The election of an American as pope is being recognized as a historic choice, but Chicago-born missionary Robert Prevost represents another notable departure from pontiffs of the past.
Prevost, 69, is the first Augustinian friar to become pope, the Vatican News reported.
"The fact that the pope is from the Augustinian order is the most surprising thing for me," Charles Gillespie, an assistant professor of Catholic Studies at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, said Friday. "It's extraordinary, and it's been rare for a reason."
Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV after being elected Thursday to guide the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, had assumed several leadership roles within the Catholic Order of St. Augustine.
The order, formed in the 13th century and based on the writings of Augustine of Hippo, a theologian who lived in modern-day Algeria, is smaller compared to other religious communities within the church. It has about 2,800 members in 47 countries, and sponsors just two universities within the United States: Villanova near Philadelphia, which Prevost attended, and Merrimack College in Massachusetts.
Friars of the Augustinian order typically stand out in hooded black habits made of wool. Rather than being cloistered in a monastery, they live a mendicant lifestyle, in which they go out into the community and rely on charitable kindness, Gillespie said.
“They place a real, prayerful emphasis on the heart, and the beauty in the world as it connects with God,” he added.An Augustinian friars’ purpose is to serve with humility within their communities. Until Leo, it was unlikely that a member would be called on to leave the order and take on a larger responsibility in the upper echelons of the Catholic Church, much less become pope, Gillespie said.
The largest male Catholic order is the Jesuits, with about 16,000 members worldwide and more than two dozen higher education institutions in the U.S.
Notably, Prevost's predecessor, Francis, was the first Jesuit — and first from Latin America — to become pope.
Historically, popes have not been associated with any specific religious order, but instead have been former priests who've ascended the church's hierarchy from diocesan seminaries and parishes. Before Francis, the last pope from a religious order was Gregory XVI, a Benedictine Camaldolese monk who was pope from 1831 to 1846, according to America magazine, a Jesuit publication.
"I cannot help but reflect on what his Augustinian papacy will mean to our University community and our world," the Rev. Peter Donohue, president of Villanova, said in a statement. "Known for his humility, gentle spirit, prudence and warmth, Pope Leo XIV's leadership offers an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to our educational mission."
In 1977, the year that he graduated from Villanova, Prevost joined the Order of St. Augustine. He would go on to be ordained as a priest in 1982 and then sent to an Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985.
Upon returning to his hometown, Chicago, in 1999, Prevost was promoted within the order's ranks until Francis elevated him as a bishop in Peru in 2015, and eventually rising to a cardinal in 2023. One of his last jobs before becoming pope was in Rome, running the office that helps decide who will be appointed a bishop.Martin Luther, who in the 16th-century would reject Catholicism and become central to the Protestant Reformation, was a former Augustinian friar.
Gillespie said given Pope Leo's background, he is certain to follow in Francis' footsteps when it comes to being a moral voice focused on unity, humanity and understanding social issues.
"With Augustinians, there's going to be a real sense that our political involvements and spiritual commitments can't be in separate lanes," he said. "They're about responding to the world, how we organize our social lives, and knowing it's centered out of God's love."
