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 public association of laywomen—Community of Christian Mothers of Saint Monica—came into existence at Santa Rita Parish in Madrid in 1987. It was the response of its founder, Father Lorenzo Infante, to the anxiety expressed by a group of mothers concerned about the loss of faith in their children. Father Infante recommended overcoming such concerns through personal and communal prayer, with Saint Monica as the model for every Christian mother.
The association’s aim is to unite mothers in prayer for the faith of their own children and others, and it also provides continuous and progressive formation for its members.
The Association of Christian Mothers is structured into prayer groups of seven mothers each; every mother commits to pray one day of the week for the children of all the mothers, thus achieving a week of uninterrupted prayer.
The association has expanded to seventeen countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Spain, the United States, the Philippines, Guatemala, Hungary, England, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela.
Lorenzo Infante was born in 1905 in Monterrubio de la Demanda, Burgos, Spain. He took his vows in 1921 and was ordained a priest in 1928. After earning his master’s degree in Education from the University of Zaragoza’s School of Education in 1929, he spent nine years teaching in Lodosa, Puente la Reina in Navarra, and San Millan de la Cogolla in La Rioja.
For thirty years, he lived as a diocesan priest, caring for his mother, and after her passing, he rejoined the Order in 1971. He served at Santa Rita Parish in Madrid from 1976 to 1985.
He established the first prayer groups of Christian mothers in 1982; most of the founding mothers were also members of the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity.
As the number of participating mothers grew, he sought canonical recognition for the association from the Archdiocese of Madrid four years later. The decree of establishment was granted in 1987.
Father Lorenzo Infante passed away in Valladolid, his final place of residence, on March 23, 1997, at the age of 91.
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
