The augustinians.

Origins and spirituality

A return to the roots of the Order of St. Augustine, beginning with the Rule and the foundations of the saint himself in fourth century North Africa, the two-hundred years following his death until the Vandal and Muslim invasions. The author follows up the scant traces of an actual living of the Rule by fleeing African monks in southern Europe during the early Middle Ages and shows its rediscovery as a foundation for communities of canons regular in the tenth century. Finally, the book relates in detail the founding of the present-day Augustinian Order (OSA) in the thirteenth century by the union of several hermit settlements in Tuscany (1244) with the conferral of the Rule of St. Augustine and a further union twelve years later (1256) that made the Augustinians a part of the great Mendicant Movement. One can detect the persistence of the Rule of St. Augustine to be a spiritual guide through the ups and downs of religious life in various ages of history. Of particular interest to formators, houses of formation, novices and anyone especially interested in learning more about Augustinian Spirituality.The author then sketches the spirituality of the Order with its Augustinian and Mendicant roots and hazards a description of its value into the future.