Father Prevost was picked for a six-year term in the general chapter being held since Sept. 4 in Rome. The new prior general was elected on his 46th birthday.
His predecessor, Father Miguel Angel Gómez, was prior general for two terms.
Father Prevost was born in Chicago on Sept. 14, 1955. He was ordained a priest in Rome on June 19, 1982. In 1985 he received a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas.
The new prior general spent several years in Peru in pastoral ministry. He also inaugurated a house for formation and was director of the Trujillo Seminary. He returned to the United States in 1998, and was elected superior of the Augustinian Province of St. Nicholas of Tolentino in Chicago.
OSA was founded by St. Augustine as a monastic order in the fourth century. It became a mendicant order in 1244. According to the 2001 Pontifical Yearbook, the order has 2,888 members, including 2,168 priests.
