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FR. FRANCIS MORIONES, O.A.R.
Celebrates 80 Years
Extraordinary is a word that well fits Fr. Moriones. In 2001, at the age of 90, he began a major literary work on St. Augustine of Hippo, Teología de san Agustín, which was published in 2004 by the Library of Christian Authors (Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos: BAC), the most prestigious religious publishing house of Spain. In the process of writing, he learned how to use the computer for the first time. When completed, the book was presented to Pope Benedict XVI along with an earlier work, his award wining Enchiridion Theologicum Sancti Augustini (1961). Each book contained a hand-written dedication in Latin to the Pope. Fr. Moriones received, in reply, a beautiful and gracious letter of thanks from the Holy Father. Indeed, Fr. Moriones has been a life-long student of St. Augustine, having received a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the Gregorian University in Rome in 1934. His writings, in addition to the works cited above, include many article for scholarly journals and another major work on St. Augustine, his three-volume Espiritualidad Agustino-Recoleta, written specifically for the Secular Augustinian Recollects, the lay associates of the Order. He has taught theology and language studies for most of his life: first as an in-house faculty member at the Augustinian Recollect formation house in Kansas City, Kansas; then at Donnelly College, also in Kansas City; and finally at Immaculate Conception Seminary and Seton Hall University, in South Orange, New Jersey. Although a scholar by nature, Fr. Moriones is first and foremost a devoted religious and a zealous priest. Ordained in Rome on March 31, 1934, he celebrated 70 years as a priest in 2004 at a special gathering held at Tagaste Monastery, the major seminary of the Augustinian Recollects in Suffern, New York, where he is still in residence. Fr. Moriones himself, however, would assert that his life draws its essential meaning from his profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, which, from the early days of the Catholic Church, have been the distinguishing characteristic of the “vowed” or “consecrated life” in which a baptized Catholic makes a life-time commitment to serve Jesus Christ and the Church as a member of a particular religious institute. In the case of Fr. Moriones, it is the Order of Augustinian Recollects, a branch of the great Augustinian family, which had its origins in 1588 in post-Reformation Toledo, Spain, and was raised, to the status of an Order by Pope Pius X in 1912. The Augustinian Recollects today have about 1300 members and work in 21 countries throughout the world, including many missionary areas. One could say that Fr. Moriones’ goal has always been to help fulfill the “holy proposal” found in the Rule of St. Augustine: to form a community that is one in heart and mind on the way to God. Fr. Moriones left Spain in 1935 at the age of 24 to work in the “mission” of the United States. His principal ministry has been in the area of education: to help prepare priests and brothers to work in the parishes and schools of Kansas, Nebraska, California, New York, Texas, and Mexico—in those ministries that would be staffed by members of St. Augustine Province. His tireless work as teacher, scholar, and pastor of souls as well as his unswerving devotion to the values of religious life have set an outstanding example for the generations of Augustinian Recollect students and lay Catholics alike whom he has served as educator and spiritual guide. In recent years Fr. Moriones’ health has deteriorated, although he continues to remain active in body as well as in mind and spirit. As he celebrates 80 years as a professed religious, the Augustinian Recollects pay tribute to this extraordinary follower of Jesus Christ and St. Augustine, and pray that “God who has begun this good work in him will bring it happily to completion.” Fr. John Gruben, OAR
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