Order of Saint Augustine

The Augustinians followed the Portuguese flag in Africa and the Gulf behind the explorer and seafarer Vasco da Gama.^[12]Nikolaus von Laun (d. 1371), auxiliary bishop of Ratisbon, where he died, with some brethren preached the Gospel in Africa. He had sailed from Lisbon in 1497, and arrived at Mozambique in March 1498. Portuguese Augustinians also arrived in Gold coast (now Ghana) in 1572 and started their missionary work, and also worked on the island of Sao Tome, in Warri (Nigeria), and in what is now known as Angola, in the Congo, in Equatorial Guinea, and in Gabon up until 1738. The Portuguese also took control of the port of Goa in India—giving the Augustinians a foothold there also. Besides the early Portuguese Augustinians, other Augustinian missionaries have since followed to Africa from America, Ireland, Belgium and Australia.

As of 2006, there were more than 30 other Augustinian priories in Nigeria, Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Algeria, with over 85 friars.^[13] There are also Augustinians working in the Republic of Benin, Togo, Madagascar, Guinea and Burkina Faso.

The Order of Saint Augustine is the oldest of the four main Catholic Religious Orders: mainly the Augustinians, the Franciscans, the Jesuits, and the Augustinian Recollects; that participated in Missions to the Philippines, with the Augustinian Chaplain, Rev. Fr. Pedro de Valderrama,^[14] present in the year 1519 Magellan expedition and he witnessed the conversion of Cebu's Rajah from Hinduism to Christianity. The Augustinians founded and are the caretakers of the oldest stone church in the Philippines, the San Agustin Church (Manila),^[15] which survived despite the British Occupation of Manila, the Philippine Revolution against Spain, the Philippine-American War, and the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines. The Augustinians also baptized Agustin de Legazpi of Tondo from Islam to Christianity. The choice of Agustin as baptismal name alludes to Saint Augustine of Hippo a Christian North African saint from Algeria, back when Algeria was once Catholic before it was conquered by Sunni Muslims.^[16] Miguel López de Legazpi, Agustin de Legazpi's baptismal godfather was a fervent Christian who mourned the loss of North Africa from Christianity to Islam and sought to do the reverse in the Philippines.^[17]:77 He advocated Augustinian Spirituality, wherein rather than being focused on fallen Old Jerusalem of the broken City of Man, one should focus on the heavenly New Jerusalem, and manifest it with your actions, in which case Old Jerusalem was the Christian lands in the Middle East and North Africa which fell to Islam, and Legazpi's New Jerusalem, being Muslim lands in the Philippines, Miguel López de Legazpi, conquers for Christianity.^[18]Andrés de Urdaneta, the Augustinian Chaplain of the Legazpi expedition, also discovered the return route from the Philippines to Mexico,^[19] which allowed for the further colonization and settlement of the Philippines by colonists and officials from Mexico^[20] and Spain.^[21] The Augustinian Friar, Rev. Fr. Tomas Santaren nevertheless recorded the history of the precolonial kingdom called the Kedatuan of Madja-as in his book entitled "Bisayan Accounts of Early Bornean Settlements" (created in 1858, published in 1902). Furthermore, the Augustinians are now caretakers of the oldest Catholic religious relic in the Philippines, the Santo Niño de Cebú.^[22] The Order of Saint Augustine also maintains the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City, the First Augustinian University in the Asia-Pacific.^[23]

Sent by their Provincial Thomas of Villanova, the first group of Spanish/Castilian Augustinians arrived in Mexico in 1533^[24] after the subjugation of Aztec Mexico by Hernán Cortés. They were later instrumental in establishing the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico. By 1562 there were nearly 300 Spanish Augustinians in Mexico, and they had established some 50 priories. Their history in Mexico was not to be an easy one, given the civil strife of events like the Cristero War, periodic anti-clericalism and suppression of the church that was to follow.

Spanish Augustinians first went to Peru in 1551. From there they went to Ecuador in 1573, and from Ecuador in 1575 to Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela. The order founded the Ecuadorean University of Quito in 1586. Augustinians also entered Argentina via Chile between 1617 and 1626. Political events in these countries prevented the order from prospering and hindered the success of its undertakings. The order had considerable property confiscated by the Argentinian government under the secularisation laws in the 19th century, and were entirely suppressed for 24 years until 1901 when they returned. In the Prefecture Apostolic of San León de Amazonas, in June 1904, Bernardo Calle, the lay brother Miguel Vilajoli, and more than 70 Christians were murdered at a then recently erected mission station, Huabico, in Upper Maranon and the station itself was destroyed. The Augustinian Province of the Netherlands later also founded houses in Bolivia from 1930.

