SAN DIEGO — The Augustinian Family has gotten bigger.
In an official notice shared March 18 by the Province of St. Augustine in California, the Order of St. Augustine announced the “formal aggregation” of the Sisters of Nazareth.
With the aggregation, which went into effect on Aug. 28, 2025, the Sisters of Nazareth “enter into full spiritual communion with the Augustinian Family,” and their congregation “shares in the spiritual goods of the Order, including the indulgences, privileges and graces granted by the Apostolic See to the Order of St. Augustine,” the news release said.
“This aggregation signifies not only a canonical act, but a profound spiritual communion,” said Augustinian Father Barnaby Johns, prior provincial of the Province of St. Augustine in California.
“It affirms a close religious bond rooted in the teaching of our holy father St. Augustine and strengthens our shared call to seek God together, with one soul and one heart turned toward him,” said Father Johns, who noted that the Sisters of Nazareth, like the Augustinian friars, live their community life guided by the Rule of St. Augustine.
The Sisters of Nazareth remain “a completely independent congregation” after the aggregation, acknowledged Sister Rose Hoye, regional superior.
Explaining what aggregation means to her congregation, she said, “We’ve always had a strong affection … for the Augustinians, and now it’s kind of solidified in that we’re part of the same family.”
Sister Hoye anticipates that the sisters will be “united with the Augustinians, not just here locally, but throughout the world,” and will collaborate in “sharing more of the teachings and values of St. Augustine.”
Father Johns said that Bishop Michael Campbell, a retired Augustinian bishop in the Augustinian Province of England and Scotland, and London-based Sisters of Nazareth made a request to the Augustinians’ Prior General in Rome for the aggregation.
This decision, at the international level, has ramifications for the Diocese of San Diego, where both the Order of St. Augustine and the Sisters of Nazareth have an active presence and already enjoyed a close bond with one another.
The Augustinians run St. Augustine High School, which was founded in 1922, as well as St. Patrick Parish, both in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego. The Sisters of Nazareth run Nazareth House of San Diego, a Catholic assisted-living community, and nearby Nazareth School, an elementary school next-door to Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá.
Local Augustinian friars and Sisters of Nazareth celebrated the aggregation on Jan. 28 with a dinner held on the campus of St. Augustine High School.
“We’ve always had a very good relationship with (the Sisters of Nazareth), but it’s strengthened, particularly now,” Father Johns said.
When Father Johns became the provincial, he said, one of his goals was to bring Augustinian sisters to California.
“I’ve been looking at opportunities to invite our Augustinian sisters, even maybe creating a community of Augustinian sisters,” he said. “But out of the sky drops this aggregation.”
Through the aggregation, he said, the Sisters of Nazareth “become part of the fabric of our Augustinian life.”
He envisions a future where the two groups attend important celebrations together. He said the Augustinians regularly pray for their deceased members, and this aggregation means that deceased Sisters of Nazareth will share in those prayers.
