Fr. Joseph Lawrence Farrell, OSA was born on July 11, 1963 in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania (USA). He is affiliated to the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova. He is a graduate of the School of Business of Villanova University with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Business Administration (1985) and earned a Masters of Arts Degree in Theology (MA) from the Washington Theological Union (1991). He professed his first vows as an Augustinian in 1987 and his solemn vows in 1990.
He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1991, at Our Mother of Good Counsel Church in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. His first assignment was in St. Augustine parish in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He then served as Campus Minister at Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania (1994-1996), and at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts (1996-2003). In 2003, he was assigned to Collegio Santa Monica in Rome and enrolled as a student at the Gregorian University where he received a License in Sacred Theology (STL) in 2005 and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (STD) in 2007 concentrating in Augustinian Spirituality. His doctoral work focused on the theme of An Augustinian Spirituality of Accountability in the Sermons of Saint Augustine.
From 2007 – 2013, he was assigned to Villanova University in the Office for Mission and Ministry and taught various courses (Augustine: Life and Thought; Christian Anthropology; Ancient Christianity, Augustine and Culture Seminar). During that time, he also served as Director of Pre-Novices in the Initial Formation Program of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova.
After the Ordinary General Chapter of 2013, he began to serve the Order of Saint Augustine in the role of Vicar General and in that capacity, he assisted the Prior General with the Canonical Visitations of renewal of the friars, Chapter gatherings, and administrative advisory assistance. He earned a Master of Science Degree in Church Management from Villanova University in 2019. In September of 2019, He was re-elected as Vicar General at the Ordinary General Chapter. While serving as Vicar General, he collaborated with his Augustinian brothers on the General Council in the International Commissions for Augustinian Centers of Education; Augustinian Initial Formation and Vocation Promotion; the Institute for Augustinian Spirituality; the International Commission for the Apostolate and Evangelization, the Secretariat for Social Communications, and the supervision of the members of the General Houses that fall under the responsibility of the Augustinian Curia.