On 3 November 2014, Pope Francis appointed the American bishop and former General of the Order of St. Augustine Robert Prevost as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru and titular bishop of Sufar.^[25] Prevost received his episcopal consecration on 12 December 2014 at St. Mary's Cathedral in Chiclayo.^[26] On 26 September 2015, he was named bishop of Chiclayo,^[27] in September 2023 he was appointed cardinal by Pope Francis in Vatican City,^[28] and on 8 May 2025 became Pope Leo XIV.

The order (from Mexico) arrived in Cuba in 1608. It was suppressed by force in 1842. From 1892 the province of the United States had care of St. Thomas of Villanova University at Havana, Cuba, where there were 5 priests and 3 lay brothers in 1900 before they were expelled in 1961 by the government of Fidel Castro.

In Central and South America, the Augustinians remain established as of 2000 in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, and Peru.

Martin de Hereda penetrated into the interior of China in 1577, to study Chinese literature with the intention of bringing it into Europe. Portuguese Augustinians served in the colonial port of Macau from 1586 until 1712.

In about 1681, the Filipino Augustinian Alvaro de Benevente arrived in China and established the first of the Augustinian houses in China at Kan-chou. Benevente was made bishop and became head of the newly created Vicariate of Kiang-si in 1699. The Augustinian missionaries had success in propagating Catholicism, but in 1708, during the Chinese Rites controversy they were forced to withdraw from China.

In 1879 Spanish Augustinians^[29] from Manila (Elias Suarez and Agostino Villanueva) entered China to re-establish an Augustinian mission. In 1900 the order possessed the mission of Northern Hunan, China. The mission comprised about 3000 baptized Christians and 3500 catechumens in a population of 11 million.

By 1947 the Augustinian mission counted 24,332 baptised Catholics as well as 3,250 preparing for baptism. They had established 20 major churches and 90 satellite churches. All foreign missionaries were expelled or imprisoned from 1953 by the Communist government. Chinese-born Augustinians were dispersed by government order and directed not to live the monastic life. Church officials were arrested, schools and other church institutions closed or confiscated by the State. Many priests, religious brothers and sisters, as well as leaders among the Christian laity were sent to labour camps.

Since the re-unification of the former colonies of Macau and Hong-Kong with the central Chinese government and further developments in government religious policy, Catholicism in China—including clergy, Catholic bishops, and a Cardinal—once again exists openly alongside the members of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and their co-religionists in the continuing underground church.

The Augustinian have recently re-established friendly relations with Chinese educational organisations through school-placement programmes^[30] as well as through the University of the Incarnate Word Chinese campus founded by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. While there are Chinese Augustinian friars, there is not yet a priory in mainland China re-established.

After an extensive period of expansion in India from the 15th century^[31] the Portuguese Augustinians had not only established the order but also provided sixteen Indian bishops between 1579 and 1840. The order subsequently disappeared in India, cut off from its usual governance after the suppression of Portuguese monasteries in 1838, and the friars were forced to become secular priests. The order had failed successfully to establish an autonomous indigenous Indian foundation.

However, the Augustinians were re-established by Andrés G. Niño, Spanish Augustinian, named coordinator of the project by the General Chapter of the Order in 1971 .... (cf., Estudio Agustiniano, 45 (2010) 279–303) ....... and the Indian Augustinians took on further responsibilities in Kerala in 2005.^[32] The Indian delegation currently has 16 ordained friars and 8 in simple vows. The order is growing numerically in India.

Towards the close of the sixteenth century, Aleixo de Menezes, Count of Cantanheda (d. 1617), a member of the order, appointed Archbishop of Goa in 1595, and of Braga in 1612, Primate of the East Indies, and several times Viceroy of India, sent several Augustinians as missionaries to Iran (Persia) while he himself laboured for the reunion of the Thomas Christians, especially at the Synod of Diamper, in 1599, and for the conversion of the Muslims and the non-Christians of Malabar.

