The Orders of Saint Augustine, Augustinian Recollects, Discalced Augustinians, and Augustinians of the Assumption join in a common audiovisual project premiering five videos today, one in each mother tongue of the family’s Superiors General, remembering that May 8, 2025, at 7:23 PM.
The Augustinian family worldwide unites today with one heart to congratulate Pope Leo XIV on the first anniversary of his election as the Successor of Peter. This is done through a common audiovisual project produced by the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA), the Order of Augustinian Recollects (OAR), the Discalced Augustinians (OAD), and the Augustinians of the Assumption (AA): five videos in five languages in which priests, bishops, and laity from five continents recall where they were on May 8, 2025, at 7:23 PM, the moment an Augustinian stepped out onto the Loggia of Saint Peter’s Basilica for the first time in history.
The pieces are being published this morning at 7:00 AM (CET) simultaneously on the official YouTube channels and social media networks of the four Orders. Each language of the project corresponds to the mother tongue of one of the Superiors General of the Augustinian family: Friar Miguel Ángel Hernández Domínguez, OAR (Spanish); Fr. Joseph Farrell, OSA (English); Fr. Nei Márcio Simon, OAD (Portuguese); and Fr. Ngoa Ya Tshihemba, AA (French). Italian is also included as the language of the Apostolic See, featuring an interview with Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, OSA, Almoner of His Holiness and Prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity.
Four Generals, one joy
The four Superiors General agree, without prior consultation, on a common emotion: that of knowing that one of their own, a brother in the habit, occupies the See of Peter.
“It was an option that was in the hearts of all Augustinians, and one we contemplated with affection,” states the Prior General of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, Friar Miguel Ángel Hernández. “When they announced the name of Cardinal Prevost, the joy was complete. We were happy for the new Pope the Church had, and even happier because the one who was going to sit on the throne of Peter was an Augustinian Pope, a brother of ours.”
For Fr. Joseph Farrell, Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine, the moment was almost physical: “When I heard ‘Robertum Franciscum,’ an incredible joy filled my heart and soul. I ran out of air in my lungs. I let out an audible shout. A shout of joy.”
From the Philippines, where the announcement surprised him in the middle of the night, Fr. Nei Márcio Simon, Prior General of the Discalced Augustinians, recalls: “I felt immense joy seeing a son of Saint Augustine being elected Pope. And, at the same time, I felt a strong call to live the Augustinian charism intensely.”
And from Bogotá, where he was on a canonical visit, Fr. Ngoa Ya Tshihemba, Superior General of the Augustinians of the Assumption, welcomed the first words of the new Pontiff as a message addressed to his people: “When he said ‘peace be with you,’ I immediately thought of my people, my country, the Congo, which has suffered for years and needs that peace. I welcomed it within myself, and I had the impression of being able to transmit it to my own.”
To the four voices of the Generals is added, in the Italian piece, that of the Almoner of His Holiness, Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, OSA: “An intense emotion, a great joy, and a deep affection for Robert Prevost and for the Augustinian Order. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life.”
The voice of the OAR in the Spanish piece
Alongside Friar Miguel Ángel Hernández, the Spanish edition features Fr. Javier Pérez Barba, OSA, Secretary General of the Order of Saint Augustine, and Bishop Víctor E. Villegas, OAR, Bishop of Chota (Peru). Three voices that trace the same moment from Rome to the Andes.
For Pérez Barba, the most moving part arrived through hearing before sight: “It struck me, even more than seeing him on the balcony or on the screens, to hear his voice: a familiar voice, but one that at that moment had already acquired a new dimension.”
Bishop Villegas followed the election from the bishopric in northern Peru, surrounded by his priests: “We couldn’t believe it. I jumped for joy, literally jumped. It was visible on our faces: that one of our own was now the Holy Father. That has marked our lives.”
The Recollect presence also extends to other languages of the project. In the Portuguese piece, Friar Juan Manuel Zannutti, OAR, Provincial Secretary of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, speaks about experiencing the white smoke in Madrid; and in the English piece, Friar Rafael Castillo de Luna, OAR, participates from Los Angeles (California). The executive production of the initiative is handled by the Communications Office of the General Curia of the Augustinian Recollects.
The voices of the Italian piece
The Italian edition centers on the aforementioned Almoner of His Holiness and two voices who experienced that afternoon from the heart of the country that hosts the Apostolic See: Fr. Gabriele Pedicino, OSA, Prior Provincial of Italy, and Alessandra Paolini, an Augustinian laywoman from Cascia.
Pedicino had just finished Holy Mass at the church of Saint Augustine in Palermo when the white smoke interrupted the echo of the Gospel: “One always feels a great emotion when the new Pope steps out from the Loggia. But in this case, the surprise was double, the joy was double, when we heard the name of our Augustinian Pope pronounced.”
Paolini was participating in Rome in the celebration of the fifteen Thursdays of Saint Rita: “We shouted with joy, an incredible joy in the depths of our hearts. We thanked God for this great grace He has bestowed not only on the Augustinian Order, but on the entire world.”
