While elections for Americans as Pope are perceived as a historic choice, Chicago-born missionary Robert Prebble represents another prominent departure from past popes.
Prevost, 69, was the first Augustine monk to become pope, Vatican news reported.
“The fact that the Pope comes from the Augustine Order is most surprising to me,” said Charles Gillespie, an assistant professor of Catholic Studies at Sacred Heart University, Connecticut. “It was extraordinary and rare for reasons.”
After being elected Thursday to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV, took on several leadership roles within St. Augustine’s Catholic Order.
The order based on the writings of Augustine the Hippo, a theologian who formed in the 13th century and lived in modern-day Algeria, is small compared to other religious communities within the church. It has approximately 2,800 members in 47 countries, and is sponsored by only two universities in the United States. Villanova near Philadelphia and Merrimack College in Massachusetts.
The monks of Augustine’s Order stand out in their hooded black habits, usually made of wool. Gillespie said he lives the lifestyle of an assistant and relies on charity kindness, rather than spinning at the monastery.
“They place a true prayer-like emphasis on the beauty of the heart and the world, as if they were to connect with God,” he added.
The purpose of Augustine’s monks is to entail humility within their community. Up to Leo, members were rarely called to leave the order and take greater responsibility in the upper echelons of the Catholic Church, Gillespie said.
The largest male Catholic order is the Jesuits, with around 16,000 members worldwide, and over 20 institutions of higher education in the United States.
In particular, Francis, the predecessor of Prevost, was the first Jesuit to become Pope and the first Jesuit from Latin America.
Historically, the Pope was not associated with a particular religious order, but instead was a former priest who rose up the church hierarchy from the diocese and parish. According to the Jesuit publication America Magazine, the last pope of the religious order before Francis was Gregory XVI, a monk of the Benedictine Camaldore, who was Pope from 1831 to 1846.
“I have no choice but to reflect on what his Augustine Pope means to our university community and our world,” Villanova President Pastor Peter Donohue said in a statement. “His humility, calm spirit, prudence and warmth, Pope Leo XIV’s leadership offers an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to our educational mission.”
In 1977, the year he graduated from Villanova, he joined the Order of St. Augustine before. He was appointed priest in 1982 and sent to Augustine’s mission in Peru in 1985.
When he returned to his hometown in Chicago in 1999, Prevast was promoted within the rank of order until Francis promoted him as bishop in Peru in 2015 and rose to Cardinal in 2023.
Martin Luther, who rejected Catholicism in the 16th century and became the centre of Protestant reform, was a former Augustine monk.
Gillespie certainly follows Francis’ footsteps when he becomes a moral voice focused on unity, humanity and understanding of social issues.
“For Augustine, there will be a real sense that our political engagement and spiritual commitment cannot fall into separate lanes,” he said. “They are about dealing with the world, how to organize social life and knowing that it is concentrated from God’s love.”
