section_path: Orders, groups, and societies/Augustinian lay societies
section_name: Augustinian lay societies
paragraph_text: Augustinian lay societies
  
  The lay societies are voluntary groups, generally made up of people who are either married or single and have sympathy with, and interest in, the Augustinian approach to life. These lay people do not take monastic vows, but offer support to the work of the Augustinian Order in voluntary work, gifts of money and goods, and of study and promotion of St. Augustine and Augustinian teaching.
  
  The primary among these are the Third Orders associated with the various branches of the mendicant Orders. These are the Augustinian Lay Community and the Secular Augustinian Recollects. They make a formal and public commitment as laity to follow as best as possible the life and charism of the Order.
  
  Other associations which support the spirit and work of the friars and Sisters include: the Brotherhood of the Virgin Mary of the Belt in Italy, the Friends of Augustine in the Philippines, and the Augustinian Friends in Australia.