People behind the figures: a snapshot of the Province at the start of the 2024-2025 academic year

We present an overview of some of its dimensions, presences and tasks at the start of the new 2024-2025 academic year in the northern hemisphere, the 2025 academic year where the academic and natural calendar coincide.

Religious

The religious of the Province reside, for the most part, in the 44 communities that it manages located in seven countries: Brazil (5 communities), China (1), Costa Rica (4), Spain (10), United States (8), England (3) and Mexico (13).

In addition, there are religious of the Province living in communities of the general Curia or of other Provinces in Brazil (1), Cuba (1), Spain (1) and Italy (5); and six bishops live in the Prelatures or Dioceses they serve in Brazil (4) and Mexico (2).

The country where the most religious reside is Spain (105), followed by Mexico (64), the United States (39), Brazil (25), Costa Rica (15), China (15), England (10), Italy (5) and Cuba (1).

With an average age of religious of just under 61 years, the Province has 64 friars under 50 years of age and 67 over 80. The communities with the oldest members of the Province are in the United States, England and Mexico (in that order), while the countries with the youngest average age are China, Brazil and Costa Rica.

The youngest community has an average age of 36 years and corresponds, logically, to the house where the professed religious reside in the last stage of initial formation, the saint Augustine House of Formation in Las Rozas. Between 47 and 49 years of age are the communities of the Amazon (Labrea, Pauini and Tapaua) and the Mexican community of La Junta (Chihuahua).

The community with the oldest average age is Anthony (New Mexico, United States), which is over 80 years old. They are followed, with 78 years, and in this order, by the communities of Saint Monica in Mexico City, Valladolid (with a good number of older religious in the Saint Ezequiel Moreno Residence) and Cheniston Gardens in London. Lomas de Casa Blanca, in Querétaro (Mexico), would be next, with an average age of 76 years.

Regarding the functions of religious in relation to their average age, the formators of aspirants, postulants, novices and professed have an average age of 39 years; the directors and managers of educational centers, 57.5 years; and those who have been appointed parish priests in the various ministries, 59.5 years, although it reaches 68.25 in England or 60.5 in Mexico.

Despite the efforts made by the provincial government to comply with the constitutional requirement for the number of members per community, there is still one community in Mexico (Lomas de Casa Blanca, Querétaro) made up of only two religious; on the other hand, there is also a community with almost 30 religious in Valladolid.

There are 16 communities with three religious; 9 with four religious; 4 with five religious. Up to 7 communities have between six and ten members, while 6 have between eleven and twenty.

This indicates that the majority of religious live in communities of more than six religious (60%), although the percentage (40%) of communities of five or less (29 houses) is not small.

Houses of formation

The Province currently has 13 simple professed religious in the last stage of initial formation (theology students) who reside in the Saint Augustine House of Formation in Las Rozas (Madrid). Five others are in the final stage, the year of community and pastoral integration, during which solemn profession is usually made: two in Brazil, two in Mexico and one in Costa Rica.

Five novices are preparing for their first profession in the novitiate of Monteagudo, in Navarra, Spain. This convent, attached to the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, is designated by the Order as the only novitiate for Europe, so they live with novices from other Provinces and a formation team appointed by the general government.

In addition, there are a total of 21 postulants and 2 aspirants. The latter are both in the Aspirancy of Saint Ambrose in Guaraciaba do Norte (Ceará, Brazil).

Nine postulants are in the Postulancy of San Agustín in Mexico City; seven in the Postulancy of San Ezequiel Moreno in Costa Rica; four in Franca (São Paulo), sharing this formative stage with the Brazilian postulants of the Province of Saint Thomas of Vilanova; and one postulant in Montebello, California, United States.

Augustinian Recollect Secular Fraternity

The Province of St. Nicholas of Tolentino serves through its communities a total of 34 Augustinian-Recollect Secular Fraternities that are located in its geographic area of influence: three in Brazil, two in Costa Rica, six in Spain, eleven in the United States, two in England and ten in Mexico.

