A Rule for Living
Maureen McKew

Of all the works of St. Augustine, one of the least written about and yet most influential of his writings is a brief set of rules for a monastic community, which he founded at Hippo Regius  in North Africa after his conversion and was compelled to leave behind when he was elected bishop of that city. That rule or regula has been adapted and used by hundreds of religious communities of men and women through the centuries and presently, it is guiding more than 150  around the world.

For such a set of guidelines that has influenced religious life for more 1, 600 years, the Rule of St. Augustine appears deceptively simple. It is less complicated than the Benedictine, Franciscan or Ignatian rules. Its authority is based on the two great commandments: love of God and love of neighbor. It relies heavily upon sacred Scripture, most especially the writings of St. Paul, whom Augustine devoutly admired. Charity and friendship are at its heart. It encompasses ideals for not only the larger aspects of community life, but also the smaller and often more troublesome.

The Rule has come down in two versions: one for males and one for females. Both are attributed to Augustine and are almost identical.

A combination of idealism and practicality

The Rule of St. Augustine, in modern English translation, fits on approximately seven sheets of eight and one-half by 11 inch paper. Augustine created eight chapters, the first of which outlined the purpose and basis on common life –  to live harmoniously in one’s house, intent on God, in oneness of mind and heart. This chapter cautioned would-be brothers and sisters not to use religious life to find what they missed in the world or vice versa.  “Call nothing your own,“ Augustine wrote, imitating the Acts of the Apostles, 4:32, 35: “ . . . they had all things in common and distribution was made to each one according to each one’s needs.”

The second chapter called for faithfulness at prayer, cautioning that what is said on the lips must live in  the heart.  Chapter III addressed moderation and self-denial. Augustine clearly recognized that those practicing such virtues can sometimes fall prey to excessive pride, so he offered some examples. If some were delicate in health from their former way of life and received special treatment, then the others should be glad that these persons were being assisted and also be grateful for their own better health. “On the whole, however, it is better to suffer a little want than to have too much,” Augustine said.

In chapter IV, he turned his attention to chastity and fraternal correction. Augustine clearly believed there was safety in numbers. He also understood human nature (perhaps from his own youth) and wrote considerably about “chastity of the eyes” Followers of the rule were advised to avoid looking for trouble by eying members of the opposite sex. “The Lord abhors a covetous eye,” he noted solemnly, quoting from the Book of Proverbs.

Fraternal correction was handled with great delicacy and charity.  If one monk or nun saw “wantonness of the eye” in another, he or  should correct the offender. If it continued, then the offender should be reported to others so that action would not be  taken on the testimony of just one. There should be witnesses. If the offender persisted, the superior must be informed and  correct the offender privately. If the offender denied the charge, then the issue moved to another level. If he or she was found to be lying, the offender would have to leave the community. On the other hand, if the person confessed, he or she should be shown mercy.

Augustine went to great lengths to spell out these procedures in order to protect offenders, witnesses and superiors from acting unjustly, rashly or uncharitably. Ever mindful of his own unworthiness, Augustine provided opportunities for sinners to repent and rejoin their brothers or sisters. But he also understood the need for justice and order.

The next chapter called for the sharing of community goods and treatment of those who are sick. Also, in this chapter can be traced the beginnings of what would become the Augustinian commitment to learning. “Books are to be requested at a fixed hour each day,” Augustine wrote. That indicated the presence of a library at this Augustine’s first monastery. Books were an expensive commodity in the late fourth century, but they were available in Hippo Regius and he recognized  their value. Perhaps many of them were once his own.

The last three chapters continue in a vein of idealism combined with practicality: asking pardon and forgiving offenses, governance and obedience, and observance of the rule.

The history of the Rule

The Rev. Thomas Martin, O.S.A., associate professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova, has lectured extensively on the Rule of Augustine, which  has always struck him as an ancient version of a memo pinned to a bulletin board rather than a grand design for monastic life.

Unlike Benedict, Francis, Ignatius of Loyola and authors of later rules, Augustine was not establishing a huge  religious congregation or society, nor was he setting forth a mission statement  for papal approval.  Why then did he write it? When did he write it?

According to The Rule of St. Augustine, with Introduction and Commentary, written by the Rev. T.J. van Bavel, O.S.A.(Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd., London, 1984),  Augustine wrote his rule around the year 397, about ten years after his conversion in Milan.

The Rule of St. Augustine was not the first  developed for  monastic life. According to Van Bavel, the oldest regulation for communities of monks was composed by Pachomius in Upper Egypt sometime around 330. St. Basil wrote his Great and Small Rules sometime around the late middle of the fourth century.

However, the influence of Augustine’s Rule was almost instantaneous and continued through the  first millennium of Christianity. From the 11^th century, it spread, as Van Bavel put it, “like fire among stubble.” Hundreds of men’s and women’s orders followed it. Among the men’s were the Augustinians (both canons and hermits), the Norbertines, Crosiers, several orders of Knights, the Servites, and the Dominicans.

