section_path: Early career (1977–1998)/Formation and early priesthood
section_name: Formation and early priesthood
paragraph_text: Formation and early priesthood
  
  On September 1, 1977, Prevost joined the Order of Saint Augustine as a novice, residing for one year at Immaculate Conception Church in the Gate District neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. In the summer of 1978, Prevost spent three months in Clinical Pastoral Education at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. He moved to Chicago, and took his first vows on September 2, 1978; he made his solemn vows on August 29, 1981. On September 10, 1981, Prevost was ordained a deacon by Thomas Gumbleton at St. Clare of Montefalco Parish in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan. Prevost was ordained a priest in Rome, at the Church of Santa Monica degli Agostiniani by Archbishop Jean Jadot on June 19, 1982.