Author name: Fr Terence Spiteri

During the thirties in the twentieth century, the Church in Spain went through a period of great martydom, when the civil authorities started a systematic persecution that lasted three years and during which time a great number of Christians were killed: laity, religious, priests and bishops. Brethren of the Augustinian family, in these difficult circumstances, also showed great strength of their faith in the face of such harsh persecution, at […]

In the beginning of the XVII century there started in Japan one of the most harsh and bloody persecutions of the Church. Many were the numbers of martyrs amongst the members of the Augustinian Order for the Gospel. Augustinians from Japan, Spain, Portugal and Mexico, men and women, tertiaries, lay brothers and other faithful who, with their death, gave an example of the unity and universality of the Order. Hereunder

We have only sparse information on B.Sante and, as often happens, history is mixed up with legends. The source of information concerning him are the funeral elogies made by Fr. Ambrogio Massari from Cori (elected Prior General in 1476) who came from the same city as Blessed Sante and who wrote about various episodes of the Order’s history. More information concerning him are found in the Historia Corana written in

The Hermitage of Lecceto, near Siena, from its beginning in the XII century, was fertile ground for Augustinian holiness. By way of example of these so-called “beati leccetani” in the Augustinian liturgical calendar is found the memory of B. Antonio Patrizio. His background cannot be described with exactness; this because there is little sound documentation about his life. Writings about him were recorded in the XV and the XVI centuries,

Mexico’s history is replete with light and shadows, and insofar as the life of the Church in Mexico is concerned, there are most beautiful pages – like the appearance of Our Lady at Guadalupe – and others stained with the redness of the blood of innocents. Amongst the latter we find the story of the Augustinian martyr Elias del Socorro Nieves, member of the Augustinian Province of St. Nicholas of

Many are of the opinion that St. Rita could never have had such wrold-wide fame as is known today had there not existed B. Teresa Fasce, an Augustinian nun, for many years the superior of the monastery of contemplative nuns of Cascia. A magnanimous woman who, from the quietness of contemplation, managed to reach the world with the spirituality of her own prayers to God. She was born in 1881in

Blessed Gundisalv from Lagos provides evidence of the presence of the Augustinian order with Portugal where, from the time of the Order’s establishment, this was sown in various convents. These convents maintained their presence in the Portuguese kingdom until they were suppressed in the XIX century. Gundisalv was born in the city of Lagos, in the south of the country in 1360, into a family of fishermen. Detailed information about

  We have two principal souces of information on the life of John Bono, the biography written by St. Anthony of Florence in the middle of the XV century, as also the process of his beatification (XIII century) which, through the large number of witnesses, gave more details regarding the life and evengelical spirituality which this hermit led in the XIII century. He was born in 1168 in Mantova and