Our history
Thirty years
of the same
heart.
The story of JAR began in July 1995, when five friars decided to bet on a new model of youth ministry. Today, three decades later, the restless heart that moved them is still beating in young people across more than 20 countries.
There was no strategic plan.
There was intuition.
In late July 1995, five Augustinian Recollect religious gathered with a simple proposal: to create a movement's own youth movement that would draw together what was already happening in various groups. Some details of that founding meeting were never recorded in writing. The intuition was.
JAR was not born in an office: it was born from contact between youth groups already walking in Recollect parishes and schools — in Madrid, Burgos, Granada, and San Sebastián — and from the desire to give them a shared identity. Out of that came a stage-by-stage pastoral model with a name and a style: Augustinian, Recollect, young.
Thirty years on, that seed has grown in more than twenty countries, with thousands of young people sharing the same charism: interiority, community, and mission.
A history
in milestones.
Some of the moments
that have marked the Movement's path.
-
1995
Five friars, one proposal
In late July, five Augustinian Recollect religious meet and decide to back a new model of youth ministry. JAR is born.
-
1996
The first groups take shape
The youth communities of Madrid, Burgos, Granada, and San Sebastián begin to coordinate under a shared identity. Spain leads the way.
-
2000s
The Americas join the path
The Movement crosses the Atlantic and spreads to Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica.
-
2010s
A stage-by-stage itinerary
The formative path in six stages — Tagaste, Madaura, Carthage, Milan, Cassiciacum, and Hippo — is consolidated, inspired by the life of Saint Augustine himself.
-
2020
Digital JAR
The pandemic pushes the Movement to learn what seemed impossible: to meet, pray, and build community through a screen.
-
2025
30th Anniversary · JAR Synod
The Movement celebrates three decades of history. From 21 to 26 July, young people and religious from across the Order gather in Salamanca for the JAR Synod: to review the itinerary and reaffirm the shared responsibility of young people and religious in evangelisation.
-
Today
A worldwide family
JAR is present in more than twenty countries, continues to grow, and keeps intact the intuition of those five friars: to live the Gospel young, in community, in the Augustinian way.
Under whose gaze we walk
Three faces
that sustain us.
Our Lady of Consolation.
JAR was born under her protection. To her we entrust the activities and the very life of the Movement. She is the one who leads us, again and again, to the heart of Christ.
Saint Alypius.
Augustine's faithful friend. He walked with him from Tagaste to Hippo, and reminds us that faith is not lived alone: it is lived with friends who push in the same direction.
Saint Possidius.
Disciple, bishop, and biographer of Augustine. He guarded his memory and his work. His figure invites us to receive what has been handed down to us, and to pass it on faithfully.
Today
A worldwide
family.
International presence
Half-measures are not enough for us.
JAR · 1995 — Today
This story is still being written
And maybe the
next page
is yours to write. You.
There is a JAR group near you, in your country or just a message away. Find it, write to us, and become part of the story.
