Villanova graduate and Drexel Hill native Augustine Father Joseph Lawrence Farrell is the new prior general of the Order of St. Augustine in Rome.
Father Farrell was elected Sept. 9 in Rome during the order’s 188th general chapter, with 73 brothers participating, writes Jina Christian for OSV News, as printed in the Catholic Review.
Father Farrell was born in 1963 in Drexel Hill, attending Catholic elementary and high schools before receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Villanova University.
The university is one of two Augustinian institutions of higher learning and the alma mater for Pope Leo XIV.
He has held teaching and administrative positions at Villanova. In 2010, he was elected a counselor of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova and became the order’s vicar general and assistant general for North America in 2013.
Father Farrell entered the Augustinian novitiate in 1985, the same year he graduated from Villanova. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1991.
The St. Thomas province and “the whole order are so proud,” said prior provincial Father Robert Hagan, adding that “Father Joe has served the order in many ways for so many years.”
Read more about Father Farell and his role in the Order of St. Augustine in the Catholic Review.
