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Historical Notes
Why did Father Josemaria go into hiding?
The right-wing military coup against the Republican Government of Spain was countered by a leftist revolution in the part of the country under the control of the Popular Front. This revolution was characterized by violent anticlericalism among other things, and the revolutionaries destroyed churches and other religious buildings and objects, and persecuted Catholics and especially Catholic priests.
Many Catholics were murdered for the mere fact of being Catholic.
Thousands of priests were executed because of their priesthood. It has been calculated that about 35% of the priests then in Madrid were killed. The violence of the priest-hunters meant that priests were compelled to disguise themselves in order to survive. Those who were not thrown into prison or murdered on the spot took refuge in all kinds of different hiding-places.
At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War Father Josemaria was in Madrid, preparing to start Opus Dei’s apostolate in Valencia and Paris, and was also very busy setting up and furnishing a new building to function as the students’ residence, which was being moved from No. 50 Ferraz Street to No. 16 in the same street. He was there when the rebellion broke out, swiftly followed by an armed assault on the Montana barracks which were close by. He had to stay there for the next two days, since for a priest to walk in the streets of Madrid at that stage was to sign his own death-sentence.
On July 21 he was finally able to escape and take refuge in his mother’s house.
On August 8 he had to leave his mother’s house because it was too risky. For the next two months he went from one place to another, never able to stay in one place for very long for fear of being reported or of endangering the people who took him in. Finally, on October 7, 1936, he found a relatively secure refuge – in a lunatic asylum run by a friend of his, Dr Suils. He was able to stay there, posing as one of the patients, for about five and a half months.
Dr Suils had been at school with Josemaria Escriva, and after qualifying he set up a psychiatric hospital in Madrid. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, the ruling socialist trade union constituted a society to take ownership of the hospital, and appointed its former owner, Dr Suils, as director. As a legally constituted society, the hospital offered a certain degree of security against arbitrary searches by militiamen. Even so, some of the people living there were arrested or shot.
On March 14, 1937, Father Josemaria moved to the Honduran Consulate, which was offering shelter to a large number of refugees. He stayed there until the end of August, when he was able to obtain some documents which would offer him protection if he was asked for his papers by street patrols, a frequent occurrence. He spent September visiting the other members of Opus Dei who were still in Madrid, to offer them all the spiritual help and fatherly affection he could. On October 7 he finally left Madrid to travel to Barcelona via Valencia.
Many Catholics were murdered for the mere fact of being Catholic.
Fr Josemaria hid in one of the buildings on Sagasta St (shown as it is today) from August 9 to 30, 1936.
At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War Father Josemaria was in Madrid, preparing to start Opus Dei’s apostolate in Valencia and Paris, and was also very busy setting up and furnishing a new building to function as the students’ residence, which was being moved from No. 50 Ferraz Street to No. 16 in the same street. He was there when the rebellion broke out, swiftly followed by an armed assault on the Montana barracks which were close by. He had to stay there for the next two days, since for a priest to walk in the streets of Madrid at that stage was to sign his own death-sentence.
On July 21 he was finally able to escape and take refuge in his mother’s house.
On August 8 he had to leave his mother’s house because it was too risky. For the next two months he went from one place to another, never able to stay in one place for very long for fear of being reported or of endangering the people who took him in. Finally, on October 7, 1936, he found a relatively secure refuge – in a lunatic asylum run by a friend of his, Dr Suils. He was able to stay there, posing as one of the patients, for about five and a half months.
Dr Suils had been at school with Josemaria Escriva, and after qualifying he set up a psychiatric hospital in Madrid. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, the ruling socialist trade union constituted a society to take ownership of the hospital, and appointed its former owner, Dr Suils, as director. As a legally constituted society, the hospital offered a certain degree of security against arbitrary searches by militiamen. Even so, some of the people living there were arrested or shot.
On March 14, 1937, Father Josemaria moved to the Honduran Consulate, which was offering shelter to a large number of refugees. He stayed there until the end of August, when he was able to obtain some documents which would offer him protection if he was asked for his papers by street patrols, a frequent occurrence. He spent September visiting the other members of Opus Dei who were still in Madrid, to offer them all the spiritual help and fatherly affection he could. On October 7 he finally left Madrid to travel to Barcelona via Valencia.
Documentation
List of Contents
- Is it true that another priest was killed by mistake for Father Josemaria Escriva?
- Why did Father Josemaria go into hiding?
- How did Father Josemaria exercise his priesthood during the Spanish Civil War?
- How and why did Father Josemaria decide to escape across the Pyrenees Mountains?
- Why Burgos?
- Which side were Opus Dei members on in the Spanish Civil War?
- What did Father Josemaria think of Franco and his activities during the Spanish Civil War?
- What contact did Father Josemaria have with the Franco regime?
- What did Father Josemaria say about the reprisals carried out by Franco’s followers during the Spanish Civil War?
- What did Father Josemaria think of Hitler and the Nazis?
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