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St. Josemaria - Biography
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I
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Childhood
Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer
was born in Barbastro, Spain on January 9, 1902. His family
on both sides was steeped in the cultural and Christian traditions
of Spain and colored by the personality of their native province,
Aragon. In his parents -José Escriva and Dolores Albás - Josemaria
had clear examples of faithful and pious Christians. José
and Dolores gave birth to their first child, Carmen, in 1899.
She was followed by Josemaria and three more girls before
1910. The beginning of the 1910s was a period of trials for
the family, marked by the deaths of the three younger daughters
and a severe economic setback that resulted in the family
leaving Aragon and settling in the neighboring province of
La Rioja. Josemaria, a bright young student with a cheerful
and open personality, watched his parents suffer these hardships
with a deep faith in God. At the age of 16, while walking
on a cold winter day, Josemaria noticed footprints in the
snow left by the bare feet of a Carmelite friar. As he considered
the life of dedication represented by the footprints, Josemaria
felt a deep awakening in his soul and wondered if he too was
called to give himself to God. From that day Josemaria felt
that God wanted something from him, though he did not know
what it was. Convinced that he could best discern this call
as a priest, he decided to give up his intended career as
an architect and enter the seminary. He began to pray intensely
with great faith asking God to reveal His divine will. "Lord,
let me see!” (Lk 18:41) was his simple prayer for many years.
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In 1918 Josemaria began
his ecclesiastical studies at the Seminary of Logroño, and
in 1920 he continued in Zaragoza, where he was appointed to
a position of leadership in the seminary by the Archbishop
of Zaragoza. During his years at the seminary, Josemaria strengthened
his spiritual formation through frequent reading and personal
prayer. On many nights he spent long hours before the Blessed
Sacrament of the Seminary church, in intimate and deeply felt
conversation with Our Lord. He also made daily visits to Our
Lady of Pilar, a popular Marian shrine in Zaragoza. In 1923,
after his theological studies were well under way, and having
obtained permission from his superiors, Josemaria began studying
civil law at the University of Zaragoza. Studying civil law
responded to a wish made by his father years earlier, when
Josemaria told him about his decision to become a priest.
The time he spent with professors and fellow students at the
seminary and the university enriched his personality and prepared
him for his future mission. Josemaria was ordained a priest
on March 28, 1925 only a few months after the unexpected death
of his father. His family, made up of his mother, his sister
Carmen, and a brother, Santiago, born in 1919, moved from
Logroño to Zaragoza where they were, to a large extent, under
Josemaria's care. He started his priestly ministry in the
parish of Perdiguera (of the diocese of Zaragoza), and later
continued in Zaragoza
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In the spring of 1927
Fr. Josemaria and his mother, sister, and brother moved
to Madrid where he pursued a doctorate in law. In Madrid,
he carried out various priestly ministries, attending to
the poor and helpless in the outskirts of Madrid. He also
spent a great deal of time with incurable and dying patients
in hospitals around the city. He became chaplain of the
chapel of the Foundation for the Sick and prepared thousands
of poor children for their first Confession and first Holy
Communion. To support the financial needs of his mother,
sister, and brother, Fr. Josemaria became a teacher in an
academy, tutoring university students in juridical studies.
All this, together with constant prayer, mortification,
and penance, made these years a prelude to Opus Dei, that
is, a period of spiritual growth that prepared Fr. Josemaria
for what God was to ask of him.
On October 2, 1928, during a spiritual retreat, Our Lord
clearly revealed to Fr. Josemaria what Opus Dei was to be.
St. Josemaria described it as a mobilization of Christians
of all walks of life who would make the world holy by offering
God their daily duties. On that day Opus Dei was born, as
a reality branded on the soul of a young priest who from
that time dedicated all his energies to it. At first, Josemaria's
natural humility in the face of the proliferation of religious
foundations, led him to investigate as to whether an institution
such as the one God revealed to him already existed. However,
from October 2, he also began to seek people who would understand
this manifestation of God. He soon perceived that nothing
existed similar to what God was requesting of him. Guided
always by Our Lord, on February 14, 1930, St. Josemaria
also came to understand that he had to extend this apostolic
work to include women.
A new way was thus opened in the Church, directed at promoting,
among people of all social classes, the struggle for sanctity
through ordinary secular life and the need to be an apostle
in the midst of the world. It was also in 1930 when a casual
question put to him by a friend ("How is that Work of God
getting on?") led him to think that this could be the name
of this apostolic enterprise. The expression "Work of God"
manifests, on the one hand, St. Josemaria's profound conviction
that he was fulfilling a divine wish, and at the same time,
expresses clearly what Opus Dei means in practice: ordinary
life, professional work, conversion through prayer and personal
generosity for the service of all humankind.
