Around the start of the 13th century, many eremitical communities, especially in the vicinity of
Siena, Italy, sprang up. These were often small (no more than ten) and composed of
laymen. Their foundational spirit was one of solitude and
penance. At this time there were a number of
eremitical groups living in such diverse places as
Tuscany,
Latium,
Umbria,
Liguria,
England,
Switzerland,
Germany, and
France. In 1223 four of the communities around Siena joined in a loose association, which had increased to thirteen within five years.
Little Union The Augustinian friars came into being as part of the
mendicant movement of the 13th century, a new form of religious life which sought to bring the religious ideals of the monastic life into an urban setting which allowed the religious to serve the needs of the people in an apostolic capacity. In 1243 the
Tuscan hermits petitioned
Pope Innocent IV to unite them all as one group. Innocent IV issued the bull
Incumbit Nobis on 16 December 1243, an essentially pastoral letter which exhorted these hermits to adopt "the
Rule and way of life of the Blessed Augustine," and to elect a prior general. The bull also appointed
Cardinal Riccardo Annibaldi as their supervisor and legal guide.
Grand Union On 15 July 1255,
Pope Alexander IV issued the bull
Cum quaedam salubria to command a number of religious groupings to gather for the purpose of being amalgamated into a new Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine. Those summoned included the
Williamites; several unspecified houses of the Order of St. Augustine, established chiefly in Italy, including those in
Tuscany, with Cardinal Annibaldi as protector; the Bonites, so called from their founder, Blessed John Buoni, a member of the Buonuomini family, and named after bishop
John the Good; and the Brittinians (Brictinians), so called from their oldest foundation near
Fano, in the
Marche district of
Ancona. The delegates met in Rome on 1 March 1256, which resulted in a union. Lanfranc Septala of Milan, Prior of the Bonites, was appointed the first prior general of the newly constituted Order.
Expansion At the time of the Grand Union of 1256, some of the constituent congregations already had houses established north of the
Alps. The Williamites had already expanded into
Hungary. The Hermits of St. Augustine spread rapidly, partly because they did not radiate from a single parent monastery, and partly because, after conflicts in the previously existing congregations, the active life was finally adopted by the greater number of communities, following the example of the
Friars Minor and the
Dominicans. A few years after the reorganization of the Augustinian Order, Hermit monasteries sprang up in Germany, and Spain. Foundations were made in Mainz (1260), Zurich (1270), and Munich (1294). The first Augustinian houses in France were in the area of Provence. In 1274 the
Fratres Saccati were dissolved and the Augustinians were given a number of their houses. By 1275 there were about a half dozen friaries stretching in a line along the southern coast. Eventually, France had four Augustinian provinces. The presence of the Augustinian Order can be dated securely in Venetian Candia to the early fourteenth century when they rebuilt the convent of San Salvatore in Heraklion. At the period of its greatest prosperity the order comprised 42
ecclesiastical provinces and two vicariates numbering two thousand monasteries and about 30,000 members. Many European Augustinian priories and foundations suffered serious setbacks (including suppression and destruction) from the various periods of anti-clericalism during the Reformation and other historical events. After the First World War, economic conditions were such in Germany that friars were sent to North America to teach. After 1936, with the political situation in Nazi Germany worsening, more German Augustinians departed for North America, where a separate German province had been established.
Privileges of the order Pope Alexander IV freed the order from the jurisdiction of the bishops;
Pope Pius V placed the Augustinians among the
mendicant orders and ranked them fourth after the
Carmelites. Since the end of the 13th century the
sacristan of the
Papal Palace was always to be an Augustinian friar. This privilege was ratified by
Pope Alexander VI and granted to the Order forever by a bull issued in 1497. The holder of the office was
Rector of the Vatican parish (of which the chapel of St. Paul is the parish church). To his office also belonged the duty of preserving in his
oratory a
consecrated Host, which had to be renewed weekly and kept in readiness in case of the pope's illness, when it was the privilege of the papal sacristan to administer the last
sacraments to the pope. The sacristan had always to accompany the pope when he traveled, and during a conclave it was he who celebrated
Mass and administered the sacraments. , Augustinian friars still perform the duties of papal sacristans, but the appointment of an Augustinian as bishop-sacristan lapsed under Pope John Paul II with the retirement of
Petrus Canisius Van Lierde in 1991. In papal Rome the Augustinian friars always filled one of the Chairs of the
Sapienza University, and one of the consultorships in the
Congregation of Rites. In 1331
Pope John XXII appointed the Augustinian Hermits guardians of the tomb of St. Augustine in the Church of
San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro at
Pavia. They were driven from there in 1700, and evacuated to Milan. Their priory was destroyed in 1799, the church desecrated, and the remains of Augustine were taken back to Pavia and placed in its cathedral. The church of S. Pietro was restored, and on 7 October 1900, the body of the saint and Doctor of the church was removed from the cathedral and replaced in San Pietro. The Augustinians were subsequently restored their old church of S. Pietro.
