Canon regular

The Canons Regular of St. Augustine are Catholic priests who live in community under a rule (Latin: regula and κανών, kanon, in Greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a partly similar terminology.

Especially from the 11th century, among the canons regular, various groupings called congregations were formed, which partly resembled religious orders in the general modern sense.

Furthermore, among the Augustinian Canons, some groups acquired a greater degree of distinctiveness in their style of life and organization, to the point of being in law or in effect autonomous religious orders.

Encouraged by the general policies of the Holy See, especially from the late nineteenth century, some of these separate orders and congregations of Augustinian Canons have subsequently combined in some form of federation or confederation.

He lives in community, he leads the life of a religious, he sings the praises of God by the daily recitation of the Divine Office in choir; but at the same time, at the bidding of his superiors, he is prepared to follow the example of the Apostles by preaching, teaching, and the administration of the sacraments, or by giving hospitality to pilgrims and travellers, and tending the sick.

To live this out in the midst of like-minded brethren was the goal of his monastic foundations in Thagaste, in the "Garden Monastery" at Hippo and at his bishop's house.

[7] From the time of his elevation to be Bishop of Hippo in 395 AD, he transformed his episcopal residence into a monastery for clerics and established the essential characteristics-the common life with renunciation of private property, chastity, obedience, the liturgical life and the care of souls: to these can be added two other typically Augustinian characteristics —a close bond of brotherly affection and a wise moderation in all things.

[4] The prescriptions which St. Augustine had given to the clerics who lived with him soon spread and were adopted by other communities of canons regular not only in Africa, but in Italy, in France and elsewhere.

Over time abuses crept into clerical life, including those of concubinage and independent living with the scandals and disedification of the faithful which followed.

[11] In the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries, laxity crept in: community life was no longer strictly observed, the sources of revenue were divided and the portions were allocated directly to the individual canons.

[11] In the 11th century the life of canons regular was reformed and renewed, chiefly owing to the efforts of Hildebrand (c. 1020–1085), later Pope Gregory VII, culminating in the Lateran Synod of 1059.

The privileges of Pope Urban II are the first to officially use the name Canonici secundum regulam sancti Augustini viventes, which would give the new ordo of canonical life a distinctive stamp.

Secundum regulam Augustini vivere, an expression first employed in Rheims in 1067, signified a life according to the example of Augustine as was known from his numerous writings.

Finally, in the 19th century Adrien Grea (1828–1917), founder of the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception, in his writing put in its proper perspective the ecclesial dimension of the canonical life.

[12] In their independence and their local character, the canons regular had some resemblance to the Benedictine monks, as they did in their maintaining the vow of stability to a particular house.

Saint Vicelin (c. 1090 – 1154) took the Gospel to the pagan Slavs of Lower Germany; his disciple Meinhard (died 1196) evangelized the people of eastern Livonia.

[13] At the heart of their existence was the vita apostolica, but even more than other groups the canons regular became involved in active spiritual care of local populations.

Perhaps as a result of this feature they also enjoyed sustained support from founders, patrons and benefactors, and new foundations continued to be made long after the main force of the expansion of the monastic orders had declined.

In England alone, from the Norman Conquest to the death of Henry II, no fewer than fifty-four houses of canons regular were founded.

Besides the occupations of the regular life at home and the public recitation of the Divine Office in choir, they are chiefly employed in parish ministry, preaching retreats, supplying for priests who ask their service, and hearing confessions, either as ordinary or extraordinary confessors to convents or other religious communities.

According to Smith and Ratcliff there was a homogeneity among the Augustinian houses in Scotland before 1215 which had much to do with King David I who gave them a common economic policy, and Robert, Bishop of St Andrews, himself a former Augustinian canon at the Priory of St. Oswalds, at Nostell and the founding prior of Scone, united the houses of canons through his patronage and by engaging them as his advisors.

The Augustinian canons regular established 116 religious houses in Ireland in the period of church reform early in the 12th century.

The canons regular did not practise the isolation from the general population operated by the Cistercians, and participated in a great variety of pastoral activities in parishes, hospitals and schools, as permitted by the Rule of St. Augustine.

St Malachy, archbishop of Armagh, was a prime mover in the reform movement in the Irish Church in the 12th century and by the time of his death in 1148, there were forty-one Augustinian houses.

On 4 May 1959 Pope John XXIII founded the Confederation of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine with his apostolic letter "Caritatis Unitas" on the 900th anniversary of the First Lateran Synod.

[28] According to the spirit of its founder, this congregation unites the active with the contemplative life, the institute embracing in its scope the sanctification of its members and the administration of the sacraments.

[29] The Canons Regular of St. John Cantius were founded in 1998 by C. Frank Phillips, C.R., and are active in the United States and Canada, principally in the area of parish ministry.

[32] Extinct congregations also include the Order of Saint Rufus, founded in 1039, and once flourishing in Dauphiné; that of Aroasia (Diocese of Arras, in France), founded in 1097; Marbach (1100); of the Holy Redeemer of Bologna, also called the Renana (1136), now united to the Lateran Congregation; of the Holy Spirit in Sassia (1198); of St. George in Alga, at Venice (1404); of Our Saviour in Lorraine, reformed in 1628 by St. Peter Fourier.

[33] The occupations of the canonesses down the centuries has consisted in the recitation of the Divine Office, the care of the church vestments, and the education of the young, often particularly the daughters of the nobility.

Saints Blesseds Venerables Servants of God Famous canons regular include Pope Adrian IV, Thomas à Kempis, Rutgerus Sycamber and Desiderius Erasmus.