SJ_Titulo_SanJosemaria

Saint Josemaría Escrivá

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CEDEJ_SanJosemaria_Intro

Saint Josemaría was born in Barbastro (Huesca). He began his priestly programs of studyin Logroño. He was ordained in Zaragoza. He moved to Madrid to study law at doctorate. From 2 October 1928 he began to spread the message of Opus Dei in that Spanish city.

St Josemaría spent the first months of the Civil War in Republican Madrid. He managed to move to the other war zone at the end of 1937. He lived in Burgos until the end of the war in March 1939. From then on, he promoted the developmentand the expansion of Opus Dei in Madrid and other Spanish cities.

Saint Josemaría travelled to Rome to obtain juridical approval for Opus Dei. In Rome he established his permanent residency program, from 1949, in the central headquarters of Opus Dei called Villa Tevere. There, together with him, several thousands of Opus Dei members were formed and spread Opus Dei internationally. After the Second Vatican Council he travelled around Spain and Portugal and several Latin American countries spreading the message of the universal call to holiness.

A good summaryof St. Josemaría's message was his constant invitation that "the interior life, that is, the life of relationship with God, and the family, professional and social life, made up of small earthly realities" should not be separated, but should constitute a single "holy and God-filled" existence. This is what John Paul II recalled on October 6, 2002, during the Mass for the canonization of the founder of Opus Dei. St Josemaría's personality, his message and his priestly activity were inseparably united in him.