In the Augustinian-Recollect Family there are male religious, contemplative nuns, female religious of active life, lay people committed from their adult life and young people with restless hearts. They all have in common a feeling of being attracted by the Augustinian and Recollect values: community, interiority, love of wisdom, solidarity, austerity, service to the Church wherever and whenever she asks for it.
The SARF, formerly known as the Third Order, comprises laypeople who embrace the Augustinian Recollect charism. They live by a Rule of Life and statutes within a secular setting, balancing their family and professional lives while supporting each other, holding regular meetings, and pursuing ongoing formation.
The SARF’s evolution as part of the Augustinian Recollect Family is documented sporadically. Initially, their presence was barely noticeable, and it was uncertain whether the reformed orders had jurisdiction over lay associations. Consequently, the confraternities and tertiaries were exclusively associated with the Augustinians.
In the Philippines, there is no record of Recollect tertiaries before 1630. In Japan, despite legal challenges from the Augustinian superior, the Recollect missionaries established the Third Order.
Records show that on September 26, 1630, forty-six Recollect tertiaries renewed their vows. They were still imprisoned, and two days later, they were martyred. Further martyrdoms ensued, the pinnacle being when they donned the Third Order’s habit, which differed from the friars’ as it was knee-length. Saint Magdalena of Nagasaki (1611-1634) is the most notable representative, beatified in Manila in 1981 and canonized in Rome in 1987.
The developments in Japan likely influenced the Philippines. From 1656 to 1662, Fray Juan Blancas is known to have nurtured a significant group of tertiaries in Bolinao (Pangasinan), distinguished by their piety and charitable works.
Following the Philippine Revolution, the Order experienced a resurgence, marked by the publication of the Tertiary Catechism in 1917 by Father Pedro Fabo.
In Spain, the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova established the Third Order in Granada (1918), Motril (1919), and Monachil (1919), and later in Brazil. The 15th Centenary of Saint Augustine’s death in 1930 was an opportune time to found it in Monteagudo and Marcilla, both in Navarra. The Order received formal recognition during Fr. Eugenio Ayape’s tenure as prior general (1950-1962).
The General Chapter of 1980 commissioned the drafting of the Rule of Life and Statutes of the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity, which were approved in 1984, with a revised edition approved in 2015.
By the end of 2020, the SARF was present in fifteen countries, with 130 local chapters and a total of 4,779 members.
NEXT PAGE: 6. Augustinian Recollect Youth (ARY)
TABLE OF CONTENT
Province that Makes a Family
- 1. Province that Makes a Family
- 2. Augustinian Recollect Contemplative Nuns
- 3. Augustinian Recollect Sisters
- 4. Augustinian Recollect Missionaries [Misioneras Agustinas Recoletas]
- 5. Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity (SARF)
- 6. Augustinian Recollect Youth (ARY)
- 7. Christian Mothers of Saint Monica
