186 communities in 20 countries

Augustinian Recollects

The Augustinian Recollects have the largest number of bishops exercising their ministry in other countries

Origin

First of all, dear brothers, let us love God; then, our neighbor, because these are the principal commandments given to us (Mt 22, 36–40). Rule of our Father Saint Augustine

In the sixteenth century, some religious of the Augustinians province of Castile, driven by a special collective charism, wanted to live with renewed fervor and new standards the way of consecrated life that St. Augustine founded in the Church, as articulated in his doctrine and example and ordered in his holy Rule. Something similar happened, at the beginning of the seventeenth 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, they were recognized by the Church as an autonomous religious order.

Their plan of life is that of a religious order, aroused under the impulse of the Holy Spirit and approved by the Church: living in communion with…