Schola Augustiniana: intellectual life, theological school, and the organization of studies in the history of the Order of Saint Augustine
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS
INSTITUTUM HISTORICUM AUGUSTINIANUM
19-24 October 2026
Pontifical Patristic Institute “Augustinianum”
Via Paolo VI, 25 – Rome
The international congress of the Institutum Historicum Augustinianum, to be held in Rome from 19 to 24 October 2026 at the Pontificio Istituto Patristico «Augustinianum», sets out to examine the schola Augustiniana as a generative locus of the identity of the Order of Saint Augustine: not merely a system of formative institutions, but an intellectual tradition which, from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age, has bound together theological enquiry, the discipline of religious life and the organisation of studies within a single project of life. Following a path that begins with the pre-Tridentine theological workshops and the university studia and extends to the colleges and provinces of Europe, the Americas and Asia, the papers will bring into focus the masters and lectors, the curricula and methods, the libraries and archives, the daily life of the students and the formation of the novice and the cleric, without neglecting the reformulations imposed by successive seasons of crisis and renewal.
The scholarly contribution the congress seeks to offer is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to draw together, within a unified and comparative perspective, research hitherto conducted in distinct chronological and geographical fields, giving due weight to manuscript sources and archival documentation; on the other, it seeks to situate the Augustinian experience of formation within the wider history of theological culture and of the educational institutions of the West, showing how Augustinian principles shaped models of learning and of the transmission of learning whose significance reaches well beyond the boundaries of the Order. The meeting thus presents itself as an occasion for dialogue among historians, in the hope of opening new and shared lines of research.
Comments