Reform movements In the fourteenth century, owing to various causes such as the mitigation of the rule—either by permission of the pope, or through a lessening of fervour, but chiefly because of the
Plague and the
Great Western Schism—discipline became relaxed in the Augustinian monasteries; and so reformers emerged who were anxious to restore it. These reformers were themselves Augustinians and instituted several reformed groups. The new governmental groupings were called "congregations" to distinguish them from the already-established geographical provinces. Each had its own vicar-general (vicarius-generalis), but he was under the control of the general of the order. In one country there could be two types of Augustinian houses, the conventual and the
observants. The most important of these congregations of the "Regular Observance" were those of Lecceto, near
Siena, established in 1385 and initially had 12 houses. The Lombardy Congregation (1430) had 56. The reform of Monte Ortono near
Padua (1436) had 5 convents, the Regular Observants of the Blessed Virgin at
Genoa (also called Our Lady of Consolation (c. 1470) had 25. The Congregation of
Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome was affiliated with Augustinians in Ireland.
Nikolaus von Laun (d. 1371),
auxiliary bishop of
Ratisbon, where he died, with some brethren preached the Gospel in Africa. He had sailed from Lisbon in 1497, and arrived at
Mozambique in March 1498. Portuguese Augustinians also arrived in Gold coast (now Ghana) in 1572 and started their missionary work, and also worked on the island of
Sao Tome, in Warri (Nigeria), and in what is now known as
Angola, in the Congo, in
Equatorial Guinea, and in
Gabon up until 1738. The Portuguese also took control of the port of
Goa in India—giving the Augustinians a foothold there also. Besides the early Portuguese Augustinians, other Augustinian missionaries have since followed to Africa from America, Ireland, Belgium and Australia. As of 2006, there were more than 30 other Augustinian priories in
Nigeria,
Congo,
Kenya,
Tanzania, South Africa and
Algeria, with over 85 friars. which survived despite the
British Occupation of Manila, the
Philippine Revolution against Spain, the
Philippine-American War, and the
Japanese Occupation of the Philippines. The Augustinians also baptized
Agustin de Legazpi of
Tondo from Islam to Christianity. The choice of Agustin as baptismal name alludes to
Saint Augustine of Hippo a Christian North African saint from Algeria, back when Algeria was once Catholic before it was conquered by Sunni Muslims. Miguel López de Legazpi, Agustin de Legazpi's baptismal godfather was a fervent Christian who mourned the loss of North Africa from Christianity to Islam and sought to do the reverse in the Philippines. He advocated Augustinian Spirituality, wherein rather than being focused on fallen Old Jerusalem of the broken City of Man, one should focus on the heavenly
New Jerusalem, and manifest it with your actions, in which case Old Jerusalem was the Christian lands in the Middle East and North Africa which fell to Islam, and Legazpi's New Jerusalem, being Muslim lands in the Philippines, Miguel López de Legazpi, conquers for Christianity.
Andrés de Urdaneta, the Augustinian Chaplain of the Legazpi expedition, also discovered the return route from the Philippines to Mexico, which allowed for the further colonization and settlement of the Philippines by colonists and officials from
Mexico and
Spain. The Augustinian Friar, Rev. Fr. Tomas Santaren nevertheless recorded the history of the precolonial kingdom called the Kedatuan of
Madja-as in his book entitled "Bisayan Accounts of Early Bornean Settlements" (created in 1858, published in 1902). Furthermore, the Augustinians are now caretakers of the oldest Catholic religious relic in the Philippines, the
Santo Niño de Cebú The Order of Saint Augustine also maintains the
University of San Agustin in
Iloilo City, the First Augustinian University in the
Asia-Pacific.
