Who we are

The Augustinian Recollects are a religious order made up of 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 St. Augustine and the intensity proper to the Recollection, a movement of interiority and evangelical radicality.

Origin and charism

In the 16th century, some Augustinian religious of the Province of Castile, driven by a special collective charism, wished to live with renewed fervor and new norms the form of consecrated life that St. Augustine founded in the Church, illustrated with his doctrine and example, and ordained 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 13th century in a mendicant spirit by the Order of St. Augustine (Great Union of 1256). After more than three centuries of history, in 1912, they were recognized by the Church as an autonomous religious order.

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Structure

Click here to learn more about the structure of the Augustinian Recollects.

The Order of Augustinian Recollects is structured in the world in four Provinces.

PROVINCE OF SAN NICOLAS DE TOLENTINO

PROVINCE OF NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LA CANDELARIA

PROVINCE OF SANTO TOMÁS DE VILLANUEVA

SAINT EZEQUIEL MORENO PROVINCE

Organizations

In order that the service function of the general government of the Order may be carried out in the most effective and dynamic way possible, the management of the various matters is distributed among various secretariats and commissions, at the head of which are, ordinarily, the General Councilors. The secretariats and commissions are bodies of an administrative nature and carry out their tasks within the limits and norms established by the Prior General with the consent of his Council. Its main function is to provide information, initiative and impetus. They act with the usual powers 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 making decisions together with his Council.

Prior General

The position of Prior General of the Order of Augustinian Recollects for the six-year term 2022-2028 falls to Miguel Ángel Hernández Domínguez. It is responsible, together with the General Council, for guiding and fulfilling 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 again, a task to which he was devoting 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 made up of the various women’s congregations, the youth movements and the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity. All of them live the Augustinian Recollect charism with their own peculiarities. The Augustinian Recollect Family is made up of the Augustinian Recollect Nuns, the Augustinian Recollect Missionary Sisters, 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 Youth.

Where we are

The Order of Augustinian Recollects has 187 communities in 21 countries.

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