A new Augustinian province in the Philippines was inaugurated on Wednesday February 23, 2022, in a Eucharistic celebration presided by Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula D.D. at San Agustin Church in Intramuros.
The inauguration of the new province, called “Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines”, was also witnessed by 12 diocesan bishops from across the Philippines, as well as seminarians and friars from the Order of Saint Augustine, diocesan priests, other religious men and women, and the lay faithful.
The Very Reverend Father Anthony Banks, O.S.A., Assistant General of the Order of Saint Augustine for Asia-Pacific and President of the first session of the first provincial chapter of the province, confirmed and proclaimed Fray Dante Morabe Bendoy, O.S.A. as the province’s first Prior Provincial during the Eucharistic celebration.
The decree for the creation of a new province in the Philippines was made during the Ordinary General Chapter of the Order in Rome last 2019, which elevated the 40-year-old Augustinian Vicariate of the Orient, then a circumscription of the Spanish Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines, into a Province, following the union of the four Augustinian provinces in Spain.
It will incorporate all of the Vicariate of the Orient’s seven houses in the Philippines and one church in China.
Other officials of the province elected during the first session of the first provincial chapter of the province include Provincial Counselors Fray Asis Rambuyon Bajao, O.S.A., Fray Randolf Celso Dayandayan Jr., O.S.A., Fray Norman Negrido Abello, O.S.A., and Fray Juanito Balena Caspe, O.S.A., Provincial Secretary Fray Johnny Abellera Esmilla Jr., O.S.A., and Provincial Treasurer Fray Alvin Vilches Arig, O.S.A.
With the creation of the new Province, there are now two Augustinian Provinces in the Philippines and the other one is the Province of Santo Niño de Cebu – Philippines, which was inaugurated on January 15, 1984.