Mexico Sent by their Provincial
Thomas of Villanova, the first group of Spanish/Castilian Augustinians arrived in Mexico in 1533 after the subjugation of Aztec Mexico by
Hernán Cortés. They were later instrumental in establishing the
Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico. By 1562 there were nearly 300 Spanish Augustinians in Mexico, and they had established some 50 priories. Their history in Mexico was not to be an easy one, given the civil strife of events like the
Cristero War, periodic
anti-clericalism and suppression of the church that was to follow.
Peru Spanish Augustinians first went to
Peru in 1551. From there they went to
Ecuador in 1573, and from Ecuador in 1575 to
Argentina,
Bolivia,
Chile,
Colombia,
Panama and
Venezuela. The order founded the Ecuadorean University of
Quito in 1586. Augustinians also entered Argentina via Chile between 1617 and 1626. Political events in these countries prevented the order from prospering and hindered the success of its undertakings. The order had considerable
property confiscated by the Argentinian government under the
secularisation laws in the 19th century, and were entirely suppressed for 24 years until 1901 when they returned. In the
Prefecture Apostolic of San León de Amazonas, in June, 1904, Bernardo Calle, the lay brother Miguel Vilajoli, and more than 70 Christians were murdered at a then recently erected mission station, Huabico, in Upper Maranon and the station itself was destroyed. The Augustinian Province of the Netherlands later also founded houses in Bolivia from 1930. On 3 November 2014,
Pope Francis appointed the American bishop and former General of the Order of St. Augustine
Robert Prevost as
apostolic administrator of the
Diocese of Chiclayo in
Peru and titular bishop of
Sufar. Prevost received his episcopal consecration on 12 December 2014 at
St. Mary's Cathedral in Chiclayo. On 26 September 2015, he was named bishop of Chiclayo, in September 2023 he was appointed cardinal by
Pope Francis in
Vatican City, and on 8 May 2025 became
Pope Leo XIV.
Cuba The order (from Mexico) arrived in
Cuba in 1608. It was suppressed by force in 1842. From 1892 the province of the United States had care of St. Thomas of Villanova University at Havana, Cuba, where there were 5 priests and 3 lay brothers in 1900 before they were expelled in 1961 by the government of
Fidel Castro. In Central and South America, the Augustinians remain established as of 2000 in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, and Peru.
China Martin de Hereda penetrated into the interior of China in 1577, to study
Chinese literature with the intention of bringing it into Europe. Portuguese Augustinians served in the colonial port of
Macau from 1586 until 1712. In about 1681, the Filipino Augustinian Alvaro de Benevente arrived in China and established the first of the Augustinian houses in China at
Kan-chou. Benevente was made bishop and became head of the newly created Vicariate of
Kiang-si in 1699. The Augustinian missionaries had success in propagating Catholicism, but in 1708, during the
Chinese Rites controversy they were forced to withdraw from China. In 1879 Spanish Augustinians from Manila (Elias Suarez and Agostino Villanueva) entered China to re-establish an Augustinian mission. In 1900 the order possessed the mission of Northern
Hunan, China. The mission comprised about 3000 baptized Christians and 3500 catechumens in a population of 11 million. By 1947 the Augustinian mission counted 24,332 baptised Catholics as well as 3,250 preparing for baptism. They had established 20 major churches and 90 satellite churches. All foreign missionaries were expelled or imprisoned from 1953 by the Communist government. Chinese-born Augustinians were dispersed by government order and directed not to live the monastic life. Church officials were arrested, schools and other church institutions closed or confiscated by the State. Many priests, religious brothers and sisters, as well as leaders among the Christian laity were sent to labour camps. Since the re-unification of the former colonies of Macau and Hong-Kong with the central Chinese government and further developments in government religious policy,
Catholicism in China—including clergy, Catholic bishops, and a
Cardinal—once again exists openly alongside the members of the
Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and their co-religionists in the continuing underground church. The Augustinian have recently re-established friendly relations with Chinese educational organisations through school-placement programmes as well as through the
University of the Incarnate Word Chinese campus founded by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. While there are Chinese Augustinian friars, there is not yet a priory in
mainland China re-established.