There are a total of 831 members of the Fraternity, of which 559 are active, 136 are prayerful (that is, due to their health conditions they cannot attend meetings but remain spiritually united), a total of 44 others attend meetings more occasionally and a total of 92 are in the period of preparation prior to the issuance of the promises.

The latest Fraternity to be started will begin its journey this weekend, on Sunday 20th, during the closing of the First Centenary of the Mission in Shangqiu (Henan, China), with the particularity that it is located in Madrid (Spain) but its idiom will be Chinese, since all its members are from that country.

By country, Mexico has 273 members, the United States 252, Costa Rica 110, Spain 99, Brazil 63 and England 34.

Educational Centers

The educational centers of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine are dedicated to students in Preschool, Primary, Secondary and High School; therefore, all the educational stages prior to higher university education.

There are three schools with subsidised education in Spain, located in Valladolid, Saragossa and Chiclana de la Frontera (Cádiz); a private school in Mexico, in Querétaro; and a technical school that combines formal and vocational education in Agua Caliente de Cartago (Costa Rica). There is also a parish school in Montebello (California, USA).

A total of 17 religious are directly involved in teaching, nine of them in management teams; another two collaborate in a school, but not full-time. They have the collaboration of 387 teachers and 210 non-teaching staff. For management tasks, in addition to the religious, there are 22 lay people in the management teams.

A total of 5,310 students are accompanied daily in their comprehensive education within the values of the Augustinian Recollect educational ideal. The center with the most students is the Saint Augustine High School in Valladolid (1,659), followed by the Fray Luis de Leon High School in Querétaro (1,356), the Romareda High School in Saragossa (1,050), the Saint Augustine Technical School de Aguacaliente in Cartago – Boys’ Town (500), the St. Benedict School in Montebello (415) and the Saint Augustine School in Chiclana de la Frontera (330).

All the centers in the Province are associated with the EDUCAR Network of the Augustinian Recollect Family, sharing ideology, regulations, ongoing training and solidarity action and education in coordination with the Augustinian Recollect International Solidarity Network, ARCORES. They also jointly implement programs for the protection of minors and vulnerable people.

Social projects

All the Parish ministries of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine manage their social action activities and projects, in most cases associated with Caritas or the diocesan institutions in charge of this task.

The educational centers, as already mentioned, maintain their own calendar of education for solidarity and awareness for social justice, both by collaborating with the ARCORES Network and through their own campaigns and initiatives that include, among others, the sponsorship network among the ministries of the Province.

In addition to this, which already provides important social and evangelizing work, the Province manages some specific projects, always in network with ARCORES, with local institutions and with collaborators of all kinds. They focus, especially, on the care of minors, proposing education as a distinctive fact for breaking the cycles of poverty; in the fight against the scourge of child abuse in girls and adolescents; and in socio-health care in Mexico City.

Esperanza Center

The Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, in collaboration with the Prelature of Labrea (Amazonas, Brazil), collaborates in the management of three day centers for children and adolescents of both sexes in the Brazilian Amazon, specifically in the towns of Labrea, Tapaua and Pauini.

These Centers are coordinated by the Pastoral of the Minor of each of the parishes that host them, but their principal directors are Augustinian Recollect religious and the resources with which they are maintained come largely from the solidarity of the ministries of the Province of Saint Nicholas throughout the world.

Each Center has its own large facilities with classrooms, sports areas, kitchen and dining room. In the current academic year they serve a total of 540 students, distributed between Labrea (220), Tapaua (160) and Pauini (160).

They operate in two shifts (morning and afternoon) since, in order to attend, beneficiaries must be enrolled in school and attend regular classes. They offer free teaching in values, school support, semi-professional technical and artistic workshops, sports activities and nutritional support.

Saint Monica’s Home

The Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, in collaboration with the Augustinian Recollects of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is also the owner and manager of the Saint Monica’s Home in Fortaleza (Ceará), included within the Uirapuru Spiritual Condominium, an ecclesial space with social and spiritual projects of various religious orders and congregations.

