The Commission for the Patristic Institute and Augustinian Studies, in collaboration with the Historical Institute of the Order, organized a congress on St. Augustine and religious life in Rome from the 18th to the 22nd of November. Under the title “Sub Regula Augustini. The reception in the Order of the figure and doctrine of St. Augustine on religious life throughout history”, the congress was attended by lay people, religious sisters, Augustinian nuns and friars of the Order and other Augustinian orders from all over the world.
On Monday, November 18, the Prior General of the Order, Father Alejandro Moral, opened the Congress. During his speech, Father Alejandro recalled “Saint Augustine as a reference and spiritual master, as a model of conversion and constant search for God”.
In addition to the many conferences that took place from Monday to Thursday, the participants were able to enjoy the International Festival of Music and Sacred Art in the Basilica of St. Augustine in Campo Marzio, in a concert offered by the Escolania del Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, which is one of the apostolic works that the Augustinians support in Spain.
In the middle of the week, on Wednesday, November 20, the congress participants were able to attend the General Audience of Pope Francis, in which the Holy Father shared a catechesis on the Holy Spirit, at the end of which he greeted the participants of the Congress.
On Thursday afternoon, the closing solemn Mass, presided by the Prior General, was celebrated in the Basilica of St. Augustine in Campo Marzio. Afterwards, the participants were able to enjoy a guided tour by Augustinian friars, who showed the participants “the chapel where the remains of Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine, rest”, as well as some of its best artistic and devotional jewels, such as the “Madonna dei pellegrini” by Caravaggio, the “Madonna del parto” or the fresco of the Prophet Isaiah, a work of Raphael. The day concluded with the celebration of the sung vespers of the feast of the Presentation of Mary.
The event, however, was extended for another day, according to Hiusty Lopez, in charge of communications of the Province of Our Lady of Consolation of Colombia and participant of the congress, which included a visit to the city of Viterbo, where the Order has the friary of the Most Holy Trinity, one of the oldest Augustinian friaries of the Order.
A stimulating congress
Fr. Javier Perez Barba OSA, coordinator of the organizing committee, has described the congress as an event of high academic quality and intellectually stimulating, especially for those of us who share the Augustinian heritage and spiritual paternity.
During the event, keynote addresses by renowned experts, many of them Augustinian, and others from prestigious international institutions, set the tone for the congress. Among the speakers were representatives from universities such as La Sapienza, La Gregoriana, the University of Bologna, the Catholic University of Louvain and the University of Indiana, among others. These interventions were, according to Fr. Javier, the key factor for the quality of the congress. “The speakers, accredited and well prepared, have offered profound and challenging visions. There have been very interesting moments in which various speakers have opened up new avenues of research, pointing out specific points and topics of study that should be addressed,” he added.
The congress has opened its reflection beyond the Order of St. Augustine and has brought together more than a hundred people among religious of various Augustinian orders, sisters of contemplative life and aggregated congregations, priests and lay people. “It has been, as the Holy Father jokingly said during his greeting to the participants in the General Audience on Wednesday, a beautiful fruit salad”.
Finally, Fr. Javier thanked Father General, the members of the organizing committee, especially Fr. Josef Sciberras, who played a fundamental role in the organization and development of the academic part of the event, as well as all the speakers and collaborators. “Studies are an essential part of our internal activity and of our apostolic life and events such as the one we have held at the headquarters of the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum during these days contribute to enliven and foster them.”
On the lectures and development of the congress Sub Regula Augustini
The first talk was given by the President of the Patristic Institute Augustinianum, Father Juan Antonio Cabrera Montero OSA, who spoke about the reception of Augustine in late-antique monasticism. “The thought of Augustine is present in other later monastic works, but his fundamental intuitions needed time to be explicitly accepted not as a form of monastic life but as a model of religious life adapted to ecclesial, spiritual, canonical and apostolic circumstances, very different from those of the 5th century.”
In his presentation, Fr. Juan Antonio suggested that “the analysis of the other rules, later or contemporary, should focus on two fundamental and original aspects of the spirituality or monastic project of St. Augustine in order to determine the effective Augustinian influence in them, not simply textual but ideological: the first aspect is the idea of monasticism as an experience of unity and ecclesial peace in an anti-donatist function, which runs through Augustine's monastic thought that we find, not only in the first part of the Rule, but also in the commentary on the Psalms, such as 132 and in Epistle 211. For Augustine it is not a question of the Christian perfection of the monks, but of an experience of church, of communion, of living together in the house, of having one soul and one heart. Also, as a second aspect, the spirit of love”.
