While the Augustinians take St. Augustine as their primary patron and spiritual father, he did not technically found the order.
Typically when a religious order is established, it is founded by a particular individual and later on, that order will be identified in reference to their founder.
Some of the easiest examples are the Franciscans and Dominicans. The Franciscans were founded by St. Francis of Assisi and the Dominicans were founded by St. Dominic. Both religious orders today are known by the saints who founded them.
Following this same logic, should we assume that St. Augustine founded the Augustinians (Pope Leo's religious order)?
Origin of the Augustinians
Technically speaking, no. St. Augustine did not found the Order of St. Augustine, or the related spiritual groups, commonly known as the Augustinians.
During the early 5th century, St. Augustine began living a monastic life with fellow priests in Northern Africa. This way of living was attractive to many priests, who gathered around Augustine in a sort of monastic community. He wrote a list of guidelines to govern the community that later became known as the "Rule of St. Augustine."
However, at this time religious life was primarily a collection of priests living in common and not a formal religious order. Initially those inspired by St. Augustine's rule were called the "Canons Regular of St. Augustine" and as time went on, the group grew and began to take on a different form.
Basically, St. Augustine wrote a rule of life that was followed by a community of priests, but he did not found a religious order in the modern sense of the word.
This is why in the 13th century there sprung up the Order of Saint Augustine, which was inspired by Augustine's rule, and was founded to be a complete religious order.
The Augustinians explain on their website, "The history of the Order of Saint Augustine is rooted in the life and teachings of its namesake and was formally structured by the Papacy in the 13th century. The Order traces its spiritual ancestry to St. Augustine, who is recognized as its father, master, and spiritual guide."
So while the Augustinians can't claim St. Augustine as their founder, they can claim him as their spiritual father. This means that his writings and teachings are at the heart of their "brand" of spirituality -- with the various emphases that St. Augustine had being a part of their own spiritual emphases. His writings continue to guide them to the present day.
An easy way to see this lived out is to read a few of the homilies or speeches from Pope Leo. He quotes St. Augustine in nearly every one. It's a relatively easy task to find something St. Augustine said that sheds light on every modern topic, because St. Augustine was a brilliant thinker and he wrote a lot. Happily, many of his writings have been passed down to us and still exist today.
In fact, some lost homilies of Augustine were recently found. Read about that here: Two lost sermons by Augustine found in Poland.
