Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer was born on January 9, 1902 in Barbastro, Huesca. His parents' names were José and Dolores. They instilled in him and his five brothers and sisters the Christian customs from a very early age. Confession, daily communion, the importance of prayer and charity.
Later, the death of three younger sisters and the family's economic bankruptcy soon made him aware of mourning and grief. This experience made him mature and tempered his expansive and cheerful character. In 1915 the family moved to Logroño, where his father started a new job.
One winter, when there was a heavy snowfall in that city, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, after seeing some of the footprints of bare feet in the snow of a Carmelite religiousHe sensed that God wanted something from him, although he did not know exactly what it was. Then, he asks himself: "If others make so many sacrifices for God and for their neighbor, will I not be able to offer him something?" Thus, a divine restlessness arises in his soul: "I began to sense Love, to realize that my heart was asking me for something great and that it was love". He thinks he will be able to discover it more easily if he becomes a priestHe began to prepare himself first in Logroño and later in the seminary of Zaragoza.
At the University of Saragossa he also studied law, following his father's advice. José Escrivá died in 1924, and Josemaría was left as head of the family. He was ordained to the priesthood on March 28, 1925, and began to minister first in a rural parish and then in Saragossa.
Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer moved to Madrid in 1927 to obtain the doctorate in Law and exercise the pastoral ministry He was in daily contact with sickness and poverty in hospitals and in the poor neighborhoods of Madrid. On October 2, 1928, God made him see what He expected of him, and founded Opus Dei. From that day on, he has been working with all his strength in the development of the foundation that God has entrusted to him.
When the civil war broke out in 1936, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer was in Madrid, but he was not in the city of Madrid. religious persecution forces him to take refuge in different places. Exercises its clandestine priestly ministryuntil he managed to leave Madrid. After a journey through the Pyrenees to the south of France, he moved to Burgos.
He returned to Madrid in 1939 at the end of the war and finished his doctoral studies in law. In the following years, Josemaría Escrivá continued the mission of Opus Dei and directed numerous retreats for lay people, priests and religious.
In 1946 he moved to Rome for good. There, he obtained the Doctorate in Theology from the Lateran University. He is appointed consultor to two Vatican congregations, honorary member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology and honorary prelate of His Holiness. He is very close to the pope during the preparations and the sessions of the Vatican Council II.
To consolidate the apostolic mission of Opus Dei, he travels from Rome to different countries in Europe and Latin America. He also holds catechetical meetings with large groups of men and women.
On June 26, 1975 Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer died in Rome. Many bishops and lay people from different countries are asking the Holy See to open his cause of canonization.
On May 17, 1992, John Paul II beatified Josemaría Escrivá. He proclaimed him a saint, ten years later, on October 6, 2002The Pope's funeral was held in St. Peter's Square, in Rome, before a large crowd. His remains are in the Church of St. Mary of Peace in Rome, where thousands of faithful come to pray and ask for his intercession.
The importance of St. Josemaría Escrivá's message, his grace and his contributions to the Catholic Church are unquestionable. Of course, Opus Dei, and all that it has meant for the Church in the last century, remains in force.
But the transcendence of his message goes beyond the important work that Opus Dei carries out in the world.
St. Josemaría Escrivá, guided by the Holy Spirit, fought for the courageous message that all Christians, without exception, are called to holiness and to the greatest intimacy with Christ. And that they can attain it through daily prayer and contemplation, in the midst of their daily labors.
God is found everywhere: at work, in marriage, in the family, in society, in politics, in business, in study, among friends, etc. And in each and every one of these places and moments we have to be faithful witnesses of his love for others. St. Josemaría Escrivá invites us to discover in the little things of this world what is holy, good and divine.
To achieve this we have our work, willed by God for man, and which therefore collaborates in the redemption and sanctification of the human creature, as part of God's salvific plan. The salvation of man and the salvation of the world go hand in hand. The sanctification of the world, through work, is intertwined with the sanctification of the person.
The daily practice of this message, life in perpetual prayer, in every minute and every hour of study, of work, of apostolate in daily life, is a message that has exalted the faith and brought hundreds of thousands of souls closer to God, in a charism that God has given to his Church, and which has had its greatest exponent in St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer.
St. Josemaría Escrivá remains today a model and point of reference for all of us who wish to sanctify ourselves in our daily lives, and to bring to every corner of the world and to every aspect of society the best that we have.
"Following in his footsteps spread in society, without distinction of race, class, culture or age, the awareness that we are all called to holiness." St. John Paul II
Christians have always turned to the intercession of the saints to bring their prayers into God's presence. And with St. Josemaría it couldn't be any other way. Here is the prayer to ask our Lord for his intercession.
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