The Saint Monica’s Home is the only institution in the entire State of Ceara capable of welcoming girls and adolescents who have suffered the violation of their rights and have been victims of various forms of violence, mainly sexual.

It has three homes where these minors live full-time, once they have been sent by a competent legal body to separate them from their aggressors and from the context of vulnerability in which they lived.

The Saint Augustine Psychosocial Center, in the Jangurussu neighborhood, is also part of this project. It seeks prevention by working with 100 mothers, usually single parents, to avoid new victims and promote their citizenship.

The Saint Monica’s Home currently has 21 residents, for the 30 total places it has. Of these, seven are in the Saint Monica House (14 to 17 years), seven in the Our Lady of Consolation House (11 to 13 years) and seven in the Sister Cleusa House (7 to 10 years).

The 21 current residents were sent to the Home by the Guardianship Council, a municipal body that looks after the well-being of minors. 17 have been victims of sexual abuse and four of family neglect. They arrived at the home at these ages: eight years (2), nine years (2), ten years (1), twelve years (4), thirteen years (4), sixteen years (2) or seventeen years (1).

Since the start of operations 15 years ago, 216 girls have been cared for at some point in the Home, of which 153 (71%) arrived through the Guardianship Council, 49 (23%) through the Juvenile Court, six through Social Assistance Centres (3%) and the rest in other ways, but always through a competent institution.

Girls aged 10 to 13 have accounted for 46% of those cared for; those aged 4 to 9 have accounted for 30% and those aged 14 to 17 have accounted for 24%.

The majority of the 216 girls had suffered sexual abuse (45%) and/or family neglect (33%). 19% suffered commercial sexual exploitation. Girls who suffered psychological or physical violence (7 girls), homelessness (4), child labour (1) and abandonment by an incapable person (1) have also been cared for.

The year with the most beneficiary admissions was 2011 (23), followed by 2023 (21), 2021 and 2017 (20). The fewest were 2014, with 5 admissions, and 2015 with 6.

Up to 75 girls achieved their social and family reintegration after completing the accompaniment process at the Home. Another 55 were transferred to other institutions, 9 left when they reached the age of majority and 8 were given up for adoption. A total of 48 left the Center of their own free will before completing their process.

The average time that the girls remain at the Saint Monica’s Home is around 14 months, taking into account that 74 spent six months or less and 21 have been there for more than three years.

CARDI

The Integral Development Accompaniment and Recovery Center (CARDI) in Mexico City is a social-health project born from the Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe of the Hospitals of the Augustinian Recollects.

This Parish has within its geographic limits the Hospitales Colony, so it serves a good number of hospitals and health centers pastorally. However, the specific needs of some people led to the creation of CARDI as an institution independent of the Parish.

CARDI’s main beneficiaries are the patients and their families who come to the General Hospital, Children’s Hospital and the XXI Century Medical Center. Due to the centralization of health care, thousands of patients come to them every year from all parts of Mexico, without roots, references or support in the capital.

Their stay, sometimes prolonged, empties family accounts or even causes them to lose jobs. That is why CARDI offers them basic services:

• Food: daily passes for a full meal, bread and coffee.
• Dispensary: medicines, therapeutic material, disposable diapers, sanitary towels, at cost price or free (depending on the case).
• Hygiene: shower service and laundry area.
• Rest: rest area within the safety and protection of the building.
• Therapeutic accompaniment: open to the general public, not only to the main beneficiaries, especially in cases of bereavement and.
• Spiritual accompaniment: also open to the general public.

CARDI began to prepare volunteers for its own needs, but over time it created an entire training space that offers society in general conferences, workshops, courses and diplomas with official validity (Volunteering, Thanatology and Logotherapy). The topics covered are Augustinian spirituality, human development, mental health, interpersonal relationships…

For example, this quarter there are conferences and workshops entitled “The balance of my words and thoughts”, “Christianity: a philosophical basis for Logotherapy”, “Building my well-being: managing emotions”, “Living with my older adults”, “Discover your interior. The key to personal growth and emotional well-being” or “Come and dialogue like Socrates”.