Leo XIV - An Augustinian Life in Context

Source: Messenger Publications

What forms a Pope? Who is Robert Francis Prevost, the until-recently relatively unknown Augustinian who now leads nearly 1.5 billion Catholics as Pope Leo XIV? A new concise biography: Leo XIV - An Augustinian Life in Context, by Brian Heffernan, an expert on Augustinian history, looks at the successive contexts in which Prevost lived and worked before his election as pope: Chicago, Peru, Rome, and the Order of Saint Augustine, with which Prevost has been connected since his youth.

In Leo XIV: An Augustinian Life in Context, Heffernan surveys the historical, economic and sociological environments in which Prevost has lived and worked, providing a rich, situated view of the new pope. The inclusion of rare Augustinian material plus his comprehensive understanding of the modern history of the Augustinian Order, allows the author to offer insights into the Augustinian charisms that have shaped his life and thinking.

Whilst several books have appeared about Leo XIV since his election, many have either focused on the conclave and the pope's first words, or considered the legacy of the previous incumbent's pontificate. Heffernan's approach zooms out to contextualise the influences on Prevost's life and work and ponder whether his Augustinian consciousness may be a major thread running through his pontificate.

Dr Brian Heffernan holds a PhD from Maynooth University. As a historian of modern Catholicism, he has written extensively on the Augustinian Friars. He lives in Brussels and is a researcher at the Catholic universities of KU Leuven and UC Louvain in Belgium and an editor at DHGE - Louvain Dictionary of Church History.

Leo XIV - An Augustinian Life in Context, by Brian Heffernan is published by Messenger Publications. Paperback, 116 pages, 978-1788127578, €12.95/£10.95, published 7 January 2026