By our reporter
Pope Leo XIV has a past link with Nigeria and Nigerians.
In 2016, he, as Bishop Robert Francis Prevost, visited the Augustinians in Nigeria when he was serving as Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine. He even posed for a photograph (above) with some Nigerian Augustinians during the memorable visit.
The Augustinian Order, or Order of St. Augustine (OSA), is a mendicant religious order in the Catholic Church founded in 1244 by Pope Innocent IV.
It is an international order with friars living in community and inspired by the teachings and life of St. Augustine of Hippo.
The Order’s mission is to live out a Christian vocation of love for God and neighbor, engaging in various ministries and apostolates, having vowed to live a life of poverty.
Augustine of Hippo was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa.
His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period.
His many important works include The City of God , On Christian Doctrine , and Confessions .
Prevost held the position of Prior General of the Augustinians for two terms, beginning 2001.
