Augustinians

Augustinians, a Roman Catholic religious order of priests and brothers named after the fifth-century bishop and saint Augustine of Hippo. The Order of the Hermit Friars of St. Augustine, as it is formally known, adopted Augustine's "rule" at the time of their founding by the Holy See in 1256. Classified as a mendicant order, members are known as friars; they are governed by an elected prior-general, who resides in Rome, and are organized throughout the world into regions called provinces, each governed by an elected prior-provincial. By the fourteenth century, the Aug-ustinians were established in most parts of Europe. Later they expanded into Africa, Asia, and America, within the extensive colonial empires of Portugal and Spain. In addition to preaching and missionary activity, they engaged in many types of ministry, including higher education, writing, and patristic studies. Among their better known friars are Giles of Rome (ca. 1245–1316), Martin Luther (1483–1546), St. Thomas of Villanova (1486–1555), Luis de León (1527–1591), and Gregor Mendel (1822–1884).

On 7 June 1533 seven Spanish Augustinians, led by Francisco de la Cruz, arrived in Mexico City, where they established a large church and friary, San Agustín, which was to be the core of a new Augustinian province and the principal center of their activity in Latin America and, eventually, the Philippine Islands. Augustinian expansion in New Spain (Mexico) was rapid. By the end of the sixteenth century, the number of Augustinians, including both Spaniards and criollos, exceeded 600 friars, located in some seventy-two missions throughout central Mexico, extending from San Luis Potosí in the north to Oaxaca in the south. The growth in the region of Michoacán was especially notable, resulting in the creation of a second Mexican Augustinian province in 1602. The two administrative regions, the provinces of Mexico and Michoacán, continue to exist, and among their churches are several imposing historic monuments, some still occupied by Augustinian friars. Worthy of particular attention for art and architecture are the friaries of Acolman, Cuitzeo, Morelia, and Yuriria. The friary of San Agustín in Mexico City, however, no longer exists; its large church was confiscated in the nineteenth century and converted into the national library in 1884.

The leading Augustinian figure in colonial Mexico was Alonso de la Vera Cruz, a sixteenth-century missionary, educator, writer of philosophical texts, canon lawyer, and administrator. Educated at the University of Salamanca, he was one of the founders and principal lecturers of the University of Mexico, established in 1553. Like his friend and associate Bartolomé de Las Casas, Fray Alonso was keenly interested in defending the rights of the native Indians, a goal he pursued in two of his series of lectures, Relectio de dominio infide-lium et iusto bello and Relectio de decimis (in The Writings of Alonso de la Vera Cruz, edited and translated by Ernest Burrus, 1968–1976). His teachings met with opposition, especially from the archbishop of Mexico, Alonso de Montúfar, who denounced him to the Inquisition. Recalled temporarily to Spain in 1562, Fray Alonso defended his views successfully, was regarded favorably by Philip II, and was therefore able to influence legislation aimed at removing abuses of the Indians. His interest in the native peoples was not merely academic, for he was an active missionary who spoke Tarascan, the language of Michoacán, and advocated full incorporation of the Indians into the sacramental life of the Catholic Church.

Another prominent sixteenth-century Augustinian was Andrés de Urdaneta, the mariner-turned-friar who is credited with discovering the eastbound route across the Pacific Ocean from Manila to Acapulco. Employed by the crown as a navigator, he also led the first group of Augustinian missionaries to the Philippine Islands in 1564–1565. Another early friar was Agustín Farfán, a physician who published the first medical handbook in Mexico, Tratado de medicina (1579). Two seventeenth-century authors of note were the historians Juan de Grijalva and Diego Basalenque.

Before the middle of the seventeenth century the Augustinians were to be found in most parts of the Spanish Empire. An extensive development took place in Peru, where the foundations of a new province began at Lima in 1551. The province of Peru was the base from which were organized the provinces of Quito, Ecuador (1573), New Granada (Bogotá, Colombia, 1575), and Chile (Santiago de Chile, 1595), as well as missions in the regions later known as Bolivia and Argentina. The Peruvian missions of the colonial period were grouped principally in the areas of Lima, Trujillo, and Cuzco, and their history has been recorded by two able seventeenth-century chroniclers, Antonio de la Calancha and Bernardo de Torres. A noted Augustinian in the more recent history of Latin America is Diego Francisco Padilla. A patriot and pamphleteer in the independence movement in Colombia, he was a member of the first junta of the revolutionary government in 1810.

The Augustinians, like all the older religious orders, went into severe decline in Latin America in the nineteenth century. Liberation from Spain and the accompanying wars and confiscations, often anticlerical as well as anti-Spanish, greatly reduced the numbers and influence of the friars. In the twentieth century, however, there has been a recovery, accomplished in part with the help of friars from western Europe, especially Spain, and from the United States. In 1990 the Augustinians were active in nearly every country of Latin America, most notably in Mexico and Peru. Mexico had two provinces entirely composed of native-born friars, and Peru had four major mission areas, composed chiefly of foreign-born friars. Besides Mexico, full-fledged Augustinian provinces existed in Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile, and the number of friars in Brazil and Argentina also was considerable. As of 1988 the total number of Augustinians in fourteen countries of Latin America was 714.

See alsoCatholic Church: The Colonial Period .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

For the general history of the Augustinians see History of the Order of St. Augustine, 4 vols. (1979–1989); and Roberto Jaramillo, comp., Los Agustinos en América Latina: Pasado y presente (1987).

Specialized studies include Gregorio De Santiago Vela, Ensayo de una biblioteca ibero-americana de la Orden de S. Agustín, 8 vols. (1913–1931); Avencio Villarejo, Los Agustinos en el Perú, 1548–1965 (1965); Ernest Burrus, The Writings of Alonso de la Vera Cruz, 5 vols. (1967–1975); Manuel Merino, ed., Crónicas agustinianas del Perú, 2 vols. (1972); Nicolás P. Navarrete, Historia de la provincia agustiniana de San Nicolás de Tolentino de Michoacán, 2 vols. (1978); Alipio Ruiz Zavala, Historia de la Provincia agustiniana del santísimo Nombre de Jesús de México, 2 vols. (1984); Arthur Ennis, Augustinian Religious Professions in Sixteenth Century Mexico (1986).

Additional Bibliography

Carrasco Notario, Guillermo. Los Agustinos de Chile y el desarrollo económico y social de Cuyo. Santiago: Coedición de la Viceprovincia Agustina de Argentina y de la Provincia Agustina de Chile, 1997.

Costales, Piedad Peñaherrera de., and Alfredo Costales Samaniego. Los agustinos, pedagogos y misioneros del pueblo, 1573–1869. Quito: IEAG: Abya Yala, 2003.

Lazcano González, Rafael. Bibliografíia missionalia Augustiniana: América Latina, 1533–1993. Madrid: Editorial Revista Agustiniana, 1993.

Rea, Alonso de la., and Patricia Escandón. Crónica de la orden de N. Seráfico P.S. Francisco, provincia de S. Pedro y S. Pablo de Mechoacán en la Nueva España. Zamora: Colegio de Michoacán: Fideicomiso Teixidor, 1996.

                                Arthur J. Ennis O.S.A.