Joseph L. Farrell

Father Joseph Lawrence Farrell, O.S.A. (Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, 11 July 1963) is an American religious of the Order of Saint Augustine and, since 9 September 2025, has been the 98th Prior General of the Augustinians, elected during the Order’s 188th General Chapter at the Pontifical Augustinianum Patristic Institute in Rome for a six-year term.

After studying at Villanova University, he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1985 and, in the same year, entered the Augustinian pre-novitiate of the Province of St Thomas of Villanova. He took his first religious vows in 1987 and made his solemn profession in 1990. In 1991, he obtained a Master of Arts in Theology from the Washington Theological Union and was ordained a priest on 29 June of the same year.

From 1991 to 1994, he carried out pastoral work at the parish of Saint Augustine in Lawrence (Massachusetts). Between 1994 and 1996, he served as Campus Minister at Monsignor Bonner High School in Pennsylvania, whilst from 1996 to 2003 he worked in university pastoral care at Merrimack College.

In 2003, he was sent to Rome to the Santa Monica International College to continue his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he obtained a Licentiate in Sacred Theology in 2005 and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology in 2007, specialising in Augustinian spirituality and religious life. He subsequently worked with Villanova University in the areas of the university’s mission and academic and spiritual formation.

From 2013 to 2025, he served as Vicar General of the Order of Saint Augustine and Assistant General for North America, working alongside Prior General Alejandro Moral