The Prior General of the Augustinian Recollects, Friar Miguel Angel Hernandez, has officially convoked the Missionary Year 2026 through a circular letter addressed to the entire Augustinian Recollect family. The initiative, which will be lived under the Augustinian motto “Proclaim Christ wherever you can”, seeks to revive the evangelizing zeal of the Order as a response of holiness to the wounded world of today.
Holiness and mission: two names of the same love
The circular, signed on October 30, 2025, frames this call in the context of All Saints and the saints of the Order, recalling that “mission is the other face of holiness”. The Prior General invites to understand the proclamation of Christ as a way to live fully the following of the Gospel:
“The missionary is a saint on the way, and the saint is always a witness who announces.”
A mission that begins in everyday life
In his video message, the Prior General emphasizes that the missionary vocation does not require going to distant territories, but rather opening one’s eyes to the needs of one’s neighbor. Each community is called to live this year as a time of concrete sending: in the neighborhoods, in the schools, in the parishes, in the homes. The slogan is clear: “To be light where God has sown us”.
Celebration in Santo Domingo
The opening of the Missionary Year will take place on December 7, 2025 in Santo Domingo, where St. Ezekiel Moreno, the first Augustinian Recollect saint, was canonized. All communities and presences of the Augustinian Recollect family are invited to join in with local celebrations. The date will mark the beginning of a year of prayer, proclamation, pastoral creativity and missionary conversion.
The missions, a precious flower of the Order
The circular makes grateful memory of so many Recollect witnesses and martyrs who have incarnated this mission with radicalism and dedication: St. Ezekiel Moreno, St. Magdalene of Nagasaki, Sister Cleusa, Ignatius Martinez, Gazpio and many others. “Holiness does not consist in doing great things, but in loving much,” writes the Prior General, recalling that it is in small and faithful gestures that the Gospel takes shape.
“Holiness does not consist in doing great things, but in loving much.”
Making memory to renew the fire
The circular recalls key figures of Recollect missionary life – St. Magdalene of Nagasaki, St. Ezekiel Moreno, Sister Cleusa – as witnesses of a life given for the Kingdom. “Mission is a way of loving to the extreme,” writes the Prior General, noting that this year will be an opportunity to renew our passion for proclaiming Christ wherever life has placed us.
A year of grace and commitment
The 2026 Missionary Year is a call to to “go out without fear”, to trust in the power of the Gospel and to live the joy of being sent.to trust in the power of the Gospel and to live the joy of being sent. The entire Augustinian Recollect family is called to be, in the words of Pope Francis, “a Church going out”ready to walk with the poorest, to build bridges and to set hearts on fire.
Witnessing Love
Beyond the specific activities, the Missionary Year is intended to be a time of grace to rekindle our first love. It will be a year marked by prayer, evangelizing creativity, concrete fraternity and service to the poorest. Because, as the circular letter reminds us:
“There is no mission without conversion, no proclamation without prayer, no sending without communion.”
The Augustinian Recollect Family is called to be a witness of Love in the heart of the world. “Proclaim Christ wherever you can”, not as a strategy, but as an overflow. May Mary, St. Augustine and our martyrs accompany us on this path of audacity, joy and holiness.