Canons regular are canons (a category of clergy) in the Catholic Church who live in community under a rule (Latin: regula) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of

Ordo Antiquus
Augustine of Hippo (354-430), also known as Saint Augustine, did not found the canons regular, not even those who are called Augustinian

Like the Order of St. Benedict, it is not one legal body, but a union of various independent congregations.
Canons Regular of Saint Augustine
The Canons Regular of

All canons regular are to be distinguished from secular canons who belong to a resident group of priests but who do not take public vows and are

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, a canon regular is essentially a religious cleric; "The Order of Canons Regular is necessarily constituted by religious clerics, because they are essentially destined to those works which relate to the Divine mysteries, whereas it is not so with

Other orders sprang up which followed the Rule of St. Augustine and the canonical life. As canons regular became separated into different

• Canons of the Holy Sepulchre: It is the opinion of Helyot and others that no Canons of the Holy Sepulchre existed before 1114, when some canons regular, who had adopted the Rule of St. Augustine, were brought from the West and introduced into the