St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Feast
Bishop of Hippo and theologian, outstanding in the West for his teaching on grace and authority, Augustine is the eminent author of the Rule and the teacher of our common life.
The Rule for the Servants of God, which was originally intended for a monastery of women, was received in the 12th century by the canons regular. After the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, Innocent III urged St. Dominic to choose, together with his brothers, an older rule that would give legitimacy to the new family.
“As Jordan of Saxony testifies, they immediately professed the Rule of St. Augustine, the renowned preacher, for they were to become Preachers. They imposed upon themselves a stricter observance concerning food, fasts, vigils and woolen clothing.”
Humbert of Romans later showed that St. Augustine wrote the Rule according to the life of the apostles. When one considers that Dominic, as a canon, had already professed the Rule of Augustine for nearly 20 years, one understands how the apostolic life chosen by Augustine corresponded to the purpose of the Preachers.
Obedience according to the apostolic Rule of Augustine and the Constitutions of the Order contains, even in our own times, the whole profession of Dominican life.
Proprium Officiorum Ordinis Praedicatorum ad Normam Decretorum Sacrosancti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II Instauratum Vincentii Couesnongle iussu editum, Editio typica, Sanctae Sabinae, Romae 1982.
