Josemaría Escrivá
Spanish priest, writer and Catholic saint
Feast: 26 June (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Josemaría Escrivá was born in Barbastro, Spain, on 9 January 1902 and ordained a priest in Zaragoza on 28 March 1925.
On 2 October 1928 he saw what would become Opus Dei: a path for ordinary Catholics to become holy through their everyday work. He spent the rest of his life building it up, and died in Rome on 26 June 1975, aged 73.
The miracles
Sister Concepción Boullón Rubio — Spain — June 1976
A religious sister had been left an invalid by a painful tumorous lipomatosis, a rare disease that spread in many places through her body. Her family prayed for Escrivá's intercession, and she was cured overnight. The Vatican's board of physicians unanimously accepted the cure on 6 July 1991.
Dr Manuel Nevado Rey — Spain — November 1992
An orthopaedic surgeon had exposed his hands to X-rays in the operating theatre for nearly fifteen years, and developed chronic radiation damage that turned cancerous and reached its third, irreversible stage, leaving him unable to operate. In November 1992 he began praying for Blessed Josemaría's intercession, and within a fortnight the lesions had gone completely. The medical consultants found the cure very rapid, complete, lasting and scientifically inexplicable.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of Sister Concepción Boullón Rubio was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle, opening the way to beatification. Beatification followed on 17 May 1992 by John Paul II. The case of Dr Manuel Nevado Rey was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 20 December 2001, opening the way to canonisation. Canonisation followed on 6 October 2002 by John Paul II.
Connected on this site
- Isidoro Zorzano Saint“Zorzano was a naturalized Argentine due to being born in Buenos Aires, though upon his relocating to Spain he met and befriended Fr Josemaría Escrivá and soon joined the latter's embryonic foundation of Opus Dei, which would later become the first personal prelature of the Catholic Church.” — Wikipedia
- John Paul II Saint“John Paul II and other Catholic leaders have endorsed Escrivá's teachings on the universal call to holiness, the role of the laity, and the sanctifying effect of ordinary work.” — Wikipedia
- Montserrat Grases Saint“Grases further continued her studies despite her bone cancer and she continued to demonstrate a cheerful demeanor centered on offering her suffering for Opus Dei's founder Josemaría Escrivá and for Pius XII and John XXIII, who both reigned during her illness.” — Wikipedia
- Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri Blessed“She was one of the first women to join Opus Dei, after meeting the founder Josemaría Escrivá in 1944.” — Wikipedia
- Álvaro del Portillo Blessed“A civil engineer, he joined Opus Dei in 1935, became the closest collaborator of its founder, St Josemaría Escrivá, and was ordained a priest on 25 June 1944.” — this site's research
- Dora del Hoyo Servant of God“From 1946 until her death, she lived in Rome, Italy where she collaborated first with Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, Opus Dei's founder, and later on with his successors Álvaro del Portillo and Bishop Javier Echevarría, in the domestic management of the first Opus Dei center there, later the movement's headquarters.” — Wikipedia
- Holy See - the miracle approved for the canonisation of Josemaría Escrivá
- Opus Dei - the process of canonisation
- Wikipedia - Josemaría Escrivá (life and the 1976 cure)
- Wikidata Q186807 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Josemaría Escrivá (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.