The Canons Regular of St.
Augustine are Catholic priests who live in common according to the
evangelical counsels of obedience, chastity and common property, according
to the Rule of St. Augustine. That’s the simple and concrete answer, but
what does any of that mean?
From the earliest times of the Church’s organization, she saw as her model
for life that described in Acts of the Apostles. As the Church
consolidated her life in the first centuries after Christ, the priests lived
with the bishop and carried out the liturgy and Sacraments in the cathedral
church. While each could
own his own property, they lived together and shared common meals and a
common dormitory. These priests were known as the canones, from the Greek
word for “rule,” for they lived according to the rules and statutes laid
down for the clergy by the bishops, popes and councils. They were the
bishop’s clergy. There were other priests known as the vagantes who lived
apart and served private churches and oratories and whose relationship to
the bishop was unclear.
Sometimes bishops, inspired by the Acts of the Apostles, gathered their priests together to live a full common life with common property at the cathedral. This was what St. Augustine did, and it was his inspiration which was to guide the canons later in history as they decided upon the surest course they could take towards salvation. Meanwhile the canons began to spread away from the cities into semi-independent houses which cared for local pastoral needs. The lack of full common life left them open to corruption, however, and the message of the Gospel could be lost amidst their wealth.
St. Augustine and St. Jerome
In the 11th and 12th centuries the Gregorian Reforms of the popes were busy reforming the life of the clergy, and it was at this time that the full common life was promoted as a means to this reform. It was realized by the popes and many wise canons that the best guide in this was St. Augustine with his love of the clerical common life and his sensible Rule.
This reform was to take the houses of canons (and much of the diocesan clergy) by storm, as house after house adopted the Rule and the full common life. This was when they became known as the “canons regular” from the Latin regula, or rule. The canonical life as it is called was favored by the popes, bishops and even laymen as a means to reform the clergy. They were seen as a “leaven” for the rest of the clergy.
The Canonry of St. Nicola of Passau
The Order grew rapidly through their patronage and numbered many hundreds of
houses at its height. It was a tried and true path to holiness for many
souls. The growth of the Order was tremendous in central Europe as well as
in France and the Low Countries. In England houses of canons were more
numerous than Benedictine houses. The canons regular were known to
introduce splendid worship and serious religious life into the houses they
reformed.
Gradually houses of canons regular grouped themselves together in congregations so as to maintain their common observances. Many of these observances were quarried from Benedictine observances, though they were always more given to Augustinian “generosity” and less to severity.
St. Leopold
welcomes Bl. Hartmann
and the canons to Klosterneuburg
such as the Canons Regular of Premontre (or Norbertines) and the Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross (or Crosier Fathers and Brothers). These were more centralized “Orders” in the modern sense, and had separate developments. The canons regular, or “Black Canons” as they were known in England, were more similar to the Benedictines in their independence and their local character. Another similarity is that, aside from a few congregations, the canons regular maintained and still maintain the vow of stability to a particular house, a particular family. The individual houses often have differences in the form of the habit, even within the same congregation. This would not be the case among Benedictines.
The Royal Abbey and School of St. Victor
The canons also took a leading role in the intellectual life of the Church by founding cathedral and collegiate schools throughout Europe. For example, the University of Paris finds part of its ancestry in the famous Abbey school of St. Victor.
What is more, the canons regular proved particularly fruitful in giving birth to spiritual movements and even to other forms of religious life. A good example of a spiritual movement fostered by regular canons was the Devotio Moderna in the fifteenth century Netherlands.
Cathedral of Toledo
Bl. Jan van Ruysbroeck's canonry at Groenendaal
As all delicate forms of life, the canonical life suffered the ravages of the centuries. Time always brings a relaxation of fervor, plus the Protestant Revolt in the 16th century, the Wars of Religion, the French Revolution and Secularization of the 19th century all did great damage. The canons regular, with their vehemently independent character and lack of centralized structure, were one of the Orders most affected by these turbulent times. The 20th century came with only a handful of houses of Augustinian canons left.
The last provost of St. Nicola of Passau, Franz Konrad, accepts the decree of secularization