Laity Commission
The Augustinian Order has a special place for lay people who in one way or another become part of the Augustinian family particularly through their proximity and collaboration in the apostolate of the religious and of the Order. The Augustinian Lay Commission is appointed after each Ordinary Provincial Chapter and gathers in it a group of people who hold dear the values of the Augustinian family and the collaboration with our Augustinian family. Under the leadership of the Provincial Delegate for the Laity and the assistance of an Augustinian religious, the Commission meets regularly to discuss and create initiatives that bring together lay people who touch different Augustinian realities and fields.
From time to time, the Commission organizes activities in different Augustinian communities linked even to occasions or celebrations from the Church’s liturgical calendar and particularly the Augustinian one. This includes both liturgical festivals such as any activity linked to the Feast of Saint Augustine or the feast of all the Augustinian saints, but also the participation in particular moments of the Province such as the Provincial Chapter. Beyond the meetings and celebrations in themselves through these activities, the Commission for the Laity works to strengthen the relations between the Augustinian lay people who frequent different realities and fosters a beautiful spirit of friendship and communion between them.
It was in the same Commission that even the idea of establishing a Secular Augustinian Fraternity was born, which is then a more demanding form of laity within the Augustinian family and which is formally recognized as part of the Augustinian Order.
The Santa Rita Priory
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Secular Augustinian Fraternity
The Order of St. Augustine from the beginning nurtured within it a number of lay people, who while they continue to live their lives in the world, join, as an integral part, in the aim and mission of the Order by drinking from – the same source of spirituality based on the enduring principles of the Rule of Saint Augustine and the secular tradition of the Order, in part from the charisma for the service of the Church. The Secular Augustinian Fraternities gather in them a number of Lay people close to the Augustinian family who wish to take Augustinian spirituality in a more demanding way in their Life.
It was in the Provincial Commission for the Laity that during the time of the Covid 19 pandemic, when activities were limited, the idea of establishing a Secular Augustinian Fraternity in Malta was born and shaped. The Secular Augustinian Fraternities are considered the third Order in the Augustinian family as contemplated in the Constitutions of the same Order of Saint Augustine (Const. OSA n. 44-47) and governed according to the norms of Canon Law ( Canons 312-320). On 1 January 2001 the Order published a document on the laity “On the Way with St. Augustine”, which presents guidelines for these fraternities.
The members of the secular fraternities are actually men and women who undertake to meet regularly to share and reflect on their faith journey as Christians in the spirit of the Augustinian Family and then inspired by the figure of Saint Augustine and the tradition of the Order. Apart from other initiatives, as a group they meet regularly every month and share life experiences inspired by reflection on the word of God and the teachings of the Church. This experience should lead them to translate their Christian commitment concretely into service to others while always being a living sign of communion wherever they are.
The Secular Augustinian Fraternity Saint Augustine and Saint Monica, under the jurisdiction of the Augustinian Province of Malta was founded by a decree of the Prior General P. Alejandro Moral Anton issued by the General Curia of the Order on July 1 2021. The official seat of the Fraternity is the Santa Rita Priory, St Julians.
