace Chalon-sur-Saône, was the foremost ecclesiastic of his generation in Merovingian Gaul. Caesarius is considered to be of the last generation of church leaders of Gaul who worked to integrate large-scale ascetic elements into the Western Christian tradition. William E. Klingshirn's study of Caesarius depicts Caesarius as having the reputation of a "popular preacher of great fervour and enduring influence". Among those who exercised the greatest influence on Caesarius were Augustine of Hippo, Julianus Pomerius, and John Cassian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hieronymites</span> Catholic cloistered monastics of Jerome

The Hieronymites or Jeronimites, also formally known as the Order of Saint Jerome, is a Catholic cloistered religious order and a common name for several congregations of hermit monks living according to the Rule of Saint Augustine, though the role principle of their lives is that of the 5th-century hermit and biblical scholar Jerome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Cassian</span> Christian monk and theologian

John Cassian, also known as John the Ascetic and John Cassian the Roman, was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated in both the Western and Eastern churches for his mystical writings. Cassian is noted for his role in bringing the ideas and practices of early Christian monasticism to the medieval West.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Double monastery</span> Monastery combining separate communities of monks and nuns

A double monastery is a monastery combining separate communities of monks and of nuns, joined in one institution to share one church and other facilities. The practice is believed to have started in the East at the dawn of monasticism. It is considered more common in the monasticism of Eastern Christianity, where it is traceable to the 4th century. In the West the establishment of double monasteries became popular after Columbanus and sprang up in Gaul and in Anglo-Saxon England. Double monasteries were forbidden by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, though it took many years for the decree to be enforced. Double monasteries were revived again after the 12th century in a significantly different way when a number of religious houses were established on this pattern among Benedictines and possibly the Dominicans. The 14th-century Bridgittines were purposely founded using this form of community.

Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a partly similar terminology.

A canoness is a member of a religious community of women living a simple life. Many communities observe the monastic Rule of St. Augustine. The name corresponds to the male equivalent, a canon, though some women may use the title canon and not canoness similar to the way actor is used rather than actress, e.g. Sarah Foot. The origin and Rule are common to both. As with the canons, there are two types: canonesses regular, who follow the Augustinian Rule, and secular canonesses, who follow no monastic Rule of Life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consecrated life</span> Type of lifestyle advocated by the Catholic Church

Consecrated life is a state of life in the Catholic Church lived by those faithful who are called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way. It includes those in institutes of consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, as well as those living as hermits or consecrated virgins/widows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enclosed religious orders</span> Christian religious orders separated from the external world

Enclosed religious orders or cloistered clergy are religious orders whose members strictly separate themselves from the affairs of the external world. In the Catholic Church, enclosure is regulated by the code of canon law, either the Latin code or the Oriental code, and also by the constitutions of the specific order. It is practised with a variety of customs according to the nature and charism of the community in question. This separation may involve physical barriers such as walls and grilles, with entry restricted for other people and certain areas exclusively permitted to the members of the convent. Outsiders may only temporarily enter this area under certain conditions. The intended purpose for such enclosure is to prevent distraction from prayer and the religious life and to keep an atmosphere of silence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustinian nuns</span>

Augustinian nuns are the most ancient and continuous segment of the Roman Catholic Augustinian religious order under the canons of contemporary historical method. The Augustinian nuns, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo, are several Roman Catholic enclosed monastic communities of women living according to a guide to religious life known as the Rule of St. Augustine. Prominent Augustinian nuns include Italian mystic St. Clare of Montefalco and St. Rita of Cascia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Justinian</span> Italian Roman Catholic saint (1381–1456)

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<i>Regularis Concordia</i> (Winchester)

The Regularis Concordia was the most important document of the English Benedictine Reform, sanctioned by the Council of Winchester in about 973.

In the Catholic Church, "A religious institute is a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, and lead a life of brothers or sisters in common."

When referring to Roman Catholic religious orders, the term Second Order refers to those communities of contemplative cloistered nuns which are a part of the religious orders that developed in the Middle Ages.

Augustinian nuns are named after Saint Augustine of Hippo and exist in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. In the Roman Catholic Church there are both enclosed monastic orders of women living according to a guide to religious life known as the Rule of St Augustine, and also other independent Augustinian congregations living in the spirit of this rule. In the Anglican Communion, there is no single "Order of St Augustine", but a number of Augustinian congregations of sisters living according to the Rule of St Augustine.

<i>Origins of the Hermit Friars of the Order of Saint Augustine and Their True Establishment Before the Great Lateran Council</i>

Origen de los frayles ermitaños de la Orden de San Augustin y su verdadera institucion antes del gran Concilio Lateranense is a 1618 work by the Augustinian scholar Juan Márquez, Royal preacher and Chair of Theology at the University of Salamanca. It contributed to a long-running debate within the Augustinian order as to whether the friars (hermits) or the canons were the older-established foundation. Márquez argued that the hermits were the more ancient establishment.

References

  1. "Rule of Saint Augustine", Midwest Augustinians
  2. 1 2 3 "Augustine's Rule", Villanova University
  3. 1 2 3 "Augustine and the monastic tradition", Augnet
  4. Bacchus, Francis Joseph. "St. Possidius." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 10 January 2020PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  5. 1 2 3 Besse, Jean. "Rule of Saint Augustine." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 3 May 2014
  6. 1 2 "The Rule of St Augustine", OSA - Australia
  7. "History of the Order", Order of Saint Augustine
  8. Leyser, Conrad. Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000)
  9. Szarmach, Paul E., "Chrodegang", Routledge Revivals: Medieval England (1998), (Paul E. Szarmach, M. Teresa Tavormina, Joel T. Rosenthal, eds.), Taylor & Francis, 2017, ISBN   9781351666374
  10. Walter Simons, 'Religious Life in Medieval Western Europe', in Amy Hollywood, ed, The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism, (Cambridge: CUP, 2012), p84
  11. "The Rule of Saint Augustine", EWTN
  12. 'Augustinian Canons', in Richard P McBrien, ed, The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism, (1995), p112
  13. 'Augustine, Rule of St', in Richard P McBrien, ed, The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism, (1995), p112