section_path: History/Missions/Peru
section_name: Peru
paragraph_text: Peru
  
  Spanish Augustinians first went to Peru in 1551. From there they went to Ecuador in 1573, and from Ecuador in 1575 to Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela. The order founded the Ecuadorean University of Quito in 1586. Augustinians also entered Argentina via Chile between 1617 and 1626. Political events in these countries prevented the order from prospering and hindered the success of its undertakings. The order had considerable property confiscated by the Argentinian government under the secularisation laws in the 19th century, and were entirely suppressed for 24 years until 1901 when they returned. In the Prefecture Apostolic of San León de Amazonas, in June, 1904, Bernardo Calle, the lay brother Miguel Vilajoli, and more than 70 Christians were murdered at a then recently erected mission station, Huabico, in Upper Maranon and the station itself was destroyed. The Augustinian Province of the Netherlands later also founded houses in Bolivia from 1930.
  
  On 3 November 2014, Pope Francis appointed the American bishop and former General of the Order of St. Augustine Robert Prevost as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru and titular bishop of Sufar. Prevost received his episcopal consecration on 12 December 2014 at St. Mary's Cathedral in Chiclayo. On 26 September 2015, he was named bishop of Chiclayo, in September 2023 he was appointed cardinal by Pope Francis in Vatican City, and on 8 May 2025 became Pope Leo XIV.