HERMITS OF SAINT AUGUSTINE. - They originated in the 13th century, when several congregations of hermits, scattered especially throughout Italy (Guglielmites, Giambonites, Brettines, Tuscan Hermits of the Most Holy Trinity, Sacchetti and several other minor ones) were united into a single Order, under the name of Hermits of St. Augustine and the rule of the saint.
The information that has come down to us about these monastic institutes is, however, scanty. With the bull Incumbit nobis, of 16 Nov. 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 Eremitarum S. Augustini in Tuscia. Two years later the same Pontiff, with the bull Ut eo liberum, extended the privileges and indulgences which the Ordo enjoyed to other communities in Italy and elsewhere ubilibet existentibus; 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 already in 1251 the process concerning his life and virtues had been instituted by the bishop of Modena at the order of Innocent IV. His followers spread through Lombardy, Romagna, Veneto: bulls of Gregory IX of 1230 and 1240 attest that they soon adopted the Rule of St. Augustine. Nor is the history of the Brettines, scattered through the March of Ancona, known in greater detail. They took their name from a locality near Fano, called Brettino, where they possessed a convent, which in 1227 was placed under the protection of the Holy See; a year later the Congregation was endowed with the Augustinian Rule.
Meanwhile a movement tending to fuse the various eremitical institutes into a single body was gaining strength. Alexander IV, with the bull Cum quaedam salubris of 15 July 1255, invited the two Orders of St. Augustine and of St. William to send into his presence, at the place and time to be established by letter from Cardinal Riccardo di M. Angelo, two religious from each community to hear and accept the instructions of the Holy See. And it was in Rome that the representatives of the Hermits of Tuscany and of the Guglielmites, together with those of the Brettines and the Giambonites, gathered in the church of S. Maria del Popolo and there constituted a single order, called that of the Friars Hermits of St. Augustine. This assembly took place in the period of time between 15 July 1255, the date of its convocation, and 9 Apr. 1256, the date of drafting of the bull Livet Ecclesiae, with which the Pope approved and confirmed the union of the Hermits and the deliberations of the fathers assembled in S. Maria del Popolo. At the head of the new order was placed a man of tested virtue, Fr. Lanfranco Settala, formerly superior general of the Giambonites; several provinces were erected in Italy. In all probability the convents took cognizance of a draft of constitutions while awaiting the definitive ones, and sent some religious to the monasteries of France, England, Germany, Spain, Portugal in order to bring about 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 the faculty, in the month of Aug. of the same year 1256 and, again, in 1261, to continue in the profession of the Benedictine Rule under which they had been founded, and in 1263 they were forbidden to pass over to the Hermits of St. Augustine without special license of the Holy See.
The new institute was numbered among the Mendicant Orders, and had a very wide development. At 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 linked with that of Sicily was the small province of the Holy Land. In the 15th century, monastic discipline having been relaxed because of epidemics and the Western Schism, some convents set about restoring strict observance, under the immediate obedience of the general, and united into congregations which rapidly expanded. In 1686 the Order counted 58 provinces and congregations. To obtain these results the ancient hermits had modified their primitive life, oriented predominantly toward contemplation, and had also given themselves to the active life, with preaching, study, teaching, the ministry of Confession and the spread of the Gospel in the lands of the infidels. They cultivated studies and distinguished themselves in the field of knowledge. They took particular care of the instruction to be imparted to their young men. In the official acts that have come down to us we find mention of two houses of study in the years 1275 and 1276; but afterward the indications become more frequent, and very soon the instruction of the students and the formation of masters became the concern of the young institute.
In 1285, the college which the Augustinians had erected in Paris was incorporated into the University, from which it received the statutes and academic degrees. A chair of Theology was reserved to the Order, and Giles of Rome (v.) opened 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, Tommaso da Strasburgo. They were all eminent thinkers and brilliant polemicists. Giles of Rome became the official doctor of the Order, and a definition of the General Chapter of Florence (1287) imposed on the Hermits the obligation to conform to his doctrines. Later, Gregory of Rimini (d. 1358) created a new intellectual current, oriented toward the nominalism of his time; and the school founded by him lived for almost a century alongside that of Giles. In the great cultural centers of Europe, the Augustinians erected their schools: at Oxford the disputations held in their studium were a normal part of the academic life of the city, and the memory of them survived even after the suppression of the house, which took place under 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.
To the Church the Order has given five saints: Nicholas of Tolentino (1249-1305); John of St. Facundus (1430-79); Thomas of Villanova (1488-1555); Clare of Montefalco (1268-1308); Rita of Cascia (1381-1457), and about forty blesseds.
Noteworthy, moreover, was the missionary activity of the Hermits. They went to Mexico in 1533, to Peru in 1550, to Ecuador in 1587, to Chile in 1591. They arrived first among the missionaries in the Philippines (1563), and from there passed to China (1575) and to Japan (1602). In 1573 they undertook the evangelization of the Indies, and afterward of Persia (1602), of Georgia and of Armenia. Even in our own days they possess extensive missions in Asia, Australia, South America, Africa. Their habit today consists of a tunic of black wool, girded with a leather belt, and a hood in the form of a triangular mantle. The white habit is also permitted, by privilege or in honor of the Most Holy Virgin, but only when there is no danger of confusing it with that of the religious of other institutes.
The Hermits of St. Augustine today number 26 provinces with about 350 houses and more than 3000 religious, and have colleges in various nations for the instruction of lay youth.
Bibliography17 works
Ugo Mariani