Our mission
What we do
It is not only what we do, it is what we love: we serve in parishes, missions, schools, culture, communication and in the evangelization within the digital continent, always putting our heart where the Gospel sends us.
Six ways of serving
Where we put our heart
We are Missionaries
Present in four of the five continents taking the Gospel with love
We are Parish
We have 163 parishes around the world in which we announce and share Christ.
We are Education
We accompany thousands of families through more than 100 educational centers present throughout the world.
We are Solidarity
ARCORES, the Augustinian Recollect solidarity network, supports more than 200 social projects that accompany and transform lives around the world.
We are Culture
We are in universities, digital evangelization, historical convents and in the Agustinus publishing house, spreading science and charity.
We are Communication
We are not alone: thousands of lay people in the ARY and the FSAR walk with us and help us reach the whole world.
Missions
Evangelization in nine mission territories
The Order of Augustinian Recollects has been missionary since its birth. Currently, it is responsible for evangelization in 8 mission territories, located in seven different countries: Brazil, Colombia, China, Cuba, Peru, Panama, Taiwan and Sierra Leone.
Missionary identity
A Statute of Missions
Within the legislative framework of the Order, it has developed a Statute of Missions more particularly aimed at managers and missionaries themselves. It consists of 52 numbers with doctrinal foundation, identity of the Augustinian Recollect missionary and practical questions of missionary activity and missionary animation.
Mission territories
The missions of the Augustinian Recollects
LƔbrea Prelature (Brazil)
In the Prelature of LƔbrea, Augustinian Recollects bring faith and deep love to the peoples of the Amazon.
MarajĆ³ Prelature (Brazil)
In the Prelature of MarajĆ³, the Augustinian Recollects bring hope and faith to remote communities.
Diocese of Shangqiu (China)
A historical mission in the depths of China, a living legacy that remains a silent testimony to the mission of our Order.
Bocas del Toro Prelature (Panama)
A work built with effort and love by the religious, the result of years of dedication, service and deep trust in God.
Chota Prelature (Peru)
A mission in the heart of the Andes, raised with dedication and affection, where faith becomes closeness and constant service.
Vicariate of Trinidad (Colombia)
Currently there are four communities in Trinidad, OrocuĆ©, ManĆ and Bocas del Pauto. In total there are 11 Augustinian Recollect religious.
Kamabai Mission (Sierra Leone)
We also have a mission in Sierra Leone
Antilla Mission (HolguĆn)
The youngest mission of the Augustinian Recollects, accompanied by the General Curia, continues to be born with hope.
Parishes
The parish communities of Augustinian Recollects carry out pastoral work in harmony with the Church, with the aim of making known the good news of the Gospel and the Augustinian Recollect charism.
Our pastoral style
Seekers of Jesus Christ, the Truth
Promote Augustinian Recollect Spirituality. Create and develop in the ministries served by the Order a formative process of initiation and growth in the Christian life. Liturgy that favors spaces of silence and fraternal communion.
Creators of communion
Follow and accompany the guidelines of the particular Church, integrating into them the decisions of the Order. Co-responsibility among the members of the Religious Community. Shared mission.
Prophets of the Kingdom
ā¢ Outgoing Church
ā¢ Permanent mission
ā¢ Closeness, listening, accompaniment
ā¢ In solidarity with the missions
ā¢ Socio-transformative commitment
ā¢ Option for life, family and young people
ā¢ Initiatives in favor of the integrity of Creation.
Education
Our objective:
the mind and the heart
“In the Augustinian school one teaches out of love for others, and one learns out of love for the Truth” (Saint Augustine, Answer to 8 questions, Dulquicio, 2,6.)
Education constitutes for the Order of Augustinian Recollects one of the fundamental pillars of its mission at the service of the Church and society. The Augustinian Family has a long educational tradition, and the Augustinian Recollects fully joined it from the beginning of the 20th century.
Since the General Chapter of 2022, the Educational Apostolate of the Order has been structured through the EDUCAR Network: Augustinian Recollect International Educational Network. According to its Statutes, it is an international non-profit organization, dependent on the Prior General of the Order of Augustinian Recollects. Its purpose is to strengthen the educational apostolate of the Order and the Augustinian Recollect Family through common policies, strategies and actions that contribute to educational and social transformation in the countries where the Order is present.
Currently, more than 100 educational centers of the Augustinian Recollect Family (Augustinian Recollect Missionaries, Augustinian Recollects of the Heart of Jesus, Augustinian Recollect Sisters and Order of Augustinian Recollects) are part of this network in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone, United States and Venezuela.
The main objective of the EDUCAR Network is to promote the relationship and collaboration between the educational centers of the Augustinian Recollect Family. It also promotes research and dissemination of the principles of Augustinian pedagogy and supports teacher training. Its base is the Institutional Educational Project of the Order (PEI), which guides our evangelizing work in the educational field, defines the character, mission, vision, values and identity of the Augustinian-Recollect centers, and projects our educational action towards the future.
Reference documents
Institutional Educational Project ā PEI
The elaboration of an Institutional Educational Project responds to the need to reflect on the present of our educational service to project ourselves towards the future, the basic elements of this reflection being the character of our order and the socio-cultural situation to which we want to respond.
Pedagogical Bases
Augustinian pedagogy is based on an integral process (spiritual, intellectual, moral and of the will) aimed at making emerge and energize, through the cognitive force of love, all the latent potentialities of the student.
