EREMITANI DI SANT'AGOSTINO. — They originated in the 13th century, when several congregations of hermits, scattered especially throughout Italy (the Guglielmites, Giambonites, Brettini, Tuscan Hermits of the Most Holy Trinity, Sacchetti, and several other minor groups), were united into a single Order under the name of E. di S. A., and under the rule of the saint.
The information that has come down to us concerning these monastic institutions is, however, scant. With the bull Incumbit nobis, of 16 November 1243, Innocent IV united the Hermits of Tuscany into a single body and gave them the rule of the Bishop of Hippo. Thus arose the Ordo Eremiturum S. Augustini in Tuscia. Two years later, with the bull Ut eo liberum, the same Pontiff extended the privileges and indulgences enjoyed by the Ordo to other communities in Italy and elsewhere ubilitet existenter; perhaps these were convents of the same congregation established outside Tuscany.
The Giambonites were likewise of recent origin. Their founder, Giovanni Bono, died in 1256, and as early as 1251 the process concerning his life and virtues had been instituted by the bishop of Modena on the orders of Innocent IV. His followers spread throughout Lombardy and Romagna. It is attested by the bulls of Gregory IX of 1230 and 1240 that they soon adopted the Rule of S. Agostino. Even less is known in detail of the history of the Brettini, who were scattered throughout the March of Ancona. They took their name from a locality near Fano, called Brettino, where they possessed a convent that in 1227 was placed under the protection of the Holy See; a year later the Congregation was provided with the Augustinian Rule.
Meanwhile, a movement aimed at merging the various eremitical institutes into a single organization was gaining strength. Alexander IV, with the bull Cum quaedam solubris of 15 July 1255, invited the two Orders of S. Agostino and S. Guglielmo to send two religious from each community into his presence, at a place and time to be established by a letter from Cardinal Riccardo di M. Angelo, in order to hear and accept the instructions of the Holy See. It was in Rome that the representatives of the Tuscan Hermits and the Guglielmites, together with those of the Brettini and the Giambonites, assembled in the church of S. Maria del Popolo and there constituted a single order, called the Order of the Hermit Friars of S. Agostino. This assembly took place in the period between 15 July 1255, the date of its convocation, and 9 April 1256, the date by which the bull Livet Ecclesiae was drafted; with this bull the Pope approved and confirmed the union of the Hermits and the decisions of the fathers assembled at S. Maria del Popolo. At the head of the new order was placed a man of proven virtue, Fr. Lanfranco Settala, formerly superior general of the Giambonites, and several provinces were established in Italy. In all probability, the convents were shown a draft of the constitutions pending the definitive ones, and sent several religious to the monasteries of France, England, Germany, Spain, and Portugal
in order to implement the union in practice in these countries as well. But the Guglielmites refused, at least at a later stage, to adhere to the decisions of the Chapter of S. Maria del Popolo, and were granted permission, in August of that same year, 1256, and again in 1261, to continue professing the Benedictine Rule under which they had been founded; in 1263 they were forbidden to pass over to the Hermits of S. Agostino without special permission from the Holy See.
The new institute was numbered among the mendicant Orders and achieved very extensive growth. By the end of the
13th century it was divided into 17 provinces, which in 1260 rose to 24, and to 26 a few years later. Closely connected with that of Sicily was the small province of the Holy Land. In the 15th century, when monastic discipline had relaxed as a result of epidemics and the Western Schism, some convents undertook to restore strict observance under the immediate obedience of the general, and united in congregations that rapidly expanded. In 1686 the Order numbered 58 provinces and congregations. To achieve these results, the ancient hermits had modified their primitive way of life,
In 1285, the college that the Augustinians had established in Paris was incorporated into the University, from which it received its statutes and academic degrees. A chair of Theology was reserved for the Order, Egidio Romano (v.) inaugurated the series of eremitical masters. He founded a flourishing school whose principal representatives were Giacomo da Viterbo, Agostino Trionfo, Gerardo da Siena, Alessandro da S. Elpidio, Alberto da Padova, and Tommaso da Strasburgo. They were all eminent thinkers and brilliant polemicists. Egidio Romano became the official doctor of the Order, and a definition of the General Chapter of Florence (1287) imposed upon the Hermits the obligation of conforming to his doctrines. Subsequently, Gregorio da Rimini (d. 1358) created a new intellectual current, oriented toward the nominalism of his time; and the school he founded existed for almost a century alongside the Egidian school. In the great cultural centers of Europe, the Augustinians established their schools: at Oxford, the disputations held in their studium formed a normal part of the city’s academic life, and their memory survived even after the suppression of the house, which took place during the reign of Henry VIII.
Besides those already mentioned, the following distinguished themselves in the field of knowledge: Dionigi da Borgo S. Sepolcro, Simone Fidati da Cascia, Bartolomeo da Urbino, Filippo Agazzari, Luigi Marsili, Bonaventura da Padova, Egidio Antonini,
Girolamo Seripando, Onofrio Panvinio, Cristiano Lupo, Enrico Noris, Giovanni Berti, Agostino Ciasca.
The Order has given the Church five saints: Nicola da Tolentino (1249-1305); Giovanni da S. Facondo (1430-79); Tommaso da Villanova (1488-1555); Chiara da Montefalco (1268-1308); Rita da Cascia (1381-1457), and some forty blesseds.
The missionary activity of the Hermits was also noteworthy. They went to Mexico in 1533, to Peru in 1550, to Ecuador in 1587, and to Chile in 1591. They were the first among the missionaries to arrive in the Philippines (1563), and from there they proceeded to China (1575) and Japan (1602). In 1573 they undertook the evangelization of India, and subsequently of Persia (1602), Georgia, and Armenia. Even in our own day they possess extensive missions in Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa. Their habit today consists of a black woolen tunic, tightened by a leather belt, and a hood in the form of a triangular little cape. The white habit, by privilege or in honor of the Most Holy Virgin, is also permitted, provided there is no danger of confusing it with that of religious belonging to other institutes.
The Hermits of S. Agostino today number 26 provinces, with approximately 350 houses and more than 3,000 religious, and have colleges in various nations for the education of lay youth.
BIBLI: A. Coriolanus, Defens. Ord. Fr. Er. S. Augustini, Roma 1481; Chronica, ivi 1481, Strasburgo 1490; Jos. Panphilius, Cron. Ord. Fr. S. Augustini, Roma 1581; Ballarium Ord. Erem. S. Augustini, ivi 1628; Thom. de Herrera, Alphabetium Aug., Madrid 1645; L. Torelli, Seculi agostiniani, Bologna 1650; A. Lubin, Orbis Aug., Parigi 1650, 1671-72; Christianus Lupus, De Origine Er. S. Aug., Venezia 1729; I. F. Ossinger, Bibliotheca Aug., Ingolstadt 1768; Jos. Lanteri, Postrema sacc. sex. Rel. Aug., Tolentino 1858; Rod. Maiocchi e Naz. Casacca, Codex Diplomaticus Ord. Erem. S. Augustini, Pavia-Roma 1907; V. MATERA, Historia General de los Eremitianos de S. Augustin, Santiago de Cile 1912; A. Casamassa, Il più antico codice della Regola monastica di s. Agostino, Roma 1923; A. Perini, Bibliographia Aug., Scriptores Itali, Firenze 1929-31; A. De Romanis, L'Ordine agostiniano, ivi 1930; Anotetta Augustiniana, Roma 1906-1942; Bellettino storico agostiniano, Firenze 1924-42. Ugo Mariani