The Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine, Fr Alejandro Moral Antón, has announced plans for an international congress promoted and organised by the International Commission for the Pontifical Patristic Institute and Augustinian Studies, in collaboration with the Augustinian Historical Institute.
The theme of the congress will be "Sub regula Augustini. The continuing historical impact on the religious life of the Order by the figure and doctrine of St Augustine", and will take place at the Pontifical Patristic Institute "Augustinianum" in Rome from the 18th-23rd November 2024.
Fr Alejandro announced the congress in a letter sent to the whole Order, stating, "This congress is born from the benefit of deepening the essential role that the figure and teachings of St Augustine have always played in religious life and in the development of the fundamental characteristics of the Orders and congregations of the Augustinian Family across the centuries."
A deeper look into the saint of Hippo
This academic event will seek to offer the Augustinian Family an opportunity to tackle this fundamental theme and to deepen, through a methodical re-reading of the source materials, the impact that the saint of Hippo has had on consecrated life in the different periods since Augustinian religious life was established.
"Confident that the congress will be of interest to everyone, I wish to extend an invitation to the brothers, sisters and laity of the Augustinian Family and encourage them to participate," says the Prior General, noting also that the registration period will be open until the 21st June, and ending with a prayer: "May the Lord grant us to be each day more faithful to our Augustinian religious life. We ask for this the powerful intercession of our Father St Augustine."
Themes of the congress
- The reception of Saint Augustine in the late-antique and early-mediaeval monastic world
- Augustine and the mediaeval canonical world
- Augustine in the early centuries of the Order: in search of an identity
- Devotion to St Monica as a consolidation of the reception of Augustine among the hermits
- Augustinian elements in the mystical literature of the 14th century
- The reception of Augustine in hermit humanism
- Commentaries on the Rule of St Augustine
- The remodelling of Augustine in the reforms of the 16th century: the Discalced and the Recollects
- Augustine in the Spanish Augustinian theological school of the 16th century and its evolution in the 17th century
- Augustine in the revival of the Order after the suppressions of the 19th century
- The rediscovery of Augustine in the Order in the 1950-60s
- The presence of Augustine's thought in the new Constitutions and in the speeches of the Popes to the Order in the 20th century
- Augustinian iconography: the genesis and evolution of a reception of Augustine
- Augustine imagined and portrayed in mission lands: the case of the Philippines
- Augustine and the world of the hermit nuns
- Augustinian saints and mystics
- The congregations of apostolic life aggregated to the Order
- Augustine, inspiration of life for the Augustinian laity