A certain atmosphere hangs over Villanova University these days. The dorms, dining halls and lecture rooms have become somewhat sacrosanct. You’ll overhear students talking about how he ate there, worked there or slept there. Though until May 8, 2025, few knew who he was.
When 1977 Villanova graduate Robert “Bob” Prevost became Pope Leo XIV following the papal conclave, a wave of attention hit the local institution. Not only is Leo the first American pope, but the new pontiff is one with whom the Main Line and Philadelphia have an authentic connection.
Just like us locals, the Holy Father probably has an opinion on the Philadelphia Eagles, has likely ordered a late-night hoagie from Wawa and has almost certainly been stuck in traffic on I-76.
For Villanova’s senior associate athletic director and prior provincial within the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, Rev. Rob Hagan, the connection is even deeper. Though Hagan got his degree from Villanova 10 years after Prevost, they are nevertheless bound by their lifelong commitment to the Augustinian order.
“We’re extremely proud and we’re humbled,” Rev. Hagan says of Leo’s election. “We stand on the shoulders of many Augustinians who’ve gone before us, who have given their life to this charism, to this way of life, the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. [Leo] represents the life that we live, that Augustinians for generations have lived before us and for Augustinians that we’re hoping to call after this.”
After Prevost graduated from Villanova, he obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago while teaching physics and math at a local Catholic school. He then earned a Licentiate and Doctor of Canon Law from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
Following his studies, he spent a decade heading the Augustinian seminary in Trujillo, Peru, before being elected Prior Provincial of the Order of St. Augustine’s Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, based in Chicago. In 2015, Pope Francis appointed Prevost Bishop of Chiclayo. In 2023, after a lifetime of service, Prevost was made a cardinal, then a cardinal-bishop, the rank he held at the conclave following Pope Francis’s passing, in 2025.
“We can see why the man that we know as Bob was chosen to be Leo because of the many gifts that he possesses,” Rev. Hagan notes. “He is really smart. He speaks multiple languages. He is a unifier. He is a person who has devoted his life to the poor. And so what you have in Leo is really someone that we’ve been asked now to share with the world and the flock.”
In the days following Leo’s elevation, Villanova offices have been inundated with callers and media requests. It’s been a hectic few weeks for the staff there. Nevertheless, both Augustinian and Villanova communities couldn’t be prouder of their scion.
Rev. Hagan met Prevost on several occasions, including one memorable encounter in Chicago, after Prevost returned from his first stint in Peru to be the new head of the Augustinian order in Chicago.
“He talked to you as a friend. He talked to you as a brother,” Rev. Hagan shares. “He’s a canon lawyer. He asked me about the law. It wasn’t just that he wanted to show off who he was. He was interested in who you were. And I just remember the kind of first impression of him being really smart and yet being really warm and approachable and friendly.”
Throughout the years, Rev. Hagan remembers running into him several more times at Augustinian functions at Villanova and in Chicago, the two men eternally bound by their devotion to the order, brothers in Augustine.
At Villanova, students have sensed that connection between their Augustinian institution and the new pope. The students recognize that they walk the same paths, study in the same classrooms and even pray in the same churches that Prevost once did.
In a society so consumed by social media and the internet, individuals are hungry for unity. The local connection to the Pope, half a world away, has sparked new life at Villanova and around the Main Line. People are eager to be connected by their faith, but even more so by the bonds that link individuals who, on the surface, might have little commonality.
As Rev. Hagan sees it, there are few better figures to be united by than perhaps the most famous man on earth, who has devoted his life to the betterment of the less fortunate.
“As the world will come to know Leo, they will see someone who is a man of peace, who is a unifier, who is incredibly bright, who speaks and communicates with great clarity and passion, who spent two-thirds of his life outside this country, who spent a lot of his time working with the poorest of the poor, who recognizes that we’re all children of God, that everybody matters,” Rev. Hagan says. “I mean, this is now a world leader that we have who embraces these values and will promote love and peace and the core values of Veritas, Unitas, Caritas, truth, unity and love around the world. So I think that’s something that people are really excited about, and we’ve experienced it here on campus.”
Related: Mary Lance-Smith Sets an Example for Nurses at Bryn Mawr Hospital
