Augustinian nuns


Augustinian nuns are the most ancient and continuous segment of the Augustinian religious order. Named after Augustine of Hippo, there are several Catholic religious communities of women living according to a guide to religious life known as the Rule of St. Augustine. Prominent Augustinian nuns include the canonized Italian mystics Clare of Montefalco and Rita of Cascia.

History

Though Augustine of Hippo probably didn't compose a formal monastic rule, his hortatory letter to the nuns at Hippo Regius is the most ancient example on which the beginnings of this Augustinian Rule are based.
The nuns regard as their first foundation the monastery for which St. Augustine wrote the rules of life in his Epistola ccxi in 423. It is certain that this epistle was called the Rule of St. Augustine for nuns at an early date, and has been followed as the rule of life in many female monasteries since the 11th century. These monasteries were not consolidated in 1256, like the religious communities of Augustinian monks.
Each convent was independent and was not subject to the general of the order. This led to differences in rule, dress, and mode of life. Only since the 15th century have certain Augustinian Hermits reformed a number of Augustinian nunneries, become their spiritual directors, and induced them to adopt the Constitution of their order. Henceforth, there were female members of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine in Italy, France, Spain, Belgium and later in Germany, where, however, many were suppressed during the Reformation, or by the secularizing law of 1803. In the other countries many nunneries were closed in consequence of the French Revolution. The still existing houses in the early 20th century, except Cascia, Renteria, Eibar and Cracow, were under the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese. Many convents are celebrated for the saints whom they produced, such as Montefalco in Central Italy, the home of St. Clare of the Cross, and Cascia, near Perugia, where St. Rita died in 1457. In the suppressed German convent of Agnetenberg near Dülmen, in Westphalia, lived Anne Catherine Emmerich. A number of Discalced Augustinian nuns in Valencia were martyred in the Spanish Civil War.

Foundations

The monastery of the so-called "Augustinians delle Vergini", at Venice, was founded in 1177 by pope Alexander III after his reconciliation with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, whose daughter Julia, with twelve girls of noble birth, entered the monastery and became first abbess. On the French occupation in the 18th century the religious went to America, where they devoted themselves to the work of teaching and the care of the sick.
Lacock Abbey in the village of Lacock, Wiltshire, England, was founded in the early 13th century by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, as a nunnery of the Augustinian order. It remained so until the suppression of the monasteries in the 16th century;
Grace Dieu Priory was an independent Augustinian priory near Thringstone in Leicestershire, England. It was founded around 1235-1241 by Roesia de Verdun. It was dedicated to the Holy Trinity and St Mary. The priory was fairly large, having in 1337 sixteen nuns, who called themselves "the White Nuns of St. Augustine". It also had an attached hospital which cared for twelve poor people. The priory was dissolved in October 1538.
Towards the end of the 16th century communities of female Discalced Augustinians appeared in Spain. In the convent at Cybar, Mariana Manzanedo of St. Joseph instituted a reform which led to the establishment of a third, that of the female Augustinian Recollects.
Historically, the most important of the observant Augustinian congregations were the Spanish Augustinian tertiary nuns, founded in 1545 by Archbishop Thomas of Villanova at Valencia; the "reformed" Augustinian nuns who originated under the influence of Augustinian educated Carmelite St Theresa after the end of the 16th century at Madrid, Alcoy, and those founded in Portugal.

The Augustinian ethos

The teaching and writing of Augustine, the Augustinian Rule, and the lives and experiences of Augustinians over sixteen centuries help define the ethos of the order.
The pursuit of truth through learning is key to the Augustinian ethos, balanced by the injunction to behave with love towards one another. These same imperatives of affection and fairness have driven the order in its international missionary outreach. This balanced pursuit of love and learning has energized the various branches of the order into building communities founded on mutual affection and intellectual advancement.
Augustine spoke passionately of God's "beauty so ancient and so new", and his fascination with beauty extended to music. He taught that "to sing once is to pray twice", and music is also a key part of the Augustinian ethos. Besides the significant musical contribution of Augustinian nun and composer Vittoria Aleotti, contemporary Augustinian musical foundations include the famous Augustinerkirche of the friars in Vienna, where orchestral masses by Mozart and Schubert are performed every week, as well as the at Sankt Florian in Austria, a school conducted by Canons Regular, a choir now over 1,000 years old.

Augustinian contemplative communities

Augustinian contemplative nuns belonging to the monasteries of the Order are members of the Order of Saint Augustine.

Around 1,500 women live in Augustinian enclosed convents in:
  • Bolivia
  • Chile
  • Ecuador
  • Kenya
  • Malta
  • Mexico
  • Netherlands
  • Panama
  • Peru
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
Other orders and groups of women that are not enclosed and belong within the Augustinian family. Some have been formally aggregated to the order by the prior general.
All congregations of Augustinian Sisters are not, however affiliated to the Order of St Augustine. Others follow the Rule of Augustine and remain independent congregations. The Augustinian Sisters of Mercy of Jesus, the Augustinian Recollects and the Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation, the Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, and the Sisters of St Joan of Arc are just some of the Augustinian family of orders who are not enclosed women. The Sisters of Life are a relatively new order who follow the Augustinian rule. The Bridgettines follow the Rule of St. Augustine.
There are other Augustinian nuns in the Anglican Communion.

Saints and Blesseds

Saints
  • Chiara da Montefalco, abbess and mystic, canonized on 8 December 1881
  • Rita of Cascia, nun and mystic, canonized on 24 May 1900
Blesseds
Declared Blessed by popular acclaim
  • Giovanna di Damiano da Montefalco, sister of Saint Clare of Montefalco and founder of a monastery converted from a prison and became its abbess
  • Marsilia Pupelli, nun
  • Marchesina Luzi da Visso, tertiary and martyr
Venerables
  • María Juana Guillén Ramírez, professed religious, declared Venerable on 19 November 1970
  • Anna Clara Giovanna Baseggio , professed religious, declared Venerable on 20 February 2021
Servants of God
  • Catalina of Saint Thomas of Villanova Maura Pou, professed religious
  • Angela Caterina Borgia, professed religious
  • Cándida Cordova Pozuelo , professed religious
  • Victoriana Sáez Martinez , professed religious

    Notable Augustinian women

  • Margaret Haydock, of the ancient English Catholic Recusant Haydock family
  • Vittoria Aleotti, Italian composer