Curia is the word used to describe the international leadership team of the Augustinian Order, and also the building in Rome in which they both work and live as a religious community.
The Augustinian central buildings in Rome have a great geographical position. They are located on Via Paolo VI ("the street of Pope Paul VI"), which borders the exterior of the eastern colonnade ("arm" of pillars) of Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican.
Photo (above): This photo was taken from the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica. It shows the Augustinian buildings just outside Saint Peter's Square, Rome: 1. the Augustinian Curia (furthest from camera, with front and back wings facing towards the camera), and 2. St Monica's College - Colégio S. Monica - (right of centre, the building with four sides facing an internal courtyard). 3. The Augustinianum, housing the official Patristicum (patristic institute) of the Catholic Church - the building towards the rear-right with the top of its roof cut from the photograph.
This means that these Augustinian buildings are literally on Saint Peter's Square. Geographically the site lies within Italian territory, but is granted extra-territorial privileges by the Vatican City State, which literally is as close as the other side of Via Paolo VI.
For another aerial photograph on Augnet that shows a greater area in this vicinity, click here.
As a standard Augustinian community, the Augustinian Curia comprises the members of the General Curia and a number of other Augustinians. Like any other Augustinian community, it has the Prior General as a member of the community, but without any community-assigned roles.
The Augustinian property containing the Curia also has two other significant buildings. One of them is the Augustinianum. This is the postgraduate Patristic Institute that the Augustinians conduct for the Vatican as the official centre of learning about the theology of the early centuries of the Christian Church. The largest building on the property is Saint Monica's International College.
It houses the other Augustinian community on the site. It comprises mainly the teachers and students within this institute that educates and provides accommodation for Augustinians studying for the priesthood and for postgraduate degrees in Rome.
A third Augustinian community lives literally across the other side of St Peter's Square. There work and live the Augustinians who administer the Parish Church of Saint Anne, in which parish all of Vatican City is included. When visiting there on one occasion, Pope John Paul II with humour accurately said that he was visiting his parish priest. Pope Francis visited St Anne's Church within days of his undertaking the papal office.
Links
Augustinianum. Web page of the Augustinian Patristic Institute in Rome. http://www.patristicum.org Pontifcia Parrochia Sant’Anna in Vaticano. (The Pontificial Parish of St Anne in the Vatican). The parish website, written in Italian. http://www.pontificiaparrocchiasantanna.it
A is for Augustine. Photographs and Journal entries during participation in the Augustine Spirituality Program, 2015 in Rome, Italy. Sister Mary Juan Camacho (SSND - Guam); Sister Bridget Waldorf (SSND - Minnesota, USA) Photos taken of many Roman churches and of points of Augustinian interest in Rome, Cascia, San Gimignano, Ostioa, Lecceto, Rosia, etc. Well worth a look! http://ssndroma2015.blogspot.com.au
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