The voices of the Portuguese piece
Alongside Fr. Nei Márcio Simon, who experienced the election from the Philippines, the Portuguese piece brings together three Lusophone voices spread across three continents: Fr. Rodrigo Antonio de Jesús, OSA, Provincial Councilor of the Province of Our Lady of Consolation (Brazil); Fr. João Gomes da Silva, AA, General Assistant of the Augustinians of the Assumption; and Friar Juan Manuel Zannutti, OAR, Provincial Secretary of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova.
Rodrigo de Jesús was in Rome and went to Saint Peter’s Square: “It was a very great emotion and joy to see our brother assuming this beautiful, important, and grave mission of governing and guarding the entire Church in love and charity.”
João Gomes da Silva was accompanying the Superior General of the Assumptionists on a canonical visit to the Andean province, and that afternoon they had visited the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá: “I couldn’t contain my joy, already inside the car on the way back to Bogotá, sharing with my brothers everything we were discovering about his profile, his biography, and the importance of his name.”
Zannutti followed the election from Madrid-Barajas airport, during a renewal visit to the Vicariate of Spain: “For us it was a joy: the first Augustinian in the history of the Church to be Pope, a brother of ours, someone from our family.”
The voices of the French piece
To the voice of Fr. Ngoa Ya Tshihemba, who was on a canonical visit in Colombia at the time, the French piece adds three testimonies from Rome, Italy, and Belgium: Fr. Kolawole Chabi, OSA, professor at the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum; Fr. Michel Kubler, AA, Secretary General of the Augustinians of the Assumption, who was commenting on the conclave live for France Télévisions that day; and Fr. Martin Davakan, OSA, from the Province of Belgium.
Chabi followed the election on television, a stone’s throw from Saint Peter’s Square: “When I heard the first two names, ‘Robertum Franciscum,’ I jumped for joy, I exulted, because I understood it was Prevost who was going to continue. It was an indescribable joy.”
Kubler was on the metal walkway from which television networks cover Saint Peter’s Square: “When Cardinal Prevost appeared, dressed as Pope, I said to myself: ‘ah, it’s him.’ And, above all, afterward it was the joy that it was him, and the joy of seeing that we had an Augustinian Pope.”
Davakan was having dinner at a restaurant in Antwerp with several members of the Council of the Belgian province: “It was an explosion of joy. We all shouted and jumped, forgetting that we were not alone in the restaurant. It was a spontaneous thanksgiving, a very intense moment of joy.”
The voices of the English piece
Alongside Fr. Joseph Farrell, the English edition is completed by two voices located at two ends of the world: Friar Rafael Castillo de Luna, OAR, from Los Angeles (California), and Fr. Jan Derek Sayson, OAD, Prior Provincial for Italy and Cameroon, who was on vacation in the Philippines.
Castillo de Luna was returning from the bank when a brother from his community notified him of the white smoke: “I felt great joy. I was proud that the new Pope was a brother of our Augustinian family.” And, once the initial impact had settled, what he most enjoyed discovering was that “he has already traveled the world as Father General of the Augustinian Order and knows almost all the bishops. Above all, he liked being a missionary priest, then a missionary bishop, and he will undoubtedly continue to be a missionary Pope.”
Sayson received the announcement in his hometown in the Philippines: “When I first saw Pope Leo XIV, my first feeling was gratitude. At that moment I thanked God and immediately prayed for the Pope.”
A single heartbeat across five continents
Each of the videos starts with the same question, formulated in the language of the piece: where were you on May 8, 2025, at 7:23 PM? From there, the camera lets an unexpected chorus speak: Augustinians who that afternoon were in Rome, the Philippines, Colombia, California, Italy, Africa, or Belgium, and who, without having planned it, experienced in unison the moment the history of the Augustinian family changed forever. From their sum, a multi-voiced portrait of the first Augustinian Pontificate in history is born.
The four Orders conceive this initiative as a simple and deliberate gesture: to record, in image and voice, how the family that gave Pope Leo XIV to the Church received that announcement and from where they wish to accompany him now. The reference point, in all versions, is the same: that May 8, 2025, at 7:23 PM, when the Augustinian family worldwide discovered itself, without prior agreement, in a single heartbeat.
One year later, its members wish to make the Augustinian ideal of “one soul and one heart directed toward God” (Rule of Saint Augustine, I) their own and begin, alongside Pope Leo XIV and at his service, a new stage of visible communion for the entire Church.
The five videos are available from this morning on the official YouTube channels and social media networks of the Order of Saint Augustine, the Order of Augustinian Recollects, the Discalced Augustinians, and the Augustinians of the Assumption. The images of the Habemus Papam accompanying the pieces have been provided by Vatican Media, to whom the Augustinian family expresses its gratitude for their availability. The project also features the collaboration of the various linguistic editorial offices of Vatican News.