The nucleus of the message transmitted by Fr. Josemaria
was the announcement of a universal call to sanctification
in the performance of ordinary work. Thirty years before
the Second Vatican Council, St. Josemaria, speaking on the
plenitude of Christian life, pronounced this judgment with
supernatural daring: "You have the obligation to sanctify
yourself. Even you, who thinks that this is the exclusive
task of priests and religious orders. To all, without exception,
the Lord said 'Be perfect, as my heavenly Father is perfect'"
(The Way, 291).
This was the message which from October 2, 1928, Fr. Josemaria
spread and which drew to him a group of people- small at
the beginning- but destined to grow. Meanwhile, the social
context of Fr. Josemaria's life underwent changes and tensions.
The economic situation of his family continued to be difficult.
His pastoral ministry also changed. In 1931, Fr. Josemaria
left the Foundation for the Sick and assumed the task, first
as Chaplain and later, in 1934, as Rector of the Royal Foundation
of St. Elizabeth. There, in the sacristy of St Elizabeth's,
after especially intense personal prayer, Fr. Josemaria
put into writing what was to be one of his first books:
some commentaries on the mysteries of the Rosary, which
were published in 1934, under the title of Holy Rosary.
Fr. Josemaria also began writing some conclusions or snippets
of his personal prayers in notebooks. Gathering together
some of these notes in 1932, he composed a collection of
points for meditation which he entitled Spiritual Considerations.
These were first published with the help of a duplicator
and later in printed form (1934) and were helpful in conveying
his apostolic work to those around him. Later revised and
completed, these meditations were published as one of Fr.
Josemaria's best known works: The Way (Camino). First published
in 1939, it has been translated into numerous languages
and has sold millions of copies.
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II
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The Spanish Civil War
In 1935, although there were hardly more than a dozen members
of Opus Dei, Fr. Josemaria had thought about its expansion
from Madrid to other Spanish cities. The start of the Spanish
Civil War made it impossible to carry out these plans immediately.
During the time the conflict lasted, Fr. Josemaria carried
on with his ministry, first in Madrid, at grave risk to
his life, and later, in Burgos, after making a dangerous
crossing of the Pyrenees mountains. In Burgos, a town of
Castile, he dedicated himself tirelessly to renewing contact
with those who formed part of Opus Dei, and to his other
priestly activities. Taking advantage of the time he now
had, Fr. Josemaria decided to restart the project of his
doctoral dissertation in law, centering it not on the subject
he had decided on before (the documents he had left in Madrid
were practically lost) but on an interesting ecclesiastical
reality that existed in Burgos: the quasi-episcopal jurisdiction
of the abbess of the Monastery of Las Huelgas. In 1942 he
presented and defended his doctoral dissertation. Two years
later, completing and amplifying his research, he published
his third book, an extensive monograph on The Abbess of
Las Huelgas.
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The Spanish civil war slowed the apostolic development of
Opus Dei but strengthened the vocations of many its first
members who eagerly began the spread of Opus Dei at the
war's conclusion. The 1940s witnessed a strong expansion
of Opus Dei which, in a short time, was established in several
of the most important Spanish cities. Fr. Josemaria dedicated
most of his energy and time to spurring on this expansion
and in attending to the new vocations, making this work
compatible with the preaching of numerous spiritual retreats
for priests. During this time of ecclesiastical reconstruction,
of healing the wounds caused by the war, various bishops,
knowing Fr. Josemaria's priestly depth, approached him to
request his collaboration. Beginning in the 1940s Fr. Josemaria
encountered fierce adversity: both from within and without
the Church. He bore these attacks with serenity and a supernatural
outlook. He never lacked, in those difficult circumstances,
the encouragement and blessing of the Bishop of Madrid,
Leopoldo Eijo y Garay, who had followed the development
of Opus Dei from its beginnings. To publicly show his support,
Bishop Eijo y Garay granted Opus Dei its first written approval
in 1941. On February 14, 1943, Fr. Josemaria found the solution
to a question that had been worrying him: how would priests
be involved in Opus Dei? On this day, during Mass, he received
the inspiration to create the Priestly Society of the Holy
Cross, a priestly association in which members of Opus Dei
who became priests could be incardinated. Later that year
the Bishop of Madrid allowed for its canonical establishment.
In 1944, three members of Opus Dei were ordained to the
priesthood.
