Being an Augustinian means shaping your life around the person, spirituality, and vision of St. Augustine of Hippo: loving truth, living in community, and seeking God together in a restless, honest way.

What “Augustinian” Basically Means

  • It can mean:
    • A member of a religious order that follows the Rule of St. Augustine (priests, brothers, sisters, nuns).
* A lay person (not clergy) who follows Augustine’s spirituality and way of seeing God, self, and the world.
  • At the heart of it is a simple line from the Rule: to live “with one heart and one soul” turned toward God.

“Our hearts are restless until they rest in You” is often seen as the emotional core of Augustinian life: honest restlessness, longing for God, lived in community.

Core Augustinian Values (Quick View)

These values show up across Augustinian schools, parishes, and communities today.

  • Interior search for God
    • “Return into yourself; in the inner self dwells truth”: know yourself to find God.
  • Community and friendship (unitas)
    • Real spiritual growth happens together, not alone; friendship is a place of grace, correction, and mutual support.
  • Truth (veritas)
    • Love for truth, honest questioning, admitting error, intellectual seriousness in faith.
  • Love/charity (caritas)
    • Love of God expressed in concrete love of neighbor, especially the vulnerable.
  • Humility
    • Admitting limits, sin, and dependence on grace, rather than spiritual or intellectual pride.
  • Community of goods and service
    • Sharing resources, caring for the sick, serving generously rather than living for personal comfort.

How Augustinians Live (Religious Orders)

For those in Augustinian religious life, “being Augustinian” has a very concrete shape.

  • They follow the Rule of St. Augustine , which has 8 chapters about:
    • Living a common life, prayer, self-denial, chastity, use of goods, forgiveness, governance, obedience.
  • They profess the evangelical counsels:
    • Chastity, poverty, obedience, lived in community houses (friaries/monasteries).
  • Daily life features:
    • Liturgy of the Hours, Eucharist, study of Scripture, preaching, teaching, hearing confessions, and pastoral work.
  • A hallmark difference:
    • They are a mendicant, mobile order (not bound to one monastery for life), focused strongly on spiritual and pastoral works.

An Augustinian friar, for example, might spend the morning in common prayer and study, and the afternoon preaching, teaching, or working in a parish or school.

Augustinian Spirituality for Lay People

You don’t need to be a friar or nun to be Augustinian in spirit.

To “be Augustinian” as an ordinary Christian often means:

  1. Living from a restless heart
    • Taking your questions, doubts, and longings seriously and bringing them into prayer, not hiding them.
  1. Doing faith in community
    • Praying with others, studying together, joining parish/small groups, allowing yourself to be known and corrected.
  1. Loving truth more than winning
    • Reading, studying, listening, being willing to change your mind when truth becomes clearer.
  1. Practicing honest humility
    • Acknowledging sin and weakness, relying on grace more than willpower, going to confession, asking forgiveness.
  1. Serving in concrete ways
    • Sharing time and resources, especially with the poor and suffering, as part of a community’s mission.

Modern “lay Augustinian” groups explicitly invite families and professionals to live veritas, unitas, and caritas in workplaces, neighborhoods, and civic life.

Different Angles on “What It Means”

Here are a few viewpoints you’ll see in current discussions.

  • The theological angle (Augustinianism)
    • Emphasizes original sin, the absolute need for grace, and God’s initiative in salvation.
  • The spiritual-practical angle
    • Focuses on interiority, community, friendship, and mercy in daily life.
  • The ecclesial/cultural angle (today’s Church)
    • Augustinian-inspired leaders and communities speak into questions about division, violence, immigration, environment, and justice, asking how to seek God and truth together in these issues.

In recent Catholic news, Augustinian identity has been highlighted again because prominent church figures associated with the Order bring these values—intense love of truth, community, and mercy—into global leadership conversations.

Mini FAQ

Is “Augustinian” just for Catholics?
Mostly it refers to Catholic religious orders and spirituality, but many Christians and even secular thinkers use “Augustinian” for people shaped by Augustine’s ideas about grace, will, and the human heart.

Can I call myself Augustinian if I just like Augustine?
Informally, yes, if his spirituality and thought actively shape how you pray, think, and live in relation to God and community.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.