The church can resist a hurry to make Pope Francis a saint.

The pope, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, grew up in the Chicago area. He went to a boarding school for boys near the city of Holland, Mich., Who was run by the Augustinians. The school has since been closed.

In 1977 he graduated Villanova UniversityThe most important Catholic University of the Augustine Order in the United States. That year he came to the novitiate of the Order of St. Augustinus in St. Louis. Four years later, at the age of 25, he made his vows to participate in the order, according to Vatican newsThe news service of the Holy chair.

The decision to participate in an order instead of becoming a priest in a diocese is crucial to understand Leo’s approach to a religious life, according to Sister Gemma Simmonds, an author and senior researcher at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of theology at Cambridge University.

A diocesan priest is accused of obedience to his bishop, but is otherwise largely independent, she said, while a member of an order commit himself to live, pray, eat, worship and make decisions in the community.

“The emphasis is on cooperation and community life,” said Sister Gemma, who belongs to the church of Jesus, another Catholic religious order. “That is very interesting for a pope, because it means he is focused on cooperation.”

The Order of St. Augustine, one of the many within the Catholic Church, has its own characteristic. It was founded in 1244, when Pope Innocent IV united groups Hermits in the service of the Church as a community of brothers. The group committed itself to a lifestyle of poverty and a mix of contemplation and pastoral services.

Augustinians look at one of the most important early theologians of Christianity, Aurelius Augustine, the bishop of Hippo, who was born in what is now Algeria in the fourth century. Augustine is perhaps the most famous for an autobiographical work called ‘Confessions’, which partly describes his conversion to Christianity after an immoral youth.

He also wrote one Guide for religious lifeAs a rule, it is known that the cornerstone is of the Augustine Order. It connects his members to “live together in harmony, of one spirit and one heart to be on the way to God.”

The order is divided into Three branches – brothers, nuns and lay people – and is present in around 50 countries, especially in Latin -America, according to its website, Augustinians.org. Leo led the Augustinians, as a earlier general, from 2001 to 2013.

On Thursday, the Augustinians welcomed the elections of the new Pope and said that “our bet as Augustinians would renew to serve the church in its mission.”

That mission, especially in Peru, defined the career of the new pope. As a priest, he went to the country for the first time in 1985 and worked in the Augustine mission in the northwestern city of Chulucanas. In the following years he moved in more senior roles on the Augustinian mission in the city of Trujillo, where he was also a professor in the Canon Law and Theology.

In those years, the country was plagued by violence by the radiant path, a Maoist guerrilla movement.

The legacy of some Christian missionary work has attracted criticism, not least in Latin -America, where it helped to promote conquest and colonization over the centuries. Although the church has struggled with that legacy, the concept of mission, in the sense of reaching the walls of the institution in communities that are often impoverished, retains a powerful grip on Catholic thinking.

John Allen, an experienced Vatican analyst, said that Leo’s experience as a missionary was probably part of what attracted the cardinals to him in the papal conclave.

“One of the things he did is say that the leadership of the mission becomes native,” said Mr All in an interview. “That reflects the heart of a missionary, and I think that’s what the cardinals saw.”