The networking, intensified in recent years, has led to various shared projects, such as the Augustinian Pedagogical Bases, the DICAR Dictionary of Competencies and the MELIOR Certification.
Social
Moving hearts
Solidarity, and what it understands, is a dimension of the Agustin Recollect. It is part of our life and mission, and we want it to be present in our communities and ministries. The signs of time demand a committed conscience in the Order before the real problems of society in each historical moment, which urges us to assume the preferential option for the poor, for the family and for life, arbitrating, from a shared discernment, the appropriate responses in evangelization and in pastoral care.
Social Justice
ARCORES International dreams -it is its vision- of a world free of poverty in which the promotion of human rights -economic, social and cultural-, social justice, solidarity, peace and the integrity of creation prevail over other economic and/or political interests; in which all people and peoples can develop, without any discrimination, and can exercise their right to participate equitably to improve their well-being.
Transforming lives
The ARCORES International Solidarity Network is an umbrella that includes all the social organizations and projects of the Augustinian Recollect family and its mission is:
- Help maintain adherence to the identity and mission of the network, in line with the solidarity dimension of the Gospel and Augustinian Recollect spirituality.
Culture
Culture
For the Augustinian Recollects, culture is not an additional area of āāour mission: it is a space where the Gospel engages with human intelligence and enriches it. Our cultural commitment stems from the Augustinian conviction that every sincere search for truth ultimately leads to God. Therefore, we nurture culture not only in our schools and ministries, but also through academic initiatives, study centers, publications, and research projects.
The Order maintains spaces explicitly dedicated to research, entrusting several religious members with the task of studying, teaching, and accompanying Christian thought in dialogue with the contemporary world. From theology to philosophy, from history to social sciences, we aim to be a presence that listens, understands, and illuminates, always from inner depth and love for truth.
Our cultural commitment is also expressed in our scientific journals AVGVSTINVS and Recollectio, prestigious periodicals that host research on Saint Augustine, Recollect-Augustinian spirituality, and other topics of theological and humanistic relevance. These journals serve as a bridge between tradition and today’s intellectual pursuit, and as a space for open and rigorous academic dialogue.
The Editorial Augustinus completes this service, disseminating books, studies, and formative works that arise from our charism and our academic communities. Theologians, historians, educators, and experts converge here, offering the Church and society resources to grow in wisdom, faith, and humanity through patient and professional work.
We know that culture needs luminous narratives, uplifting stories, honest questions, and well-considered answers. That is why we strive to cultivate intellectual interiority, a way of thinking that arises from prayer, humility, and dialogue with others. We want our cultural works to reflect the style of Saint Augustine: passionate about the truth, attentive to the signs of the times, and profoundly human.
From our classrooms, libraries, archives, study centers, and publishing platforms, the Augustinian Recollects wish to continue sowing thought, beauty, and encounter. Because for us, caring for culture is caring for the heart of the human being, accompanying them in their search and offering them, through truth, a path towards hope.
Communication
How we communicate
To communicate is to open our home and go out to meet others. For the Augustinian Recollects, every news story, image, song or conversation is a chance to share who we are, to walk alongside people and to proclaim the Gospel. That is why we see our communication as an ecosystem: a network of connected people, spaces and channels, where each one adds its voice to a shared mission.
Communication projects
Te contamos algunos de nuestros proyectos de comunicaciĆ³n
In this ecosystem, Recoletos.org is the home: a place of reference, memory and encounter where we welcome those who want to get to know us, share the life of our family and offer content to discover and go deeper into Augustinian Recollect spirituality. Social media is the courtyard: there we meet those passing by, listen to their questions and share an image, a testimony or a video that invites them to stay. Each network has its own language; on all of them we want to be present with a warm, fraternal and deeply human style.
Different stories, one mission. The home also has rooms for listening, learning, praying and sharing. Inquietar.com is our space for vocational culture, where we listen to the questions that give meaning to life and discover our own calling. JAR Internacional talks with young people and walks with them in friendship and in the Augustinian Recollect charism. Recoletos Music is the room of interiority, where listening becomes prayer. Recoletos Podcast tells our story to the world through voices, testimonies and conversations. And Agustinos con el Papa, in communion with the Order of Saint Augustine, tells the story of Pope Leo XIVās pontificate from our Augustinian roots.
Everything is connected: someone may discover us in the courtyard of social media, enter the home through a story and find a room where they can pray, talk or ask themselves about their vocation. The newsletter and our direct communication channels keep the bond alive and help people find their way through this ecosystem.
A home we build together. The Communication Office of the Order, at JuliĆ”n Besteiro 33 (Madrid), coordinates and drives this ecosystem. Its team of four professionals works with the provincial and regional offices, forming a network of more than twenty communicators, religious and lay, around the world. Following the Project of Life and Mission 2022ā2028, we work to strengthen this network, professionalize communication and develop strategic plans that bring our content wherever the Recollect charism is lived.
Inspired by āTowards Full Presenceā, we want to inhabit the digital world with listening, responsibility and love of neighbor: to listen before speaking, create spaces for dialogue and accompany those who need closeness, because on the other side of every screen there is a person with a story, questions and hope. Our communication seeks to build community: opening doors, building bridges and fostering encounters that help people discover Christ and walk with others.