Women’s orders which followed the Rule in its feminine versions included the Dominicans, the Brigittines, Annunciates of Lombardy, the Ursulines, the Canonesses of St. Augustine, the Augustinian Sisters of Meaux, les Dames de St. Thomas de Villenueve, the Visitation Order of St. Francis De Sales, the Sisters of Sr. Rita, and the Sisters of St. Monica.

Part of the Rule’s popularity is due to its flexibility. However, an event took place in the 13^th century which would have a lasting influence on its use: the Fourth Lateran Council. In the previous century, many different religious movements had sprung up, most famous among them the Poverty Movement. Alarmed, the church leaders decided at the council that no new rules could be written, and that any new religious orders would have to follow one of three rules which already existed: St. Basil’s, St. Benedict’s or St. Augustine’s.

Augustine’s Rule had a very pastoral side to it and it had been written for an urban community that was out and about the city of Hippo Regius. Therefore, it was an easy “fit” for many of the new twelfth and thirteenth century communities, which combined monastic life with pastoral life and preaching - the Order of Preachers of St. Dominic, for example.

The Augustinian Order and the Rule

Obviously, Augustine did not found the order which bears his name and which is most closely associated with him. Augustine died in 430.  The Augustinians came in existence in the 13^th century, when a variety of European hermit communities were gathered together in the Great Unions of 1244 and 1256.

They adopted not only Augustine’s Rule but Augustine himself as their father. Like that little family at Hippo Regius, the Augustinian friars took a mission that was monastic but not cloistered. Right from their union they preached and taught in the cities and towns of Europe and later around the world.

Establishing authorship

For many years, Augustine’s authorship the Rule was a source of scholarly question. Augustine himself did not leave many clues. He did not mention it in his other writings.  So did he really write it or did his name somehow become attached to it? Did he write for men or for women? If both, who came first? Nine forms of it have come down.

For many generations, it was believed that Augustine wrote it to keep quarreling female communities in line. The 15^th century philosopher Erasmus cited the Rule’s references to perfume and giving off the good odor of Christ as proof, along with Augustine’s exhortation to hold the Rule up as a mirror to one’s life. “Well, shame on Erasmus,” said Father Martin. “The perfume references are Pauline in their origins and Augustine often used the metaphor of  mirrors.”  Martin’s opinion of this is shared by the Rev. George Lawless, O.S.A., of the Patristics Institute (also called the Augustinianum) in Rome in his influential Augustine of Hippo and His Monastic Rule (Oxford University Press, New York, 1987)

“Both the metaphor [the perfume] and the simile [of the mirror] derive, respectively, from 2 Cor. 2:15 and Jas. 1:23-5, and St. Paul and St. James were hardly writing for an exclusively female public. Furthermore, Augustine used the image of a mirror at least nine other times,” wrote Father Lawless, and added for good measure that the ‘fragrance of Christ’ occurs in two other monastic texts addressed to men.    

Shame or not,  Erasmus’ view was supported by many Post-Reformation theologians, including Cardinal Robert Bellarmine. It persisted for more than 400 years.

In the twentieth century, however, there were major strides in discovering the origin of the Rule, Augustine’s authorship, and which version came first.  Chief among the critical detectives was the Rev. Luke Verheijen, a Dutch Augustinian and philologist.

Studying many ancient manuscripts and using the criteria of philology, he concluded that Augustine indeed authored the Rule and wrote the masculine version first for that little community at Hippo Regius. Verheijen’s monumental study, published in 1967, is considered to be one the most authoritative works on the Rule of St. Augustine.

Living the Rule Today

After the second Vatican Council, many of the communities that followed the Rule updated the language and practices for the modern world. Essentially, though, it has remained unchanged because these communities face many of the same challenges as the one for which it was written at the end of the fourth century.

Sr. Anne Connelly, O.P., vicar for religious in the Archdiocese of New York, was at one time the mistress of novices for her Sparkill Dominican community. She taught the Rule as something to be absorbed in the fibers of one’s being, so that one observe it as naturally as one breathes.

She cautioned, however, the Rule is a bit more complex in practice than it appears on its face. “It is easier to follow the Rule in the “big things” than in the little - for example, maintaining charitable feelings toward a colleague who talks too much or who is untidy or who is too full of advice,” she said. However, Sr. Anne hastened to add, she has had very little experience of such things in her community because everyone does her best to “live” the rule

St. Augustine’s Rule also has had influence beyond religious communities, as recently as the late twentieth century. The Rev. Clodivus Boff, a Servite father, based much of what came to be called “Liberation Theology” in Latin America on the Rule of Augustine with its emphasis on community and sharing.

At Augustinian educational institutions, the Rule’s influence can be noticed, although less directly than most of Augustine’s works. Chief among its legacies is an emphasis on learning and living for a higher purpose than individual aggrandizement. The idea of service learning also could be said to have roots in the Rule.

Religious life is changing in this new millennium. Some orders may disappear. Others will rise to take their place. This has happened again and again in the past two millennia. But the Rule of St. Augustine is likely to endure and continue to be adopted because of its scriptural basis and flexibility. Augustine somehow managed to incorporate his own Platonic idealism, his joy in his newly found faith, his enormous practicality, and his awareness of his own weaknesses into a way of life which, for those who are chosen to follow it, can bring enormous joy and satisfaction.