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meaning of letter R in the
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HISTORY OF THE
ORDER OF THE
AUGUSTINIAN-
RECOLLECTS AND
THEIR LEGACY IN
THE PHILIPPINES
AND THE ISLAND
OF NEGROS

Topic 2
 DOCTRINE:
1. Discover the origin of the Augustinian-Recollects and its
development as a religious order
2. Highlight the important contributions of the Augustinian-
Recollects in the field of mission and educational apostolate

LEARNING MORAL:
OBJECTIVES: 1. Value the legacy of the Augustinian-Recollects in the
spiritual and secular life of the people especially of the
Filipinos particularly the Negrenses
WORSHIP:
1. Express gratitude to God for the Recollect legacy and the
opportunity to study in UNO-R through prayers
 This power point
presentation will
give you a brief
historical sketch of
the Augustinian
Recollection and the
Province of St.
Ezekiel Moreno.
 DATES TO CONSIDER:
• NOVEMBER 13, 354 - birth of St. Augustine in
Thagaste
• 387 - baptism of Augustine by Bishop Ambrose in
ST. AUGUSTINE Milan
OF HIPPO
FOUNDED • 389 - founding of1st monastic community for lay
THREE people in Thagaste, North Africa
MONASTERIES
• 391 - sacerdotal ordination
- founding of 2nd monastery at Hippo on the
model of the Church in Jerusalem
- founding of a monastery for women
 • 395 - episcopal ordination
ST. - succeeded the Greek Bishop
AUGUSTIN Valerius
E OF HIPPO
FOUNDED - founding of the 3rd monastery for
THREE clerics in Hippo
MONASTE • 397 - composition date of the “Rule of
RIES St. Augustine”
• August 28, 430 - death
PERSECUTIONS AND THE
REVIVAL OF
AUGUSTINIAN LIFE
 Almost all of the Augustinian
monasteries come to an end during
the long persecutions of the two
Vandal kings in Africa, Genseric
(429-477) and his son Huneric (477-
484).

But the Augustinian life was revived across the sea:

• 440 - IN Italy by quodvultdeus
• 502 - IN Sardinia by St. Fulgentius
• 570 - IN Toledo, Spain by Donatus and 70
Christians
FOLLOWERS OF ST. AUGUSTINE’S
RULE WERE APLENTY

• 1139 - the Second Lateran Council solemnly

approved the process of giving the Rule of
St. Augustine an equal place with those of
St. Benedict and St. Basil
• 1200s - the Roman Pontiffs urged all scattered
cenobitic communities that followed a
Rule bearing the name of Augustine of
Hippo to unite their forces and organize
themselves like the Dominicans and
Franciscans.
THE GREAT UNION
• 1215 - Pope Innocent III convoked the
Fourth Lateran Council and decreed
that all conventual communities
should unite to create an association
under the guidance and direction of a
father superior
• March 31, 1244 - Pope Innocent IV
confirmed the “first grand union” in
Rome among the Augustinian hermits
of Tuscany and the birth of the Order
of St. Augustine
• July 15, 1255 - Pope Alexander IV
summoned representatives from five
groups:
- Order of Hermits of Brother John the Good
- Order of Hermits of St. William of Malavalle
- Augustinian Hermits of Tuscany
- Hermits of Brettino
- Hermits of Monte Favale
• March 1256 - 1st General Chapter of the
newly-formed “Order of Hermits of
St. Augustine” which was later called
“Order of St. Augustine”
 St. Nicholas
of Tolentine
(1245-1305)
was canonized
by Pope
Eugene IV in
1446. He
epitomized the
ST. NICHOLAS OF
TOLENTINE:
Augustinian
THE FIRST
AUGUSTINIAN
way of life.
SAINT AFTER THE
GREAT UNION
 FIRST SIGNS OF
RECOLLECTION MOVEMENT

Between 1540 and 1588, there are Augustinians who were desirous of
assimilating Augustinian values (aspiring for a life of real poverty, of more
prayer, of more silence, of more austerity and more equality). Among them
was Thomas de Jesus. This Portuguese recollection failed because it failed
to obtain approval from the Prior General.

It was the Mexican Recollection who survived, and its spiritual father was St.
Thomas of Villanova “who had sown in 1533 the first seeds of the
Recollection.”
BIRTH OF THE AUGUSTINIAN RECOLLECTION
In December of 1588, the
Augustinian Province of
Castile formulated 18
ordinances. The fifth one,
promulgated on December 5,
embodied their longings and
ordered that three
monasteries for men and
three for women be
dedicated for those who
wanted to embrace more
austere system of life.
FORMA DE VIVIR
Fray Luis de Leon composed a 14-chapter
document on the Recollects’ way of life
achieved almost exclusively by Fray Luis de
Leon.

This document expressed the desire for

greater perfection, an intensification of
contemplative and communitarian life with
an emphasis on its ascetic features. The
document, after 351 years, soon became the
Constitutions of the Order of Augustinian
Recollects.
 February 11, 1602 – Pope
Clement VIII papal bull “Apostolici
muneris” made the “Discalced
Augustinians” (later known as
Augustinian Recollects or simply
RECOLETOS Recoletos) became a separate
BECAME A Province (disjoined from the
PROVINCE Province of Castile).
June 2, 1602 – First Provincial
Chapter and Fr. Juan de San
Jeronimo was the first elected Prior
Provincial who later led the pioneer
missionaries to the Philippines.
• July 12, 1605 - 14 Recollects led by Fr. Juan de San
Jeronimo boarded the ship Santa Maria del Juncal from Spain
to Mexico
• September 17, 1605 – arrival in Mexico
•February 22, 1606 - boarded the galleon Espiritu Santo for
the last phase of their voyage marred by two mishaps: a fire
that triggered tremendous explosion and the death of Fr.
Andres de San Nicolas
• May of 1606 - thirteen Recollects debarked in Cebu and
they are welcomed by the Augustinian bishop Pedro de
Agurto. By end of May, they went to Manila where they
founded their first convent in Bagumbayan on July 24, 1606.

