A brief biography of St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer
by José Luis Illanes
Source: St. Josemaria Escriva Historical Institute (www.isje.org) As Pope John Paul II reminded us on October 6, 2002, during the Solemn Mass of Canonization, in his
preaching, St. Josemaría Escrivá never ceased to insist that "interior life, that is, the life of relationship
with God, and family, professional and social life, made up of small worldly realities should not be
separated, but that they should constitute one sole existence, that is 'holy and full of God'". These
affirmations effectively summarize the message of St. Josemaría and, at the same time, of his figure,
because-in him-the message, priestly activity and the human person were fused into one.
THE BARBASTRO AND LOGROÑO YEARS
Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás was born in Barbastro (Huesca, Spain) on January 9, 1902. His
family on both sides was steeped in the cultural and Christian traditions of Spain, as well as colored by
the personality and traditions of Aragon. In his parents –José Escrivá y Corzán and María de los
Dolores Albás y Blanc– he had clear examples of faith, and of robust and sincere piety. Josemaría was
a student of the Piarist Fathers of Barbastro, where he received his primary education. He also began
his high school studies there, but finished them in the National Institute of Logroño, to where his
family had moved in 1915.
José Escrivá and Dolores Albás had their first child,
Carmen, in 1899; she was followed by Josemaría and later,
by three other girls. 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. All this affected
Josemaría, who nonetheless remained a young boy with a
cheerful and open personality, who continued to apply
himself diligently to his studies. One harsh winter's day,
when Josemaría was only sixteen, contemplating the
footprints left in the snow by a barefoot Carmelite friar
walking through the streets of Logroño, he felt a calling that he likened to a loud knock in the depths
of his soul.
He began to feel that God wanted something from him, though he did not know what it was. In this
frame of mind, Josemaría decided to give up the professional ambition he had been considering, a
career as an architect, in order to become a priest, convinced that this way he could be an instrument
for the fulfillment of God's will. A long period of faith and intense prayer followed, during which
Josemaría asked God to manifest what this wish was that he had "felt" but as yet was unable to
perceive. "Lord, make me see! Lord, may it be! Our Lady, may it be!" were the aspirations he
repeated for many years. They well express his life of prayer and his firm determination to put into
practice what God wanted.
ZARAGOZA: ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD
In 1918 Josemaría began his ecclesiastical studies, as a day scholar, in the Seminary of Logroño, and
in 1920 he continued them as a boarder in Zaragoza. He lived in the Seminary of St. Francisco de
Paula and attended classes in the Seminary, which at that time had the status of a Pontifical
University. In 1922, Cardinal Juan Soldevila, then Archbishop of Zaragoza, who had become aware of
Source: St. Josemaria Escriva Historical Institute (www.isje.org) 1 Josemaría's spiritual and human qualities, made him an inspector of the Seminary of St. Francis of
Paula; this meant that for three years he had the function of Superior. Together with his theological
formation, Josemaría strengthened his spiritual formation with constant reading of spiritual classics
and above all, with his personal prayer: on many nights he spent long hours before the Blessed
Sacrament of the Seminary church, in intimate and deeply felt dialogue with the Lord; and in almost
daily visits to Our Lady of the "Pilar", the invocation of the Virgin deeply characteristic of Zaragozan
piety.
In 1923, once his theological studies were well under way, and having
obtained permission from his superiors, Josemaría began studying civil law
at the University of Zaragoza. To do so, he first took advantage of the
summer vacation periods and later, of the time he had after fulfilling his
pastoral duties. Studying civil law responded to a wish manifested by his
father years earlier, when Josemaría told him about his decision to become
a priest. Studying ecclesiastical and civil law at the same time, his presence
in the lecture rooms of the School of Law and his relationships with
professors and students at this educational center constituted, no doubt, an
experience that enriched his personality and prepared him for the
orientation he later would have to give to his life and his activities.
He was ordained a deacon on December 20, 1924 and received the
sacrament of Holy Orders on March 28, 1925. Shortly before Josemaría
finished his training for the priesthood, his father died in November, 1924.
The 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 Josemaría's care. Fr. Josemaría
started his sacerdotal ministry in the parish of Perdiguera (of the diocese of Zaragoza), and later
continued in Zaragoza.