India After an extensive period of expansion in India from the 15th century the Portuguese Augustinians had not only established the order but also provided sixteen Indian bishops between 1579 and 1840. The order subsequently disappeared in India, cut off from its usual governance after the suppression of Portuguese monasteries in 1838, and the friars were forced to become secular priests. The order had failed successfully to establish an autonomous indigenous Indian foundation. However, the Augustinians were re-established by Andrés G. Niño, Spanish Augustinian, named coordinator of the project by the General Chapter of the Order in 1971 .... (cf., Estudio Agustiniano, 45 (2010) 279–303) ....... and the Indian Augustinians took on further responsibilities in
Kerala in 2005. The Indian delegation currently has 16 ordained friars and 8 in simple vows. The order is growing numerically in India.
Iran Towards the close of the sixteenth century,
Aleixo de Menezes, Count of Cantanheda (d. 1617), a member of the order, appointed Archbishop of Goa in 1595, and of Braga in 1612, Primate of the East Indies, and several times Viceroy of India, sent several Augustinians as missionaries to Iran (Persia) while he himself laboured for the reunion of the
Thomas Christians, especially at the Synod of Diamper, in 1599, and for the conversion of the Muslims and the non-Christians of Malabar.
Japan The Augustinian missions in the Philippines provided missionaries for the East since their first establishment. In 1602 some of them penetrated into Japan, where several were martyred during a period of
Christian persecution. Among those martyred, Augustinians include: Ferdinand of Saint Joseph, Andrew Yoshida, and Peter Zuñiga. Augustinian Ferdinand of Saint Joseph, along with Andrew Yoshida, a catechist who worked with him, were beheaded in 1617. In 1653 others entered China, where, in 1701, the order had six missionary stations before their expulsion. Despite a vigorous early
Christian foundation in
Nagasaki by
Jesuits,
Franciscans and
Filipino Augustinians and the many 17th century Japanese Augustinian martyrs, the earlier Augustinian mission attempts eventually failed after the repression of
Tokugawa Hidetada (ruled 1605–1623; second Tokugawa shogun of Japan) and the expulsion of Christians under
Tokugawa Iemitsu (ruled 1623 to 1651; third Tokugawa shogun of Japan). However, American Augustinian friars returned to Japan in 1954, establishing their first priory in 1959 at Nagasaki. They then established priories in
Fukuoka (1959),
Nagoya (1964), and Tokyo (1968). As of 2006, there are seven American Augustinian friars and five Japanese Augustinian friars in Japan.
Oceania By the early 20th century, the Augustinians established missions in Oceania. The Spanish Augustinians took over the missions founded by Spanish and German Jesuits in the
Ladrones, which then numbered 7 stations with about 10,000 people on
Guam, and about 2500 on each of the German islands of
Saipan,
Rota and Tinian. The mission on the German islands was separated from the Diocese of Cebú on 1 October 1906, and made a
prefecture Apostolic on 18 June 1907, with Saipan as its seat of administration, and the mission given in charge to the German
Capuchins.
Papua The Augustinian Delegation of Papua has operated since 1953. It presently contains five Dutch-born Augustinians and thirty-three Indonesian-born Augustinians. The order of friars and affiliated orders are growing in the Indonesian territories.
Indonesia Two Dutch Augustinian friars re-established the order in
Dutch New Guinea (now the
Papua region of
Indonesia) in 1953. In 1956, the order took responsibility for the area that was to become the Diocese of
Manokwari. As of 2006, the Augustinian Vicariate of Indonesia has 15 friars in solemn profession, and 7 in simple vows. It is now predominantly Papuan. The order of friars and affiliated orders are growing in Indonesia.
Korea The Region of
Korea was founded in 1985 by Australian, English and Scottish friars. Filipinos later replaced the UK friars. In 1985 it became the Delegation of Korea, with members working in the Dioceses of Incheon and Ui-Jeong-Bu. ==Present day==