Brazil

In the 17th century the first foundation of the Order was also made in Brazil. The Province founded in Spain in 1926 now has responsibility for a vice-province in Brazil, with some houses there that go back to 1910. Members of the Province of Malta also have houses in Brazil. The Province in Spain founded in 1895 has members working in Brazil since 1929.

In the previous century in Latin America, Mariano de la Mata Aparício O.S.A. (1905-1983) was a member of the Order of Saint Augustine who was born in Spain by who worked in Brazil. He became known for his great observance of his religious obligations, for the way in which he ministered to his people, for his sense of union with nature and for his special concern for the needs of the poor people.

The Congregation of Saints in Rome in 1999 approved the continuation of the necessary steps to have Mariano officially declared a saint. On 20th October 2004 the formal decision was given for Mariano to be declared "Venerable." Another meeting of the Congregation of Saints on 2nd February 2005 unanimously approved the miracle attributed to him. In the normal course of events, he was declared a "Blessed" by the Church in November 2006. Go to: http://midwestaugustinians.org/bl-mariano-de-la-mata

The members from four different Provinces of the Order work in Brazil in four different areas (called circumscriptions). In early in 2005 steps toward integration were proposed and accepted. As well, on 13 February 2006 the residential part of Saint Augustine's College in San Paolo, Brazil was made an inter-vicariate seminary and the house of Augustinian formation for professed of the Order of Saint Augustine who are studying theology within Brazil. On 16 November 2011 the four European Provinces operating in Brazil (i.e., three of the Spanish Provinces and the Province of Malta) met in San Paulo, Brazil to further the possibility of forming a Province of Brazil. There was sufficient progress to proceed cautiously with this plan, which is still a work in progress.  

Photos (right): 
Colégio Augustiniano Mendel, San Paolo, Brazil.

Cuba

The Order began in Cuba in 1608. The Province of Mexico had a house (convento) in Havana, Cuba. From at least the year 1790 onwards it was used the training of candidates for the Order. It was suppressed by force in 1842. In the 1892 members of the Order went to Cuba from the Province of Villanova in the United States of America.

                                     
They took charge of the church of Cristo del Buen Viaje in the centre of Old Havana, as well as other churches in the Marinao, Miramar and Tarana. They opened the Colégio S. Augustin in Havana in 1903, which would later develop into the University of Sto. Tomas (Saint Thomas). They founded the medical dispensary of San Lorenzo in the poor part of the city.

The Augustinians remained in Cuba until 1961 when they were expelled by the government of Fidel Castro. The return of the Order to Cuba began on 3rd January 2007 when two Augustinians took charge of the parish of the Immaculate Conception in Chambas, in the Diocese of Ciego de Avila. The first community was composed of Paulo Santos Gonçalves O.S.A. (Vicariate of Consolación in Brasil), pastor, and local superior Quirilio Matos O.S.A. (Vicariate of Antillas).

A second community was formed in February 2008 at Puerto Padre in the Diocese of Holguin, and is devoted to parish ministry. On 15 March 2008 the Augustinian Delegation of Cuba was established, directly dependent on the Augustinian General Curia in Rome. This was done with the expectation that a third Augustinian community was opened soon after Christmas 2008, this time in an old quarter outside the city of Havana. This was an area where a church and an Augustinian convento had been built by the Augustinians before the Cuban Revolution.

In July 2016 the tenth anniversary of the Order's return to Cuba was celebrated. On 23 July 2016 in the Augustinian parish of Puerto Padre,the first simple profession took place of a Cuban candidate for the Order. This youth from Holguin has become the first Cuban Augustinian religious from the Order's decade of its returned presence in Cuba, and other young men are interested in following in his footsteps.  

The return of the Order to Cuba is marked by a new climate of dialogue between the Church and the Cuban Government.

In other Latin American countries

The Order reached in Guatemala in 1610. Individual Augustinians worked in Puerto Rico in the 16th century, but the Order first sent a community there only in 1896. Members of the Province of Castile still work there, and in the Dominican Republic. Members of the Madrid-based Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines still work in Venezuela, centred on Caracas. In Barqisimeto, Venezuela, there were in May 2005 ten novices of the Order from various countries in the north of Latin America.

Other members of the Order minister in Nicaragua and El Salvador. The Province in Spain founded in 1895 has had members working in Panama since 1966.

Photos (at left): 
Picture 1: Augustinian church of Saint Augustine at Nunoa, Santiago, Chile.
Picture 2: Augustinian church of Saint Rita at Montevideo, Uruguay.

Year of official foundation. First Augustinian arrival (when different to the first date)

 1.-Provinca del Smo. Nombre de Jesús de México 1533-1568 1533

2.-Provincia Ntra. Sra. de Gracia del Perú 1551 1548

3.-Provincia de Quito (Ecuador) 1573

4.-Provincia Ntra. Sra. de Gracia de Colombia 1575 1539

5.-Provincia Ntra. Sra. de Gracia de Chile 1595

6.-Prov. San Nicolás de Tolentino, Michoacán, México 1600 1533

7.-Vicariato Agustiniano de Antillas 1896 1650

8.-Vicariato de Iquitos.- Perú 1901

9.-Viceprovincia Argentina 1926 1626

10.-Viceprovincia del Brasil 1926

11.-Vicariato Ntra. Sra. de la Consolación del Brasil 1929

12.-Vicariato de Bolivia 1930 1539

13.-Vicariato Regional de Castilla.- Brasil 1933

14.-Vicariato de Venezuela 1952 1527

15.-Región de Malta, en Brasil 1962

16.-Región de Chone.- Ecuador 1977 1937

17.-Vicariato de Chulucanas.- Perú 1964-1986 1964

18.-Vicariato de Panamá 1966-1995 1605

19.-Vicariato de Apurímac.- Perú 1968

20.-Prelatura de Cafayate.- Argentina 1969

21.- Región de América Central 1988

* Note: From 2015 onwards, some of these administrations have combined with one another.

AN4856