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The Augustinian Recollect Enrique Gómez (Béjar, Salamanca, Spain, 1973) is one of the religious who best knows and has studied the Augustinian Recollect charism the most. Currently one of his services is the direction of Avgvstinvs Publishing House, which he himself introduces to us.

Por Enrique Gómez, OAR

The Avgvstinvs Publishing House was born in the middle of the last century in the shadow of the Avgvstinvs Magazine, an academic periodical publication of the Augustinian Recollects since 1956, specialized in articles, reviews and other materials linked to the life, work and influence of Augustine of Hippo.

Due to the imprint of its parent company, the Avgvstinvs Publishing House proposed, from the beginning, to be a channel for research and dissemination of the figure and thought of the Bishop of Hippo. Hence, the first large collection that it housed was precisely the Avgvstinvs Collection, dedicated to the thought of Saint Augustine, which reached thirteen volumes.

At the same time, the editorial became a channel for publishing other studies carried out by Augustinian Recollect religious, such as doctoral theses or essays, or publications on the Augustinian Recollect Family itself. For this reason, nowadays, most of the Avgvstinvs Publishing House publications are of an internal nature, focused on history, spirituality and projects undertaken by the Augustinian Recollects.

The Editorial follows paths marked in previous decades, opening itself to new objectives of dissemination and knowledge, as well as expanding its areas of dissemination. During the six-year period 2016-2022, a change was made to the corporate image, logo and design of the publications that support these new projects, which adapt old collections and enable the launch of new ones.

In addition to some out-of-collection publications, today the publishing house has seven collections. Three of them are intended for the dissemination of the life and spirituality of people who have marked the course of the Augustinian Family throughout the centuries.

These are books aimed at the general public, with a clear informative seal (although they sometimes outline novel historical hypotheses), in manual format and no longer than a hundred pages, laid out in an attractive way and bound in a way that facilitates easy reading.

Each of them is structured according to the same scheme: biographical trajectory, anthology of texts to access his thought and spirituality, and chronological synthesis of his life, as well as geographical maps that locate biographical times in their corresponding spaces.

The pioneering collection of these three is Burning Lamps, dedicated to figures of the Augustinian-Recollect Family (religious, cloistered nuns, missionaries) who have stood out for their experience of God, their government skills, their intellectual acuity, their apostolic zeal…

Some of them are on the verge of beatification. To date, 18 volumes have been published, and the 19th is in press, the most requested being the biographies of Mariana de San José, Antonia de Jesús, Alfonso Gallegos and Mariano Gazpio (fourth edition). The one dedicated to Toribio Minguella had a relative impact in La Rioja (Spain) on the occasion of the centenary of his death.

The second collection, Witnesses of the Kingdom, focuses on beatified or canonized Augustinian men and women who have a greater impact among the common public. This is a collection that includes the glove, with the indicated innovations, of the ancient Our Augustinian Saints.

At the moment, five volumes have been published, the most requested being the biographies of Saint Thomas of Villanueva and the Blesseds Anselmo Polanco and Esteban Bellesini. In addition to the requests coming from the Augustinian Family, the first of them has been echoed in the area of Villanueva de los Infantes (Ciudad Real), the second in the diocese of Teruel and the third has traveled to the sanctuary of Genazzano (Rome).

The third, more humble for the moment, is dedicated to significant personalities of the Augustinian Family, and is titled Friends of God. It has a single volume, published at the request of the Augustinian Sisters of Amparo, taking advantage of the declaration of the heroic virtues of its founder, Sebastián Gili Vives. It is being well received in the Balearic Islands.

As for the Varia collection, it brings together essays, reflections and pastoral proposals, and would be considered the continuation of the old Augustinian Library and Studia collections, sponsored by the Institutes of Augustinology and Spirituality and History of the Order.

It can be said that it is intended to house larger publications, with a careful edition, large format, with a sewn spine and covered with flaps to accommodate larger writings. At the moment it has the sections of Sources and history, Pastoral and Spirituality, although those of Theology and Pedagogy are also planned.

These volumes make it up to now. Given its argumentative variety, its recipients are very diverse: archives and libraries, as regards sources and history, while those related to pastoral care and spirituality find greater echo in the general public.

The Pilgrims collection is directed to a more specific, but numerically significant, recipient, which houses the ongoing formation material prepared for the Secular Augustinian-Recollect Fraternities. There are the Rule of Life, Statutes, Prayer and Ritual, and three other volumes of work materials, with flexible covers, sewn spines and easy-to-read layout.

Among the oldest collections, the publisher continues the General History of the Augustinian Recollects, by the Recollect historian Ángel Martínez Cuesta. The first volume of the third volume has recently seen the light of day, which covers from 1898 to 1948. As it is a selective work, with a very careful edition, covered in cardboard and more than considerable thickness (the last one exceeds a thousand pages), Institutions, archives and libraries ask for it above all.

We should not forget, either, the Recollection Books Collection, which already has 19 volumes; some of them, like The Order of Augustinian Recollects. Charismatic Evolution and the Writings of Mother Alicia Correa Fernández, already have several editions. Its theme focuses on the history and spirituality of the Order, so its audience is quite restricted.

To what has been said we should add the co-publishing projects, especially with the New City publishing house. These are works related to the thought of Saint Augustine, which add to the Patristic Studies collection of this publishing house. Having the distribution of this publishing house helps its dissemination, even if they are more scientific and theological works.

Finally, in terms of distribution, Avgvstinvs has digitized some of these works, disseminating them through the Amazon platform. The our Augustinian Saints collection and some Burning Lamps are already housed there, in Kindle format.

On the other hand, contact has been made with some bookstores, which have chosen to present the publisher’s new products. But the majority of requests for our publications still fall on direct requests to the publisher’s headquarters in Madrid.