{"id":216692,"date":"2025-06-23T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.fundacioncarf.org\/?p=216692"},"modified":"2026-03-19T18:02:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T17:02:52","slug":"san-josemaria-escriva-fiesta-liturgica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fundacioncarf.org\/en\/san-josemaria-escriva-fiesta-liturgica\/","title":{"rendered":"26J saint Josemar\u00eda: the saint of ordinary life"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Josemar\u00eda was born on January 9, 1902 in Barbastro (Huesca), into a deeply Christian family. He was the second of six children. His father, Jos\u00e9, was a merchant; his mother, Dolores, was a pious woman who passed on to her children a living and simple faith. When Josemar\u00eda was thirteen years old, the family moved to Logro\u00f1o due to the bankruptcy of the family business. This change of city would mark a key moment in his spiritual life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One winter day, during a snowfall, he saw in the street the footprints in the snow left by a barefoot Carmelite. This made a deep impression on him: he perceived that God wanted something from him. Years later, he would remember that moment as the beginning of an interior intuition, of a diffuse call, a spiritual restlessness that grew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he did not know exactly what the Lord was asking of him, he decided to become a priest as a way of being more available to fulfill the divine will. He entered the seminary in Zaragoza<\/a>, where he began his ecclesiastical studies, which he later combined with law studies. He was ordained a priest on March 28, 1925.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a brief period as curate in a rural parish in Perdiguera, he moved to Madrid to continue his academic formation. There he worked as a chaplain and ministered to the sick, students and people in need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dibujo
Representation of St. Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1 and some key elements of his life and message.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was in this urban environment, in contact with people from all walks of life, that his life took a definitive turn. On October 2, 1928, during a spiritual retreat, he received with inner clarity the mission that God entrusted to him: to found Opus Dei. <\/strong>He understood that he had to open a path within the Church to help discover that all men and women, regardless of their status, profession or social condition, are called to seek holiness in their ordinary lives through each other's work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who was St. Josemar\u00eda and why is it celebrated on June 26?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The initial inspiration showed him that any honest task - from an operating room to an office, a kitchen, a factory, the countryside or a classroom - could be a place of encounter with God. It was not a matter of doing extraordinary things, but of doing the ordinary with love, with perfection, with a Christian sense. Work, lived with this attitude, became a means of personal sanctification and service to others. This vision broke the mold at a time when holiness was associated almost exclusively with religious or priestly life. Josemar\u00eda insisted time and again to everyone that God does not call only some, but all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early years, Opus Dei began in a very humble way: just a handful of young people in Madrid who listened to that priest speak to them about a Christian life that was coherent, joyful, demanding and committed to the world. In 1930, he also understood that this call was for women, and in 1943 he founded the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, as part of the structure of Opus Dei. diocesan priests<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expansion was slow at first, marked by the social and political difficulties of the Spain of the time. During the Civil War, the founder had to go into hiding because he was a priest. At the end of the conflict, he resumed his work with renewed impetus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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