The Order of Augustinian Recollects or simply the Augustinian Recollects are a Roman Catholic mendicant Catholic religious order of friars and nuns. They are a reformist offshoot from the Augustinian hermit friars and follow the same Rule of St. Augustine.
They were founded in 16th-century Spain as a separate province of the Augustinian friars under their own Vicar General. Through the 5th Determination of the Chapter of Toledo, it was decided that:
Since there are among us, or at least maybe, some who have greater love for monastic perfection and want to follow a more austere plan of life, we ought to favor their legitimate desire by not placing obstacles to the Holy Spirit; having previously consulted our most Reverend Father General and implored his leave, we determine that in our Province three or more monasteries of men and as many of women be designated or established; in them a more austere kind of life is to be practiced; its manner is to be regulated, after mature reflection, by the Father Provincial with his Definitorum.
Their reform emphasized fidelity to the Rule of St. Augustine. The reformers placed special emphasis on community prayer and simplicity of life.
On 5 June 1621, the Recollects was raised to the level of an autonomous Religious Congregation, giving it the right to divide itself into provinces. They were formally recognized as a mendicant Order in the Catholic Church in 1912, the last to be so designated.
There quickly developed the interest to share in this spirituality among lay men and women. Thus was born the Third Order of the Recollects of St. Augustine. They publicly declare promises to seek to follow the teachings of St. Augustine. Modern changes in the Roman Catholic Church has led to an increased sense of the place of the laity in the work of the Church. As part of the Order, they now share in the work of the friars, and have been re-organized as the Secular Augustinian Recollects.
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