Bl. Alvaro celebrates Mass in Rome for the first time

February 28th, 1946 Bl. Alvaro, who has just arrived to initiate the negotiations of approval of the Work, celebrates his first Mass in Rome in the Church of San Giacomo degli Spagnoli, located in the Piazza Navona.

Birth of Santiago Escriva

February 28th, 1919 Birth of Santiago Escriva. St. Josemaria had asked God that his parents would have another son, as he had told them that he wanted to be a priest. When their mother gave the news to him and aunt Carmen, that she was pregnant, st. Josemaría was certain that he would be a male, and was very joyful: “with that I touched with my hands God’s grace; I saw a manifestation of Our Lord. I wasn't expecting it”.

St. Josemaria with his brother in Logroño

Bl. Alvaro's trip to Rome

February 27th, 1946    Bl. Alvaro arrives in Rome, together with don Jose, sent by St. Josemaria to negotiate the pontifical approval of the Work. 

For many months, Bl. Alvaro, D. José and D. Salvador Canals, were living at Corso del Rinascimento  #49. As soon as the day after they arrived bl. Alvaro dedicated his time to get reference letters from some of the cardinals recently appointed on the consistory of Feb. 18th, 1946 as he carried with him letters only from bishops from Spain. Many of them were already about to go back to their country of origin which made the task more difficult. There was, also, another problem: the Work was not yet known by some of the people to whom bl. Alvaro - a 32 years-old priest - without knowing them was asking them reference letters for the approval of the Work. Bl. Alvaro didn’t speak the language of many of them so he had to explain and understand in latin. None of these difficulties - commented D. Jose Orlandis - would stop bl. Alvaro, and when he would ask him whether he felt intimidated at all at having to speak with the cardinals, bl. Alvaro answered that he would always think: in nomine autem tuo laxabo rete...

Vatican Radio announces the Decretum Laudis

February 25th, 1947    St. Josemaria is living in the apartment on Città Leonina. The Vatican Radio gives the news of the Decretum Laudis. 

St. Josemaria wants to hear the news with his daughters. With him are the first ones that went to Rome to help with the administration of the house on Città Leonina. The radio speaker starts pouring out praises and compliments to St. Josemaria. St. Josemaria keeps silent and appears to not be listening.

Arrival of bl. Alvaro in Rome

February 25,1942     Bl. Alvaro arrives in Rome for the first time, sent by St. Josemaria.

Decretum Laudis

February 24th, 1947    Decretum Laudis from the Holy See by which Opus Dei became a Secular Institute of Pontifical Right.

Meeting with the first priests

February 22nd, 1932    St. Josemaria meets for the first time with a group of priests to whom he explains the Work and they decide to help him. He writes in his ‘Catalinas’: “Last Monday we met for the first time with five priests. We will continue to meet: on a weekly basis, to get acquainted. To all of them I gave one out of five meditations on our vocation”. 

St. Josemaria used to call these meetings ‘Monday conferences’. Bl. Alvaro said on the 7/7/76 in a get together: “When our father saw what God wanted from him, he immediately put his means: prayer, mortification, and started to look for young people. As he was a very young priest, he also tried to meet priests that could help him - looking after confessions for the vocations that were appearing - and even to receive a vocation to Opus Dei. He got to gather some eight or ten. One of them had a bit of a difficult character (...), because he always wanted to be lecturing, which our father would receive with humility, although afterwards, naturally, as a founder he knew well what he was meant to do. He would invite that priest every Wednesday, so that he would spend the day at home, and he would treat the priest as if he was St. Joseph. We didn’t have any money, but him we would pick up in a car: he would eat at home, he would spend hours giving advice, and after he would be sent back home in a taxi (...). To us laypeople, back then quite young, was very hard to get along with him. Those priests wanted to make some sort of commitment of obedience to the father, but except for some marvellous exception, they immediately started to disobey. They wanted, deep inside, to leave our father on the side, and to take care of everything themselves: one of the financial issues, another the intellectual formation; another the spiritual direction… our father, as far as he could, bore that with a lot of cheerfulness, but the moment came when he saw clearly that he had to do without them, and distanced himself from them, with a lot of tact, with charity, so much so that they were all left quite happy”.

