Document

A real passion for making Jesus Christ known

St Josemaria recalled that God’s children have to have a “priestly soul”, meaning we have to try and grow our friendship with Jesus Christ and follow his example. We have, he said, to aim to bring other people to God, and turn the whole of [...]
Tags: Apostolate, Madrid, Priesthood, Priestly soul, Pictures and statues of St Josemaria Escriva

Document

God is my Father!

This tour of some streets in Madrid highlights some events in St Josemaria’s life. A notable aspect was his experience of divine sonship – the fact of having God for his Father – expressed in trust in God’s providence, simplicity in talking to God, a [...]
Tags: Abandonment to God, Divine sonship, Madrid, sick

Document

Opus Dei’s First Steps in Madrid

On finishing the spiritual retreat during which he had received the light to found Opus Dei, St Josemaria returned to his many activities in Madrid. At the same time, he started to look for people with whom he could begin the new apostolate that God [...]
Tags: Founding of Opus Dei, History, Madrid

Document

St Josemaria Escriva in Madrid: the founding of Opus Dei

Fr Josemaria Escriva moved to Madrid in April 1927. He once said, “It was in Madrid that I received my mission, and for that and other reasons I feel that I have full right to call myself ‘a person of Madrid’.” Download this article and a [...]
Tags: Founding of Opus Dei, Madrid

Document

1936-1937: First Stages of the Spanish Civil War. Situation of Opus Dei

- Military Uprising - International Aspects of the Civil War - Revolution and Anticlerical Violence in Republican Spain - The Early Weeks of the Civil War - The Giral Government and the Revolution - The Military Struggle for Madrid - On the Run - The Military Revolt Becomes the “National Movement” - Franco [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Spanish Civil War, Madrid, Franco, The DYA academy, Isidoro Zorzano, Juan Jimenez Vargas, The Honduran Legation, Opus Dei members, first members, Spanish history

Document

The riches of the Faith

An article by St Josemaria Escriva published in ABC, a Madrid daily, on November 2, 1969. In this article the Opus Dei founder spoke of love for freedom as one of the treasures of the Christian faith. [...]
Tags: Freedom, Madrid

Document

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 [...]
Tags: Spanish Civil War, History, Freedom, Madrid, Opus Dei, Josemaria Escriva

Document

Is it true that another priest was killed by mistake for Father Josemaria Escriva?

Hard facts about this episode are difficult to find. In August 1936, the month after the Spanish Civil War started, some women told Dolores Escriva, Father Josemaria’s mother, that someone looking very like him had been hanged in a street in Madrid. Father Josemaria heard [...]
Tags: Spanish Civil War, History, Madrid, Opus Dei, Priesthood

Document

1936-1937: First stages of the civil war. Situation of Opus Dei

- Military Uprising - International Aspects of the Civil War - Revolution and Anticlerical Violence in Republican Spain - The Early Weeks of the Civil War - The Giral Government and the Revolution - The Military Struggle for Madrid - On the Run - The Military Revolt Becomes the “National Movement” - Franco [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Spanish Civil War, Madrid, Franco, The DYA academy, Isidoro Zorzano, Juan Jimenez Vargas, The Honduran Legation, Opus Dei members, first members, Spanish history

Document

1928-1930: The birth of Opus Dei: social, economic and political background in Spain

Father Josemaria Escriva, born in Barbastro, north-east Spain, in 1902, was ordained a priest in Saragossa in 1925. In mid-April 1927 he moved to the capital, Madrid, to study for a doctorate in law while working as assistant priest at the church of St Michael. [...]
Tags: Founding of Opus Dei, Spanish Civil War, History, Madrid, Isidoro Zorzano, Opus Dei name, Opus Dei's foundational charisma