Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer

Feast day: June 26

* January 9, 1902, Barbastro, Spain

† June 26, 1975, Rome

Origin of the name Josemaría: compound of José (Joseph) and María (Mary)

Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer was born on January 9, 1902, in Barbastro, Spain. His parents were José and Dolores. He had five siblings, three of whom died at an early age. His parents gave their children a deep Christian upbringing. His father worked in a textile shop, but in 1915 the business went bankrupt and the family moved to Logroño, where his father found another job. It was in this city, at the age of sixteen, that Josemaría first felt God’s call. In the snow, he saw the barefoot footprints of a monk from the Order of Discalced Carmelites. At that time, he had no idea what God expected of him, but he knew one thing: he wanted to become a priest. When he was eighteen, he entered the seminary, first studying in Logroño and later at the seminary in Zaragoza. At the same time, he studied civil law as an external student at the University of Zaragoza. His father died in 1924. A year later, he was ordained a priest. He served as a priest first in a rural parish and later in Zaragoza.

1927 with the bishop’s permission, he moved to Madrid to complete his doctoral studies in law. The year 1928 is considered the beginning of Opus Dei. Josemaría began to preach the thesis that every person can become a saint. Therefore, while devoting himself to his studies and to the sick and poor, he began to give spiritual exercises to consecrated persons and lay people. During the civil war in Spain in 1936, he had to go into hiding and eventually fled Madrid to southern France, where he remained until the end of the war. 1939 he returned to Madrid, completed his studies, and led countless spiritual exercises. In 1946, he moved to Rome, where he studied at the Lateran. He participated in the Second Vatican Council and closely followed its proceedings. He became a consultant to two Vatican congregations. During his stay, he made several trips to various countries in Europe and overseas. The work he founded gradually spread and gained more and more recognition throughout the world. Josemaría died on June 26, 1975, in Rome. He was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2002.