Decree of introduction of the process of beatification of St. Josemaria

February 19th, 1981

Decree of introduction of the process of beatification of St. Josemaria, signed by Hugo Cardinal Poletti. Blessed Alvaro, spoke in different occasions some details of what was needed to reach this decree: “As soon as St. Josemaria passed away, thousands of people started writing letters asking the Roman Pontiff for the introduction of the process of beatification of our father. These were signed by Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops, priests and secular people, religious, from all over the world, convinced of the heroic sanctity of our father. We went collecting those letters with a lot of affection, to deliver them to the Holy See at the right time. Given that the usual practice is not to present them prior to the five years after the death of the Servant of God -although I was told that it could be done earlier- we wanted to wait until the start of the fifth year”.

Once the cause was approved by the Pope, the Cardinal Vicar of Rome must sign the decree of introduction of the cause: “One or two days ago, -bl. Alvaro mentioned on the 19/2/81- the postulator went to the Vicariate so the issue doesn’t get delayed. As there were some bureaucratic difficulties, he went to talk to Hugo Cardinal Poletti, and said: I would like it to be ready for the 19th, the name day of the father (19th: memorial of Blessed Alvaro of Cordoba), so that I can give him a nice surprise… The Cardinal Vicar made an agreement with don Flavio, and has signed the decree with today’s date. The law states that the process happens where the Servant of God died. But given that many of our father’s childhood and youth witnesses, until he came to Rome, remain in Madrid, I have asked the Holy See that part of the process happens in Madrid. In total, the scholastic judges will have to interview some sixty witnesses in Madrid and around twenty in Rome: people from both sections of the Work and people foreign to Opus Dei”. Then he said “It’s a tradition that, in these cases, the event to be celebrated: usually there is a solemn Mass where many people are invited, it is communicated to the press, a feast is thrown… we won’t do it. We’ll work that way for two reasons: First because our father always said that the glory of Opus Dei is to have no human glory. And second, because the devil - that finds out everything immediately - must be furious, and it’s best not to facilitate his action”.

The first priests arrive in the USA

February 17th, 1949    Father José Luis Muzquiz and Father Salvador Martínez Ferigle arrive in New York, late in the evening, by plane (“The Star of Michigan”). There awaits José María Albareda, who had been living in USA for a couple of years already.  St. Josemaría told them when giving them the farewell blessing, right there at the airport (he was on his way to Rome): “You will find hard soil, with thorns and thistle. And you will have to put your whole soul in your work, the same way that the plough goes in the soil”. He gave them an image of our Lady which, during the civil war, had been in Burgos (currently it is in the house of the delegation of Chicago). The next day Father José Luis Múzquiz celebrated in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Then they went to Boston for two days and then to Chicago, where they settled.

“Love means deeds, not sweet words.”

February 16th, 1932    

St. Josemaría, while giving Communion to some nuns in the Church of St. Isabel in Madrid, through the cloister grille, repeats each time one of them comes close to receive Communion: “Lord, I love you more than this one”. St. Josemaría hears clearly the answer from our Lord: “Love means deeds, not sweet words.” He wrote in his personal annotations: “Today, after giving Holy Communion to the nuns, before Holy Mass, I told Jesus what I so often tell him, day and night: I love you more than these”. And immediately I understood, without the need for words: ‘Love is deeds, not sweet words and excuses.’ I saw clearly at that moment how little generosity I have, and suddenly recalled many unnoticed details I hadn’t been paying attention to, which brought home to me with crystal clarity my lack of generosity. O Jesus, help me, so that your donkey will be fully generous. Deeds, deeds!"

Concerning this intellectual locution from our Lord, Blessed Alvaro del Portillo said that "our Father was very moved by it" not because he was getting lax in his prayer life, but because "the Lord was asking more from him and, with this locution, giving him light by which he was catching on to ‘many unexpected details’ " (Apuntes, no.6061 note 496).