Arrival in the
Philippine Island
 The Recollects, being the last friars who
arrived in the Philippines after the
Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans
and Jesuits, received “the most
inhospitable regions. All of them are quite
far from Manila and were separated from
one another by hundreds of kilometers and
very much exposed to the frequent raids of
the moros.”
 On June 5, 1621, Recoletos
became a Congregation through
the papal brief “Militantes
Ecclesiae” of Pope Gregory XV.
On November 20, 1621, the
first General Chapter was held in
Madrid and Fr. Jeronimo de la
Resurrecion was elected as Vicar
General.
RECOLETOS BECAME A
CONGREGATION
On November 23, 1621,
the Recollect
congregation with 28
convents in Spain and in
the Philippines was
divided into four
provinces:
- The Province of St.
Augustine in Castile
- The Province of Our
Lady of the Pillar in
Aragon
- The Province of St.
Thomas of Villanueva
in Andalucia
- The Province of St.
Nicholas of Tolentine in
the Philippines
 On July 16, 1725,
Talangpaz blood
sisters from
Calumpit, Bulacan -
Mother Dionisia
Mitas de Sta. Maria
and Cecilia Rosa de
Jesus - founded the
“Beaterio de San
Sebastián de
TALANGPAZ SISTERS AND Calumpang” (now
THE CONGREGATION OF THE the Congregation of
AUGUSTINIAN RECOLLECT the Augustinian
SISTERS Recollect Sisters).
 ST. EZEKIEL MORENO LIVED AND
WORKED IN THE PHILIPPINES
St. Ezekiel Diaz
Moreno, an
“Augustinian Saint
among the Filipinos”
stayed in the
Philippines from 1870
to 1885.
 RECOLETOS
BECAME A
RELIGIOUS ORDER
Recoletos was elevated to an Order by Pope
Pius X through his papal brief, “Religiosas
Familias.”
The official name of the Order - “Order of
the Recollect Hermits of St. Augustine” –
since 1912, would be changed to “Order of
the Recollects of St. Augustine” [ORSA] in
1927, then to “Order of Augustinian
Recollects [OAR] in 1966.
 The Third Order
of the
Augustinian
Recollects
currently known
as SARF [Secular
Augustinian
Recollect
Fraternity] was
founded in 1956
through the joint
efforts of Fr.
FOUNDATION OF Martin Legarra,
THE THIRD ORDER OAR and Fr. Juan
Garcia, OAR.
IN THE PHILIPPINES
 COMING OF THE OAR
CONTEMPLATIVE NUNS
On August 10, 1992, the
first group of OAR
contemplatives arrived in the
Philippines. The St. Ezekiel
Moreno Monastery in Brgy.
Tangub, Bacolod City, the
first in Asia, was blessed and
inaugurated on August 19,
1995.
 On November 28,
1998, the Vicariate of
the Philippines and
BIRTH OF THE China was elevated as
PROVINCE OF the eighth Province of
ST. EZEKIEL
the Order. The new
MORENO
Province was named
after St. Ezekiel
Moreno.
 THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE
AUGUSTINIAN RECOLLECTS TO THE
FILIPINO SOCIETY
 The achievements of the
Recoletos includes
founding towns, building
roads, canals, bridges and
dams, constructing
churches and kumbentos,
lending a hand in the
development of agriculture
and industry, and making
effective defenses against
piracies.
- the sugar industry of Negros
looks back to the pioneering
work of Fr. Fernando Cuenca
in Talisay
- the world-famous bamboo
organ built by Fr. Diego Cera
in Las Piñas
- the all-steel San Sebastian
Basilica in Manila
 Today, the Recollects
administer:
* 2 universities: the University
of Negros Occidental-
Recoletos in Bacolod and the
University of San Jose-
Recoletos in Cebu City
*2 colleges: San Sebastian
College, Manila and San
Sebastian College Cavite
*4 secondary schools: Colegio
de Santo Tomas-Recoletos in
San Carlos; Colegio de San
Nicolas de Tolentino-Recoletos
in Talisay; San Pedro
RECOLLECTS Academy in Valencia and San
IN THE FIELD Pedro Academy-Recoletos in
Caidiocan, Valencia. Negros
OF EDUCATION Oriental
 Recollects in the Field of Parish Works
The pastoral ministry of the Recollects involves mission in the following parishes and
chaplaincies:
(Manila) San Sebastian, Quiapo and Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage,
Tondo.
(Quezon) San Nicolas de Tolentino and Our Lady of Consolation

(Cebu) Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of Consolation

(Negros Oriental) Our Lady of the Abandoned, Valencia and St. Ezekiel Moreno,
Caidiocan
(Negros Occidental) San Nicolas de Tolentino, Talisay and St. Nicolas of Tolentino,
UNO-R
(Palawan) Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Inagawan and San Isidro Labrador, Taytay.
 Recollects Around The World
The Order of the Augustinian Recollects are constituted with
205 communities and are distributed among 19 nations.

Spain Argentina
Brazil Costa Rica
Colombia United
Mexico kingdom
United Dominican
States Republic
Philippines Guatemala
Venezuela Italy
Peru Taiwan
Panama Chile
Sierra Leon China
AUGUSTINIAN VALUE: