Augustinians
The Augustinians, as you might have guessed, followed the Regula Sancti Augustini. The order grew out of communities of hermits living near one another in Tuscany, who wished to be united under one rule, which the pope gave them in 1244. The order was named the Order of Hermits of Saint Augustine, which was often shortened to Austins. Despite the name, the Augustinians were friars, not eremites. It was a mendicant order, and Augustinian Friars swore a vow of poverty, rejected property, and travelled wherever they were needed to preach the Word of God, staying at the order’s many houses.
Like the Dominicans, the Augustinians buttressed their missionary work by placing significant emphasis on learning in order to defend the Catholic Faith. As St Augustine himself said in his Regula of 423 AD, ‘nothing conquers except truth and the victory of truth is love’. This did not always work in favour of Catholicism, however, as the great Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, was an Augustinian. The Augustinians wore black robes, like Dominicans and Benedictines, but were helpfully never known as Black Friars or Monks! Thus their life was split between learning, prayer and contemplation, and apostolic missionary work amongst the needy.
Augustinian Nuns, like the Poor Clares, were a contemplative order who lived separately from Augustinian friars, and did not undertake any ministerial work. Like monks, they were tied to a single convent, in which they were effectively cut-off from the secular world. The Augustinian Convents were independent of one another, and thus showed variations in dress and specific observation, but were all committed to Augustine’s idea of pursuing truth through learning. They were still mendicants, however, and would appeal for alms from people outside of the convent. Some Augustinian convents took alms from women who stayed in their guest houses.