MADRID: THE FOUNDING OF OPUS DEI
Having obtained his degree in law, Fr. Josemaría wished to continue these studies to obtain his
doctorate, which was at that time only possible at the University of Madrid, which had the status of a
Central University. This, together with other factors, led him to move with his family to the capital. In
the spring of 1927 he settled definitively in Madrid, where he carried out unflagging priestly work,
attending to the poor and helpless in the outskirts of Madrid, and especially the incurable and dying
patients in the hospitals. Fr. Josemaría became chaplain of the chapel of the Foundation for the Sick, a
charitable institution run by the Congregation of Apostolic Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Preparing thousands of children for their first Confession and first Holy Communion and his visits to
the poor quarters of a Madrid in full expansion, with its consequent social problems, occupied many
hours in Fr. Josemaría's intense dedication to his ministry. The need for an income with which to
maintain his family led him to become a teacher in an Academy, specialized in tutoring university
students in juridical studies. All this, together with constant prayer and very exacting mortification and
penance, made these years a real "prehistory" of Opus Dei, that is, a period of spiritual profundity that
prepared St. Josemaría to receive what God has prepared for him.
On October 2, 1928, during a spiritual retreat, the Lord clearly revealed to St. Josemaría what until
that moment He had only hinted at. At this moment Opus Dei was born, as a reality branded by fire
on the soul of a young priest who from then onwards dedicated all his energy to this end. At first,
Josemaría's natural humility and a certain caution 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 that October 2, he also began seek people who would understand this
manifestation of God. He soon perceived that nothing existed similar to what God was requesting of
Source: St. Josemaria Escriva Historical Institute (www.isje.org) 2 him. Guided always by the Lord, on February 14, 1930, St. Josemaría also understood that he had to
extend the apostolic work God had indicated 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. Josemaría'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, converted, through prayer and personal generosity, into the work of God, into Opus
Dei, work done in God's presence, for the service of all humankind.
The nucleus of the message transmitted by the Founder of Opus Dei was the announcement of a
universal call to sanctification in the performance of ordinary professional work. Thirty years before
the Second Vatican Council, St. Josemaría, speaking on the plenitude of Christian life, pronounced this
judgment with supernatural daring: "You have the obligation to sanctify yourself. You too. 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). The universal call to sanctification in
one's own work does not mean, as St. Josemaría often repeated, a decrease in the demands and of
the horizons evoked, in the Christian conscience, by the word "sanctity". On the contrary, it implies
reminding each and every one of the sons and daughters of the Church that, no matter where they
are, no matter what their qualities are, the words of the Gospels are addressed to them. They have all
received the baptismal invitation to follow Christ. The plenitude of Christian life has to be reached by
the ordinary faithful in the place and condition they have in human society, making their ordinary
work an occasion of sanctity, at the service of God and of their fellow human beings, in imitation of
the hidden life of Christ.
This was the message which from October 2, 1928, the Founder of Opus Dei spread and which drew to
him a group of people, small at the beginning, but which was destined to grow. Meanwhile, the social
context of St. Josemaría's life underwent changes and tensions. The economic situation of his family
continued to be difficult. His pastoral ministry also changed. In 1931, St. Josemaría 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, St. Josemaría put into writing what was one of his first books: some commentaries
on the mysteries of the Rosary, which were published in 1934, under the title of Holy Rosary. St.
Josemaría also began writing in his notebooks some conclusions or snippets of his personal prayers,
with accounts of experiences that had arisen in his apostolic work. Gathering together some of these
intimate notes, in 1932, he composed a collection of thoughts or points for meditation which he
entitled Spiritual Considerations; these, first published with the help of a duplicator and later in
printed form (1934), were helpful in his apostolic work and that of those who followed him. Revised
and completed with other points, these meditations were published as one of St. Josemaría's best
known works: The Way (Camino). First published in 1939, it has been translated into numerous
languages and has sold millions of copies.
THE CIVIL WAR AND THE PERIOD IN BURGOS
Already in 1935, although there were hardly more than a dozen members of Opus Dei, St. Josemaría
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, St.
Josemaría 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 Catalan Pyrenees. 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.
Source: St. Josemaria Escriva Historical Institute (www.isje.org) 3 Taking advantage of the time he now had, St. Josemaría 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 1939 he presented
and defended his doctoral dissertation. Five years later, completing and amplifying his research, he
published his third book, an extensive monograph on The Abbess of Las Huelgas.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF OPUS DEI IN SPAIN
The difficult war situation had slowed down apostolic development, but had contributed to the
consolidation of the vocations of the first members of Opus Dei. The 1940s witnessed a strong
expansion of Opus Dei which, in a short time, was established in several of the most important
Spanish cities. St. Josemaría dedicated most of his energy and time to spurring on this expansion and
to 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 St. Josemaría's priestly depth,
approached him to request his collaboration.
