The Order of Saint Augustine has elected Fr. Joseph Lawrence Farrell, OSA, as its new prior general during the 188th General Chapter on September 9, 2025. Farrell, 62, had been vicar general and general assistant for North America; he succeeds Fr. Alejandro Moral Antón at the end of Moral’s second term. Fr. Moral, for his part, succeeded Fr. Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo.
The order says Farrell is the 98th prior general in its more than 750-year history.
Seventy-three capitular friars with voting rights cast ballots on Tuesday afternoon in Rome. The prior general’s mandate is six years, with the possibility of two terms.
The General Chapter opened on September 1 with a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV, himself an Augustinian, who encouraged the friars to seek unity as they set priorities for the next six years. The assembly is meeting in Rome through September 18.
Who is Fr. Farrell?
Born July 11, 1963, in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, Farrell made first vows in 1987, solemn vows in 1990, and was ordained a priest on June 29, 1991.
After parish and campus ministry in the United States, he pursued advanced studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University, earning an STL in 2005 and a doctorate in sacred theology in 2007 with a focus on Augustinian spirituality and accountability. He later taught and served in mission and ministry at Villanova University before joining the order’s general leadership in Rome in 2013.
Villanova University noted that Farrell is the first prior general elected from the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova and the second Villanova graduate to serve in the role, after Pope Leo XIV (then Fr. Robert Prevost), who led the order from 2001 to 2013.
News of Farrell’s election drew broader attention given the Augustinian identity of the current pope. The Associated Press highlighted the historic symmetry of an American Augustinian leading the order during the pontificate of the first US-born pope.
The Augustinians trace their juridical origins to 1244, when Pope Innocent IV united Tuscan hermit communities under the Rule of St. Augustine and a single prior general. Today, the order numbers roughly 2,800 friars in nearly 50 countries. Their spirituality is much older, rooted in St. Augustine, who died in the year 430, as bishop of Hippo in present-day Algeria.
According to the order’s announcement, Farrell received the seal of office from Fr. Moral Antón after the vote and accepted the charge to guide the worldwide Augustinian family. Further appointments to the general council are expected as the chapter proceeds.
