OSA in the Asia Pacific

Published: 21 May 2013

The Order of Saint Augustine has a total of seven jurisdictions based in Philippines (two), India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Australia. The question is being pondered, “Will the unique qualities of Asia clash with or nourish the Augustinian Order?”

The Vicariate of the Orient

Augustinians have served continuously in the Philippines since the year 1565. Most of the members of the Order of St Augustine in the Philippines are now part of the Province of Cebu, which began in 1984. The Vicariate of the Orient remains with only two communities at present: San Agustin in the historic Intramuros inner area of Manila contains the longest-operating Catholic church in Asia, and the huge Colegio San Agustin at Makati, Metro Manila, which about six thousand students from Year 1 to Year 12. An extension school is now being built on forty hectares of land in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

India

The Order flourished in India from 1572 onwards, most especially at Goa and Cochin, until the Portuguese suppression of religious orders in 1834 caused the Order’s closure in India. The Order returned there in 1968, and on 25th October 2006 the Delegation of Our Lady of Grace (India) was established. The delegation began with three Augustinian communities in India’s Kerala State; two are formation houses, and one a community in a parish conducted by the Order. A fourth community now conducts a primary and secondary school of 900 students that the Order has acquired in the adjacent State of Tamil Nadu; the school is named “Sembagam Metric Higher Secondary School (Run by Augustinian Fathers).” Expansion into ministry in northern India is now under way.

Papua

The Indonesian ministry of the Order of Saint Augustine began on 1st January 1953. Now that there are over fifty members there, the Vicariate of Papua was proclaimed at the Augustinian General Chapter in Rome in September 2013.

Five locations in West Papua belong to the Vicariate: Biara Tagaste in Sorong, which is the central house and contains the office of the delegation superior; Biara Hippo, the novitiate at Klagana, Sorong; Biara Kasisiakum at Waena, Jayapura, the formation house for the professed students or students who are studying theology and philosophy; Biara St Nicolaus of Tolentino at Aimas, inland from Sorong, the postulant house; Biara St Monica at Susweni, Manokwari, the community for our members who are teaching and working in our Saint Thomas of Villanova senior high school that began on 16th July 2010. Augustinians also minister in three parishes in the Manokwari-Soring Diocese. Expansion of the Vicariate to other regions of Indonesia are now in active preparation. Go to www.augnet.org/p/Page1/index.html

Cebu

This Province was officially inaugurated on 15th January 1984 at the Basilica del Santo Nifio in Cebu, and has grown from fibve to fteen communities. Five of these communities are in Luzon, eight in Visayas and two in Mindanao. The Province administers six parishes, two quasi-parishes, and a basilica; six schools (one university, two colleges, one high school, one elementary school, one institute of philosophy, with two other schools in the initial stage of being established); two retreat houses, and three formation houses.

As to members, the Province is composed of 106 solemnly professed friars, thirteen of whom are working outside the country; the Province has four main apostolic commitments: parish-based pastoral work, education, formation and mission, Two more can be added: service in the Basilica at Cebu, and retreat houses. Some friars are involved too in other ministries, like hospital and prison apostolate, NGOs, teaching, etc. The presence of the Province in Socorro and Burgos in Surigao del Norte, in Gubat, Sorsogon, can be considered “missionary,” and the Province intends to expand more its missionary presence in Kinatarcan Island, Cebu and also in northern Philippines.

Japan

The Vicariate of the Augustinian Martyrs of Japan presently has eleven friars, two are from the United States, two from the Philippines (Province of Sto. Nino de Cebu), and the rest are Japanese.

There are four Augustinian communities in the Vicariate, one each in the cities Tokyo (founded in 1968), Nagoya (1964), Fukuoka (1959), and Nagasaki (1954). Parochial ministry has been the Vicariate’s major and primary apostolate since the inception of the present-day Japan mission in 1954.

Korea

What is now the Augustinian Delegation of Korea began in 1985. Read more on the pages named OSA in Korea in this website.

Australia See the rest of this website.