The Archives of the Augustinian General Curia (AGA) is a private ecclesiastical archive that holds the documentary patrimony produced over the centuries by the governing bodies of the Order of Saint Augustine. It is important to note that it does not have the character of totality, that is, it is not a depository of all the documents of the Order of Saint Augustine,
since, according to the Constitutions of the Order, each circumscription and each convent must organize and conserve its own archives. Currently the AGA is open to the friars of the Order and to qualified researchers, duly referenced, for the consultation of the documentation in its custody.
Through the centuries, together with the historical development of the government of the Order, the current Augustinian General Archives were formed and were kept for several centuries in the place that was known as the "Mother House" of the Augustinians in the city of Rome, also the former seat of the General Curia: the Convent of St. Augustine. Tomaso Bonasoli, who was Prior Provincial of the Roman Province and who, around 1780, made the index and the organization of the archival collection, which gathers the documents preserved, in at least 14 series, of the different General Governments of the Order. The same was done by Father Tomaso Verani, around 1770, with the archives of the Roman Convent of Santa Maria del Popolo, seat of the Procurator General of the Congregation of Lombardy and whose archives, once the Congregation was extinct, became part of the documentary patrimony kept by the Augustinian General Archives.
Due to various political and historical vicissitudes, the documentary heritage of the AGA has suffered a certain dispersion, part of which is now preserved in the State Archives in Rome and in other state agencies. The oldest documents date back to the end of the 12th century and in a rich variety of media and collections they constitute, on the one hand, a precious patrimony for their historical and cultural value and, on the other hand, invaluable reliquaries for the memory contained in them, a memory that is a primary source for the study of the history of the Order of St. Augustine.
P. Fr. Winfrid Humpfner, O.S.A.
Province of Germany
P. Ignacio Arámburu Cendoya, O.S.A.
Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines.
P. Balbino Rano Gundin, O.S.A.
Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines.
P. Fernando Rojo Martínez, O.S.A.
Province in Spain
P. Luis Marín de San Martín, O.S.A.
Province in Spain
P. Andrés Gómez Rozo, O.S.A.
Province of Our Lady of Grace, Colombia
Office of the friar in charge of managing the different administrative and technical tasks that allow the AGA to fulfill its mission. It houses part of the bibliographic collection (Augustinian, hagiographic and biographic) that is at the service of the users.
A space for the study and consultation of documents by users of the Archive, who with the authorization of the General Archivist and prior appointment can access the documents of their interest. In this room there is a small library of reference and historical works that provide users, on the one hand, with tools for contextualization and reading of the documentation they have in their hands and, on the other hand, an approach to the history of the Order of Saint Augustine and its different circumscriptions.
It is the space destined to the storage and conservation of all the documents and materials that conform the documentary patrimony guarded by the General Curia of the Order. It has the proper environmental conditions of temperature, relative humidity, lighting and others that favor the permanence in time of this precious heritage and the memory contained therein.
