St. Josemaría Escrivá

St. Josemaría Escrivá was born in Barbastro, Spain, in 1902 and died in Rome in 1975. A diocesan priest and founder of Opus Dei, he is associated with lay spirituality, ordinary work, professional life, family sanctification, and the universal call to holiness. His central message was that sanctity is not reserved for monasteries or extraordinary states of life; every baptized person is called to seek God in daily duties.

His childhood included suffering and loss. Several of his siblings died young, and his father’s business failed, forcing the family into reduced circumstances. Josemaría later saw these trials as part of God’s preparation. He was ordained a priest in 1925. While working among the poor, sick, children, and students in Madrid, he sensed with increasing clarity that God wanted a new apostolic path for lay people living in the middle of the world.

On 2 October 1928, during a retreat, he saw the mission that became Opus Dei. Its spirituality taught that ordinary work, done well and offered to God, could become prayer and apostolate. Lawyers, doctors, parents, craftsmen, students, laborers, and professionals could seek holiness without abandoning their secular responsibilities. This teaching, later echoed strongly in the Second Vatican Council’s language about the universal call to holiness, became the heart of his preaching.

The Spanish Civil War brought danger and displacement. As a priest, Josemaría had to move secretly, endure hardship, and continue guiding souls in a time of violence. After the war, Opus Dei grew in Spain and then internationally. He moved to Rome and spent his later life forming members, writing, preaching retreats, and building the structures of the Work.

His writings include The Way, Furrow, The Forge, Christ Is Passing By, and Friends of God. Many graces and healings have been attributed to his intercession; the miracle accepted for his canonization involved the cure of Dr. Manuel Nevado Rey from chronic radiodermatitis. Canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2002, Josemaría is remembered for bringing the language of holiness into kitchens, offices, hospitals, classrooms, and family homes.