The Augustinians

The three major Augustinian friar orders were once a single organization under one leader before reform movements split them apart over disagreements about wearing shoes. The original group, the Order of Saint Augustine, formed in 1244 when Pope Innocent IV forced several scattered hermit communities across Italy to merge into one mendicant order. These friars lived under a common guide, the Rule of Saint Augustine, written around AD 400 by Augustine of Hippo. That rule became one of the oldest monastic regulations still in active use, governing not only friars but also an older class of priests called Canons Regular who predated the friar orders and focused on parish work.

For over three centuries, the Order of Saint Augustine operated as a unified body. In England, members became known as Austin Friars, maintaining a prominent London priory from the 1200s until King Henry VIII dissolved it in 1538. The fracture began in 1588 when Spanish friars launched a reform movement called the Augustinian Recollects, determined to recover the order's eremitical, hermit-based roots. Four years later, at the 100th General Chapter held in Rome in May 1592, another reform faction gained authorization as a semi-independent branch called the Discalced Augustinians. The word "discalced" means barefoot, referring to their practice of wearing only sandals instead of shoes as a sign of poverty and renewed strictness. The parent order tolerated these reformers briefly, but the divisions hardened. The Discalced Augustinians broke away entirely in 1610 to become a fully separate mendicant order, and the Recollects achieved complete autonomy in 1612, forming the Order of Augustinian Recollects.

All three friar orders continue operating independently today, each running its own global missions, schools, and parishes under the same fourth-century rule. The original Order of Saint Augustine remains the largest of the three, with roughly 2,800 members serving across nearly 50 countries.