Augustinian nuns

Prominent Augustinian nuns include the canonized Italian mystics Clare of Montefalco and Rita of Cascia.

The nuns regard as their first foundation the monastery for which St. Augustine wrote the rules of life in his Epistola ccxi (alias cix) in 423.

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.

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.

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.

The pursuit of truth through learning is key to the Augustinian ethos, balanced by the injunction to behave with love towards one another.

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.

He taught that "to sing once is to pray twice" (Qui cantat, bis orat),[5] 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 (male) friars in Vienna, where orchestral masses by Mozart and Schubert are performed every week, as well as the boys' choir at Sankt Florian in Austria, a school conducted by Canons Regular, a choir now over 1,000 years old.