Who we are?
The Augustinian Recollects are a religious order formed by about 1,000 religious who, living fraternal life in community, want to follow Christ, chaste, poor and obedient; they seek the truth and are at the service of the Church; they strive to grow in charity according to the charism of Saint Augustine and the intensity of the Recollection, movement of interiority and evangelical radicalism.
Origin and charism
In the sixteenth century, some Augustinian religious of the Province of Castile, impelled by a special shared calling, wished to live with renewed fervor and new standards the form of consecrated life that St. Augustine founded in the Church, contained in his doctrine, shown in his example and ordered in his holy Rule. Something similar happened, at the beginning of the 17th century, in the Augustinian Province of Colombia.
The Augustinian Recollects are heirs of the way of life inspired by St. Augustine (354-430) and assumed in the thirteenth century with a mendicant spirit by the Order of St. Augustine (Great Union of 1256). After more than three centuries of history, in 1912, the Augustinian Recollects were recognized by the Church as an autonomous religious order.
Structure
The Order of Augustinian Recollects is divided into four Provinces, each with corresponding geographical área of responsibility.
Organisms
Secretariats and commissions, mostly headed by the General councilors, are formed in order to deliver better the services of the general government of the Order. These are bodies of an administrative nature, and carry out their tasks within the limits and guidelines indicated by the Prior General with the consent of his Council. Their main function is to provide and solicit information, initiatives and to push for the realization of goals. They act with the habitual faculties contained in the statutes of each secretariat and approved by the Prior General with the consent of his Council. They always act under the direction of the Prior General, who is responsible for the decisions together with his Council.
Prior General
The office of Prior General of the Order of Augustinian Recollects for the six-year term 2022-2028 falls to Miguel Ángel Hernández Domínguez. He has the responsibility, together with the General Council, to guide and fulfill the directives proposed by the General Chapter of 2022. For six years, Hernandez dedicated himself to the formation of young Augustinian Recollects, first in the novitiate of Monteagudo and then in the theologate, in Granada. In 2018, the religious of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova elected him Prior Provincial once again, a task to which he was dedicating himself until March 22, 2022, when he was elected Prior General of the Order of Augustinian Recollects.
Augustinian Recollect Family
The Augustinian Recollect Family is composed of the different feminine congregations, the youth movements and the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity. All of them live the Augustinian Recollect charism with some peculiarities. The Augustinian Recollect Family includes the Augustinian Recollect Nuns, the Augustinian Recollect Missionaries, the Augustinian Recollect Sisters, the Augustinian Recollect Sisters of the Heart of Jesus, the Augustinian Recollect Sisters of the Sick, the Augustinian Recollect Secular Fraternity and the Augustinian Recollect Youths.