The origin of monasteries in Africa
Jaime Sepulcre Samper, of the St. Augustine Theological Center, El Escorial, who spoke about the 18th century Portuguese Augustinian author, Antonio da Piedade and his work, in which he argues that St. Augustine as a monk and bishop founded the Order of St. Augustine in stages. In the first place, by writing the Rule and handing it over to some monks in Italy and in the second place, by founding a monastery of men and another of women in Africa”.
The lecture by Professor Erik Leland Saak, of Indiana University, aroused a certain amount of controversy and mixed reactions that served to enrich the intellectual debate, which is the goal of any study congress. His lecture dealt with the reception of Augustine and the foundation of the Order.
It is worth noting that there was also a space, in charge of Professor Pierantonio Piatti, dedicated to the contemplative life and feminine monasticism, focusing especially on the post-conciliar updating devised by the then Prior General Agostino Trapè and Mother Alessandra Macaione.
This was not the only presentation that dealt with the feminine world: in the penultimate session of the congress, Fr. Pietro Bellini, OSA, spoke about Augustine in the congregations aggregated to the Order.
Rocco Ronzani, OSA, Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archives, presented the highlights of the encounter of the laity with Augustinian spirituality in the life and apostolates of the Order.
But the congress extended its gaze beyond the Order of St. Augustine. In addition to the aforementioned presentation on the aggregated congregations, the Augustinian Recollect Fr. Enrique Eguiarte dealt with the reception of St. Augustine in the Augustinian Recollects from the “Forma de Vivir”, a document of 1589, to the current Constitutions of 2016. Carlos Moro, OAD, focused his reflection on the normative codices of the reform of the Discalced Augustinian Recollects in Italy.
They were not the only religious intervening. Bernard Ardura O. Praem. gave a presentation of St. Augustine as seen from the perspective of the Canons Regular during the Middle Ages.
The way in which the figure and doctrine of St. Augustine were received in the different environments and times is not only reflected in the documentation. It can also be traced in art, imagery and iconography. In the afternoon session of Monday the 18th, Prof. Alessandro Cosma spoke about the power of the images and the development of the iconography of St. Augustine between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. A few days later, Fr. Blas Sierra de la Calle OSA gave a presentation on the iconography of St. Augustine in the Philippines and the Oriental Museum of Valladolid, of which he has been the director for many years.
Another of the sources to which some of the speakers turned to was the devotional and hagiographic world. Professor Antonella Mazzon of La Sapienza wanted to trace the traces of devotion to St. Monica in the Augustinian documentation of the 15th century. Professor Francesco Santi, from the University of Bologna, proposed to rescue the Augustine preserved in the memory of Augustinian hagiography from the 13th to the 15th centuries, with special attention to St. Nicholas of Tolentine.
But we would have missed the best brushstrokes of the picture of the reception of the Holy Father Augustine throughout history if we had not turned our gaze to our most authoritative brothers and sisters: the saints and other outstanding figures of the Order: Professor Alessandra Bartolomei Romagnoli, of the Gregorian University, spoke on the holiness and Augustinian feminine mysticism between the Middle Ages and the early Modern Age. Carlos Jose Sanchez, OSA, gave a presentation on the powerful and secular influence exerted by the most famous commentaries on the Rule: those of Hugo de San Victor and St. Alonso de Orozco; while Fr. Claudio Zambrano spoke on St. Augustine in the preaching of St. Thomas of Villanova. Finally, Fr. Isaac Gonzalez OSA centered his reflection on the legacy of St. Augustine in the 17th century on the figure of Agustin Antolinez. His subtitle is sufficiently expressive: Agustin Antolinez, qualified model.
The last day of conferences was dedicated to the contemporary period. Josef Sciberras, secretary of the Historical Institute and Postulator of the Order, dealt with the reception of Augustine from the recovery of the Order after the suppressions of the 19th century until the Constitutions of 1926. Then, Professor Brian Heffernan, from the Catholic University of Louvain, covered the study from the 1920's to the 1950's and passed the baton to Fr. Miguel Angel Martin Juarez OSA, who closed the historical journey with the post-conciliar period, focusing his attention particularly on the new Constitutions and other official documents of the Order. As a complement, Fr. Kolawole Chabi gave a presentation on St. Augustine in the most recent Popes.
After this long journey, Fr. Manuel Sanchez Tapia assumed the responsibility of gathering the fruits of the historical harvest to offer a presentation in which he suggested the keys of interpretation of a reading of St. Augustine for the consecrated life of our days. Can we learn something from the past? Can the way in which our ancestors welcomed and understood St. Augustine be of help to us for the future? Those who wish to gain some light in answering these questions may be helped by reading the proceedings of the congress, which will be published during the year 2025.
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