Br. Augustine DeFoore, O.S.B.

BORN:  Oct. 6, 1990
PROFESSED:  Feb. 2, 2022
PRESENT ASSIGNMENTS: Coordinator of Health Center Transportaton, Assistant Custos, Assistant Apiarist, Assistant Locksmith, CERT Team Member, CERT Executive Committee Member






 

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I was raised in Van Buren, Arkansas. I have two younger brothers. My family is all protestant and I was brought up in a few different churches but mostly the Church of the Nazarene. Growing up I had a strong faith formation with frequent Bible reading and memorizing scriptures. I attended public schools and was homeschooled for a time. After graduating high school I attended the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith, studying Criminal Justice. I worked in various forms of public safety for thirteen years.

I felt a call to serve God from a very early age and I’d thought about being a pastor or missionary off and on. During my high school and college years, my faith started to fall apart due to different circumstances and poor choices on my part. Then after suffering a terrible loss, I abandoned the faith and even delved into paganism and the occult. After three years I had a radical encounter with God that completely changed my life. After returning to Christianity I felt God calling me to the Catholic Church. Christ revealed himself to me in the Eucharist and I knew that I needed the sacraments and the fullness of the faith. I started RCIA in November of 2017 and I was brought into full communion with the Catholic Church on July 7th, 2018.

After my conversion to Catholicism, the call to serve God intensified and I started discerning a vocation with the Diocese of Little Rock. I eventually determined that I wasn’t being called to the diocesan priesthood. Leading up to that point I’d had numerous people ask me if I’d ever considered a monastic vocation or joining Subiaco Abbey. My response was always “No! Why would I want to do that?”. After a while, I realized that might in fact be God trying to tell me something. I contacted Br. Raban at the Abbey and made my first visit. I hated to admit it but even after that first visit, Subiaco Abbey felt like home. I continued visiting and then entered as a candidate on September 6th, 2021. I was then invested as a novice on February 1st, 2022, and made my temporary vows on February 2nd, 2023. 

I’ve come to love the monastic way of life partly because of the prayer, the sense of peace, and the natural beauty of this place but mostly because of the community. Even on the hard days the sense of brotherhood and knowledge that we’re all here seeking God and striving for holiness gives me strength and makes me want to be a better monk and better Catholic.
 

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