The Augustinian missions in the Philippines provided missionaries for the East since their first establishment. In 1602 some of them penetrated into Japan, where several were martyred during a period of Christian persecution. Among those martyred, Augustinians include: Ferdinand of Saint Joseph, Andrew Yoshida, and Peter Zuñiga.^[33] Augustinian Ferdinand of Saint Joseph, along with Andrew Yoshida, a catechist who worked with him, were beheaded in 1617.^[34] In 1653 others entered China, where, in 1701, the order had six missionary stations before their expulsion.

Despite a vigorous early Christian foundation in Nagasaki by Jesuits, Franciscans and Filipino Augustinians^[35] and the many 17th century Japanese Augustinian martyrs, the earlier Augustinian mission attempts eventually failed after the repression of Tokugawa Hidetada (ruled 1605–1623; second Tokugawa shogun of Japan) and the expulsion of Christians under Tokugawa Iemitsu (ruled 1623 to 1651; third Tokugawa shogun of Japan).

However, American Augustinian friars returned to Japan in 1954, establishing their first priory in 1959 at Nagasaki. They then established priories in Fukuoka (1959), Nagoya (1964), and Tokyo (1968). As of 2006, there are seven American Augustinian friars and five Japanese Augustinian friars in Japan.

By the early 20th century, the Augustinians established missions in Oceania. The Spanish Augustinians took over the missions founded by Spanish and German Jesuits in the Ladrones, which then numbered 7 stations with about 10,000 people on Guam, and about 2500 on each of the German islands of Saipan, Rota and Tinian. The mission on the German islands was separated from the Diocese of Cebú on 1 October 1906, and made a prefecture Apostolic on 18 June 1907, with Saipan as its seat of administration, and the mission given in charge to the German Capuchins.

The Augustinian Delegation of Papua has operated since 1953. It presently contains five Dutch-born Augustinians and thirty-three Indonesian-born Augustinians. The order of friars and affiliated orders are growing in the Indonesian territories.

Two Dutch Augustinian friars re-established the order in Dutch New Guinea (now the Papua region of Indonesia) in 1953. In 1956, the order took responsibility for the area that was to become the Diocese of Manokwari. As of 2006, the Augustinian Vicariate of Indonesia has 15 friars in solemn profession, and 7 in simple vows. It is now predominantly Papuan. The order of friars and affiliated orders are growing in Indonesia.

The Region of Korea was founded in 1985 by Australian, English and Scottish friars. Filipinos later replaced the UK friars. In 1985 it became the Delegation of Korea, with members working in the Dioceses of Incheon and Ui-Jeong-Bu.^[36]

In 1838, James Alipius Goold became the first Augustinian to arrive in the Australian colonies.^[43] Goold began his missionary work in Sydney under Archbishop John Bede Polding, becoming parish priest at Campbelltown. He went on in 1848 to become the founding bishop and first Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The first Australian priory was founded by Irish Augustinian friars at Echuca, Victoria, in 1886. Priories were established at Rochester in 1889 and Kyabram in 1903. Matthew Downing tried to calm the miners who were part of the Eureka Stockade in 1854.

The order presently serves in parishes, at St Augustine's College (New South Wales) and Villanova College, Brisbane. They have a special ministry to the Aboriginal community, and work with migrants and refugees in Thailand. They are also training a few Vietnamese Augustinians to serve in their own country. They also sponsor Augustine Volunteers Australia (AVA). As of 2021 there were 7 Augustinian priories in Australia.^[36]

The order established the first of their Canadian houses at Tracadie, Nova Scotia, in Canada in 1938. It was founded by German Augustinians who had previously emigrated to the US. Among other Canadian foundations, the order also established Marylake Shrine of Our Lady of Grace and St. Thomas of Villanova College in King City, Ontario, near Toronto.^[44] The college was founded in 1999 in cooperation with the Order of Saint Augustine's friars of Toronto and Marylake Augustinian Monastery. Augustinians continue to serve at Sacred Heart Parish in both King City, Ontario and Delta, British Columbia.^[45]

In 1248 Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester invited the Augustinians in Normandy to open their first English friary at Clare in Suffolk. In England and Ireland of the 14th century the Augustinian order had had over 800 friars, but these priories had declined to around 300 friars before the anti-clerical laws of the Reformation Parliament and the Act of Supremacy. The friaries were dispersed from 1538 in the dissolution of monasteries during the English Reformation.^[46] A partial List of monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII of England includes a number of Augustinian houses, including friaries at Leicester^[47] and Ludlow, in the Welsh Marches.