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SECTION
III
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International Expansion
and Pontifical Approval
The end of the Second World War made it possible to think
about the universal expansion of Opus Dei, which had already
begun, albeit in a limited way (Portugal and Italy), during
the war. This expansion meant being subject to pontifical
rather than diocesan authority, and so, in 1946 Fr. Josemaria
moved to Rome, settling there until his death. In 1947 and
1950 Pope Pius XII granted Opus Dei the canonical approvals
permitting not only the expansion of Opus Dei, but also the
admittance of married people as members. Further, priests
incardinated in dioceses could also join the Priestly Society
of the Holy Cross, in a way compatible with their subordination
to their bishops. In 1982, after Fr. Josemaria's death, Opus
Dei, was established by the Pope as a Personal Prelature,
thus achieving full juridical configuration in keeping with
the reality of its spirit and activity.
All through his long Roman years (1946-1975), Fr. Josemaria
stimulated and guided the expansion of Opus Dei throughout
the world, using all his energies to give the faithful of
Opus Dei, both men and women, a solid doctrinal, ascetic and
apostolic formation, that would permit them to sanctify their
different professions and to spread the Christian message
from the most varied spheres of life. This expansion was in
fact very rapid. In 1946 members of Opus Dei began to work
in Great Britain, Ireland and France, reaching most of the
countries of western Europe in successive years. In 1948 it
began its work in Mexico and the United States and, soon afterwards,
in a large number of other nations of the American continents.
At the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, Opus
Dei established a stable presence in Asia and Africa: Japan,
the Philippines and Kenya. At the death of Fr. Josemaria,
Opus Dei had more than 60,000 members of 80 nationalities
and from the most varied professions and walks of life. As
fruit of its activity, numerous people had drawn closer to
the Catholic faith or had progressed in their Christian life.
Many educational, charitable and apostolic initiatives had
been started as well, such as the University of Navarre (Spain),
of which Fr. Josemaria was the first Grand Chancellor.
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• The Formation
of the Faithful of Opus Dei
The establishment in
1948 and 1953 of two centers of formation in Rome, one for
men and another for women (the Roman College of the Holy
Cross, and the Roman College of Holy Mary) made it possible
for members of the Prelature from diverse countries to study
in Rome. Both Roman Colleges facilitated the direct and
immediate contact of wide sectors of the first generations
of Opus Dei members with Fr. Josemaria, their founder. In
1947, Fr. Josemaria was appointed Monsignor, Prelate of
Honor, by the pope.
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•
The Years of the Second
Vatican Council
In 1959, the recently-elected
Pope John XXIII convened an ecumenical council: the Second
Vatican Council (1962-1965). Msgr. Josemaria followed
the council enthusiastically praying and asking the members
of Opus Dei to pray for its success. When the Council's
documents were published he immediately began to implement
them into the life and liturgy of Opus Dei's centers.
The expansion of Opus Dei drew attention not only from
Christian spheres, but also from society as a whole, and
from the media. In 1966, journalists from France, the
United States, Spain, and Italy met and interviewed Msgr.
Josemaria. In 1968, these interviews and a homily delivered
in 1967 were published as Conversations with Msgr. Escrivá
de Balaguer. In the years that followed, Msgr. Josemaria
also compiled two collections of meditations and homilies:
Christ is Passing By (1973) and Friends of God (released
posthumously in 1977). Other works published after Msgr.
Josemaria's death include: The Way of the Cross (1981),
Furrow (1986) and The Forge (1987).
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Following
the close of the Second Vatican Council Msgr. Josemaria
engaged in catechetical activity preaching the faithful
implementation of the Second Vatican Council. He not only
received numerous visitors in Rome, but also traveled
widely around Europe and America (1970, 1972, 1974, 1975).
These journeys enabled him to meet with thousands of people,
to whom he tried to transmit the love for Christ, the
Virgin Mary and the Church that filled his own heart.
All this required a considerable effort on his part -
he bore the physical marks of a long life, full of hard
work - but he did not hesitate in offering all his energy
for the Church and for souls
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On June 26, 1975 the
Founder of Opus Dei gave up his soul to God after suddenly
collapsing on entering the room where he worked. He passed
away with the same simplicity that had characterized his
life. The fame of the heroic virtues of the Msgr. Josemaria
soon extended around the world, and countless people turned
to his intercession, asking for both material and spiritual
favors. On May 12, 1981, his Cause of Beatification and
Canonization was opened in Rome. After a rigorous study
of his life and his writings, and with the proof of a
miracle brought about through his intercession, John Paul
II beatified him on May 17, 1992 in Rome, before a huge
crowd of people filling St. Peter's Square. After the
approval of a new miracle, he was solemnly canonized by
the Pope John Paul II on October 6, 2002 before an immense
crowd that surpassed the previous one, reaching nearly
half a million people. This figure bears witness to the
widespread devotion to St. Josemaria Escriva, a man who
proclaimed that every person has the ability and responsibility
to seek God in their ordinary work and lives.
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