Pope Leo XIV's Augustinian order has about 2,800 friars worldwide

The Order of St. Augustine (OSA), the religious order Pope Leo XIV comes from, currently has about 2,800 friars in 47 countries across five continents. That is the figure used by the order itself, and it has been repeated by several news outlets since May 2025, when Robert Prevost became the first Augustinian elected pope.

According to information published by the Augustinians in the United States on their vocations website, the order includes some 2,800 friars in 47 countries. Nearly 1,900 of them are priests. Another 950 or so friars belong to the Augustinian Recollects (OAR), a branch that has been separate since the 16th century and follows the same Rule of St. Augustine under its own government.

Fewer members over the past decade

The number of Augustinians has fallen over the years. In 2013 the order had 2,818 religious in 50 countries and ran 435 parishes. By 2017 the figure had dropped to 2,646 religious, 1,908 of them priests. That decline contrasts with the current figure of 2,800, which according to the most recent sources may reflect a slight recovery or updates in the way members are counted.

A new prior general after 12 years

On September 10, 2025, the Order of St. Augustine elected American Joseph Lawrence Farrell as its 98th prior general. Until then he was vicar general and assistant general for North America. Farrell succeeds Alejandro Moral Antón, who had led the order for 12 years.

Presence in Spanish-speaking America, with no public official figures

The exact breakdown of Augustinians by country in Spanish-speaking America could not be confirmed. Neither the order's general curia in Rome nor the Augustinian provinces of Mexico, Peru, Colombia or Argentina publish up-to-date figures for religious and houses by territory.

There is evidence of the order's institutional presence in the region. The Augustinians are linked to educational institutions in Colombia, including a university foundation in Bogotá and a secondary school in Barranquilla, and the Spanish Augustinian province of San Juan de Sahagún runs missions in South America. These point to a presence, but they are not a count of religious.

In Spain, the Conferencia Española de Religiosos (CONFER), the national conference of religious institutes, keeps an updated map of congregations. Its figures, more than 33,000 consecrated men and women in 5,900 communities, cover every religious institute in the country, so the Augustinian figure cannot be separated out.