The Augustinians were re-established in England in the 1860s with the creation of the priory, school and Church of St Monica in Hoxton Square, London, N1 (architect: E. W. Pugin) built 1864–66.^[48]Clare Priory – one of the houses dissolved by King Henry VIII – was re-acquired by the order in 1953, with help from the family who then owned it.

The English Province of the friars founded their first house in Dublin some time around 1280.^[11]Dungarvan followed in 1290. For a considerable time the Augustinians of Ireland were all English, effectively serving the English settlers in Ireland. The Irish branch was relatively poor, but the fortunes of the Irish order changed in 1361 when Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, became viceroy of Ireland. He favoured the order, and soon established an Augustinian professor of theology based at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and the Irish order then grew significantly until the time of the English Reformation.

After the Reformation Parliament that began in 1529, the Augustinian houses in Leinster, Munster, Dublin, Dungarvan and Drogheda were soon suppressed. The houses in Ardnaree, Ballinrobe, Ballyhaunis, Banada and Murrisk managed to remain functioning until 1610. By decree in 1542 the English parliament had allowed the Augustinian community at Dunmore in County Galway, Ireland to continue. After 1610 the Dunmore community was the only surviving foundation, probably because Lord Bermingham's ancestors had founded the House.^[11]

In 1620 the Irish Province of the Augustinians was given pastoral charge of both England (where all houses had been forcibly closed) and Ireland. Around 1641, the order received permission to occupy monasteries of the Canons Regular, who were no longer in Ireland.^[11] Irish Augustinian students were sent to the Continent to study, and the Irish Augustinians continued their work in Ireland under the Penal laws. A number were executed—including William Tirry.^[49] In 1656, in response to the persecution at home, Pope Alexander VII established the Irish Augustinians in Rome in the church and priory of San Matteo in Merulana. Many Augustinians though remained in Ireland. Others left to work in America and after the 1830s to Australia. After the Catholic Emancipation Act 1829, the order began to re-organise more openly in Ireland. The Irish friars took the order back to England, establishing a priory at Hoxton, London in 1864. They further turned their attention to Nigeria, Australia, America and missionary work. The contemporary Irish order conducts parishes, a school in Dungarvan (founded 1874), a school in New Ross (founded 1890) and special ministries in Ireland.

The Augustinian friars were the first Christian missionaries to settle in the Philippines. They were led by navigator and Augustine friar Andrés de Urdaneta who, with four other friars, arrived at Cebu in 1565. San Agustín Church and Monastery in Manila was established in 1571 and became the centre of Augustinian efforts to evangelize the Philippines.^[3] The Augustinian Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines was officially formed on 31 December 1575.

In 1575, under the leadership of Alfonso Gutierez, twenty-four Spanish Augustinians landed in the islands and, with the respective provincials Diego de Herrera and Martin de Rada, worked very successfully, at first as wandering preachers. The Augustinian settlements in Brazil of the 19th century then belonged to the Philippine province.

The rise of Filipino nationalism stoked antipathy toward the Spanish clergy. During the Philippine Revolution of 1896, six Augustinian priests were killed and about 200 imprisoned. By the beginning of 1900, 46 Calced and 120 Discalced Augustinians had been imprisoned. Many Spanish Augustinians were forced to leave the country for Spain or Latin America, repopulating the Augustinian houses in Spain and reinforcing Augustinian missionary work in South America.

In 1904 members of the order belonging to the Philippine province established the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City, Philippines. In 1968 friars of the Philippine province re-established the Augustinian presence on the Indian subcontinent.

The presence of the province in the country was reduced to a Vicariate in 1926, the Augustinian Vicariate of the Philippines, and the provincial seat moved to Madrid. The province of the United States sent about sixty members to supply the vacancies in the Philippines. As the number of Filipino Augustinians increased, they requested the creation of a new Province. The Augustinian Province of Santo Niño de Cebu was canonically established on 25 December 1983. The Order in the 21st century still has responsibility for one of the oldest churches in the Philippines, the Basilica del Santo Niño de Cebu in Cebu. The Augustinian Recollects are also present in the Philippines.