From then onwards, however, there was no lack of strong
adversity that St. Josemaría bore with serenity and a
refined supernatural spirit. He never lacked, in those
difficult circumstances, the encouragement and blessing of
the Bishop of Madrid-Alcalá, 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, St. Josemaría found
the solution to one of the questions that had been worrying him most: a way to define the presence of
priests in Opus Dei. On this day, during the 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. Some time later, in the same year, after the agreement of the Holy See had
been obtained, the Bishop of Madrid proceeded to its canonical establishment. In 1944 the first three
members of Opus Dei who had studied for the priesthood were ordained.
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 St. Josemaría moved
to Rome, settling there until his death. In 1947 and 1950 Pope Pius XII granted Opus Dei the
appropriate canonical approvals, which permitted not only the expansion of Opus Dei, but also allowed
married people to become 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 the Founder's death, Opus Dei, following a juridical path which he had long prepared and
cherished, was established by the Pope as a Personal Prelature, thus achieving full juridical
configuration in keeping with the reality of its spirit and activity.
Source: St. Josemaria Escriva Historical Institute (www.isje.org) 4 All through his long Roman years (1946-1975), St.
Josemaría stimulated and guided the expansion of
Opus Dei throughout the world, using all his
energy 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. The
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 continent. 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 its Founder, 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, and different educational, charitable and apostolic initiatives had been started, such as the
University of Navarra (Spain), of which St. Josemaría was the first Grand Chancellor.
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 their Founder; many other people were also able to participate in these meetings. Trips
to the Eternal City became increasingly easier, especially from the 1960s. Appointed Monsignor,
Prelate of Honor of His Holiness the Pope in 1947, St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer was a Consultant
of the Pontifical Commission for the authentic interpretation of the Code of Canon Law and of the
Sacred Congregation for Seminaries and Universities, as well as an "ad honorem" Academician of the
Roman Pontifical Academy of Theology.
THE YEARS OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
In 1959, the recently-elected Pope John XXIII convened an ecumenical council: the Second Vatican
Council, which began in 1962 and concluded in 1965. St. Josemaría followed with enthusiasm at the
inspiring moments and with concern at the moments of tension (which were not lacking), the Council's
sessions, and took great interest when the different documents approved were later put into practice,
attending to processes of renovation and change.
The expansion of Opus Dei drew attention to its Founder not only from Christian spheres, but also
from society as a whole, and from the media. From 1966 onwards, journalists from France, the United
States, Spain, and Italy met and interviewed St. Josemaría. In all cases these were ample interviews,
in which the Founder of Opus Dei answered questions thoroughly. In 1968, all these interviews and a
homily delivered in 1967 were published as Conversations with Msgr. Escrivá de Balaguer. During
these years, St. Josemaría considered it opportune to select, revise, and publish some of the
meditations and homilies he had delivered: this was the origin of two new books: Christ is Passing By,
which appeared in 1973, and Friends of God, published posthumously in 1977. Other works also
published after St. Josemaría's death include: The Way of the Cross (1981), Furrow (1986) and The
Forge (1987).
Source: St. Josemaria Escriva Historical Institute (www.isje.org) 5 CATECHETICAL TRIPS TO DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
Profoundly united with Pope John XXIII and Paul VI, and with his aspiration that the recently
celebrated Council should contribute to proclaiming the vitality and richness of the word of God, St.
Josemaría, who throughout his life had conceived of his activity as a great catechism, engaged in
intense catechetical activity, not only receiving numerous visits in Rome, but also traveling 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 God, Christ, the Virgin Mary and the
Church that filled his own heart. All this meant a considerable effort on his part –St. Josemaría bore
the physical marks of a long life, full of hard work– but he did not hesitate in offering all his energy,
and his own life if necessary, for the Church and for souls.
DEATH. CANONIZATION
On June 26, 1975 the Founder of Opus Dei gave up his soul to God in a saintly way, dying after
suddenly collapsing on entering the room where he usually worked, after making a visit to the Roman
College of Holy Mary. He passed away with the same simplicity that had characterized his life. The
fame of the heroic virtues of the Founder of Opus Dei 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. Josemaría Escrivá. But what is more important is the echo reached by the preaching of
the universal call to sanctity in all spheres and in all latitudes, to which the Founder of Opus Dei
dedicated his whole life. Source: St. Josemaria Escriva Historical Institute (www.isje.org) 6