When James Schloegel took his vows as an Augustinian friar this summer, he knelt before the altar in a Chicago church, surrounded by friends, family, and fellow friars. At 32, he had spent years discerning his calling to religious life — a journey rooted in prayer, spiritual study, and community.

"I, James Michael Schloegel, led by the Holy Spirit, declare my intention to follow Jesus Christ more closely," he said during the ceremony, "and to give a fuller expression of my baptismal consecration."

Schloegel is one of three men who formally entered the U.S. province of the Order of St. Augustin, known as the Augustinians, in recent months. And he is part of a noticeable uptick in interest in the small Roman Catholic religious order — a trend sparked, in part, by the election earlier in Ma

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