As of 2006 (and not counting Spanish Augustinian priories) there were more than 21 other Augustinian houses across the Philippines, India, Korea, Japan, and Indonesia, with more than 140 friars.^[13]

A significant Augustinian missionary college was established at the former Spanish capital of Valladolid in 1759—and this house was exempted from the suppression of monastic houses in Spain c.1835, later becoming the centre of restoration for the order in Spain. In 1885 Filipino Augustinians took charge of the famous Escorial, and friars continue to administer it today. The modern Augustinian province of Spain was refounded in 1926—largely through Spanish and Filipino friars from the Philippines. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) ninety eight Augustinians were murdered—sixty five friars from the Escorial alone were executed. As of 2006 there were 177 Spanish Augustinian friars, with 23 in simple profession.^[52]

In 2019 The Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines of Spain was formally merged with three other Spanish Augustinian Provinces (Province of Castille, province of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Matritense, and province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of Spain) to create a unified Spanish Augustinian Province of St. John of Sahagun, a move which aims to restore the Augustinian Order in Spain, which has been in decline prior to the decision. As a consequence to the unification of these provinces, some of the province's circumscriptions or dependents have been elevated, like the Augustinian Vicariate of the Orient, which has been elevated as The Augustinian Province of the Philippines (a new, separate province from the province of Cebu).

The North American foundation of the Order took place in 1796, when Irish friars arrived in Philadelphia,^[53] and founded Olde St. Augustine's Church in Philadelphia.^[54]Michael Hurley was the first American to join the Order, the following year. In May 1844 anti-Catholic rioters burned the Church of Saint Augustine to the ground, together with the friary.

The province increased in the end of the 19th century as the Augustinians were driven out of many European countries, and in 1848 sought refuge in the USA. The Province of St. Thomas of Villanova was established in 1874. The Novitiate of Our Mother of Good Counsel Priory in New Hamburg, New York was canonically established on 23 July 1925 on the 200 acre estate of Isaac Untermyer, known as Carnwath Farms Historic Site & Park. The location on the Hudson River was considered ideal for prayer, inner reflection, and vocational discernment. It remained in use for more than 50 years. But, as the number of men considering the religious declined, the Novitiate moved to New York City, then to Lawrence, Massachusetts, to Racine, Wisconsin, and to its current location at the intersection of Upper Gulph Road and County Line Road in Wayne, Pennsylvania in the former home of the Colleran Family.^[55]

When four Sisters of St Rita, a community aggregated to the Augustines, completed their missionary assignment in Bolivia, they found they could not return to Germany due to the impending outbreak of World War II. Instead, they went to the novitiate to work for the priests and seminarians. They later continued this ministry in Racine.^[56]

Villanova University in Pennsylvania was founded in 1842; Merrimack College in Massachusetts in 1947. The following high schools were also established: Malvern Preparatory School in Pennsylvania (1842); Augustinian Academy, Staten Island, NY (1899 – closed in 1969). Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa, Oklahoma (1926);Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania (1953); Archbishop John Carroll High School (1958), Washington, DC; St. Augustine College Preparatory School in Richland, New Jersey (1959); Austin Preparatory School in Reading, Massachusetts (1961).

As of 2014, the province had 174 professed members, living in 27 communities in the U.S., and 5 in Japan.^[57]

In 1905 James Edward Quigley, Archbishop of Chicago invited the Order to Chicago to start its first foundation west of the Appalachian Mountains.^[58]St. Rita of Cascia High School in Chicago was founded in 1909. Other parishes were then established, as well as Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1926 and Providence Catholic High SchoolinNew Lenox, Illinois in 1962. In 1941, The Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, also referred to as "Midwest Augustinians", was split off to cover the central U.S., leaving the east coast to the Villanova Province.^[53]

In 1962, Pope John XXIII asked for religious orders in the United States to send 10% of their members to evangelize Latin America. He later specifically invited the Augustinians of the Midwest Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, headquartered near Chicago, to care for missionary territory in Northern Peru. The Augustinians accepted the invitation and began their missionary service in 1964. Their primary assignment was to the newly created Prelature of Chulucanas, which was later erected to become the Diocese of Chulucanas. The Augustinians also began new service in the nation's capital of Lima.^[59] Robert Prevost, later Pope Leo XIV, a friar of the province served as a missionary in Peru, he subsequently was named Prior Provincial, and then led the Order as Prior General, before returning to serve as a bishop in Peru.^[60]As of May 2016, the Midwest Province of Augustinians had 76^[58] Augustinians.

In 1922, Bishop John Joseph Cantwell of the Diocese of Los Angeles and San Diego, asked the Order of Saint Augustine to establish a school for boys in the diocese. St. Augustine High School in San Diego, California (1922); followed by Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai, California (1925); and Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa, Oklahoma (1926).^[13] Members serve at three parishes, for schools and the Casa Hogar La Gloria Orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.^[61]