In a get-together, (23-XI-1966) st. Josemaría said: "That poor priest was frozen, and from then on he understood the essential importance of the unity of life: that in every moment, our behavior should be shaped to the doctrine of Christ”.

His divine locution gave rise to n. 933 in The Way: "There is a story of a soul who, on saying to our Lord in prayer, ‘Jesus, I love you,’ heard this reply from heaven: ‘Love means deeds, not sweet words.’ "Think if you also could deserve this gentle reproach".

Priestly Society of the Holy Cross

February 14th,1943

Establishment of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross in the women’s centre on Jorge Manrique street in Madrid. St. Josemaría had seen since a long time before, the need for the priests that looked after the apostolic endeavours of the Work to come from the same members of the Work: “In the first years of the work I accepted the collaboration of a few priests, who showed their interest in linking to Opus Dei in some way. Soon our Lord made me see with all clarity that it wasn’t them who were called to fulfil the mission that I’ve told you previously (that of formation of the vocations)”. 
Bl. Alvaro said: “Even though not all of them -our father said it- some were like his crown of thorns, as they wanted to make a commitment of obedience and, as soon as making it, even though they had good intentions, in reality they started to disobey and want to leave the father aside and rule themselves”. St. Josemaría: “We needed priests that knew well our peculiar asceticism and the apostolic way of working, which are very particular of us (...). Those priests could come only from the ranks of the lay members of the Work”. 
From then on, st. Josemaría would look for a juridical formula that would allow him to incardinate priests in Opus Dei, a title of ordination that would allow those priests in the Work to dedicate the exercise of their ministry completely to Opus Dei, in service of the apostolates. St. Josemaría, no matter how much he went over the issue and would consult with different people, couldn’t find the solution: “I remember my conversations with Alvaro, my going round and round canon law, my conversations with the good bishop of Madrid don Leopoldo… and nothing”. 
"On February 14th, 1943 -st. Josemaría would recount- I started Mass looking for a juridical solution to be able to incardinate the priests in the Work. for a long time I had been trying to find it, with no result. And that day, intra Missam, after Communion, the Lord wanted to give it to me: the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. He even gave me the seal: the sphere of the world with the cross embedded”. When Mass ended, the father went into a small room and asked for pen and paper. After a few minutes, -tells one of the women who was in that Mass of our father- he came back into the foyer, clearly excited: “Look -he told us pointing at a card in which he had drawn a circumference and a cross of special proportions inside- This will be the seal of the Work. Seal, not coat of arms: Opus Dei doesn’t have coats of arms. It means the world, and encrusted inside the world, the Cross”.

Then, St. Josemaría once said: “When Mass finished, I took a piece of paper and made a drawing that I gave the next day to don Alvaro. I entrusted Pedro Casciaro to make a final drawing, but I didn’t like what he did: it wasn’t that. Then don Ricardo Fernández Vallespín, and we agreed that the long arm of the cross had a fifth on the superior part and four fifths in the lower part. That was the external manifestation that the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross had come, of which I had no idea”. 

The next day, February 15th, st. Josemaría went to see bl. Alvaro to El Escorial, where he was with don Jose María and don José Luis studying for the theology exams, he told him all that had happened and said: “After this light from God I will prepare all papers. The bishop of Madrid will make the recommendation, and straight after you will go to Rome to present it to the Roman Curia, doesn’t matter who you talk to”. At the end of May 1943 bl. Alvaro was in Rome to request the nihil obstat from the Holy See for the establishment of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, which was granted on October 11th, 1943. The canonical establishment of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross took place on December 8th, 1943 by don Leopoldo Eijo y Garay, Bishop of Madrid. On June 25th, 1944, don Leopoldo himself would ordain the first three priests of Opus Dei.

Women's section

February 14th, 1930

Establishment -during the Mass- of the women’s section of the Work, in Madrid. “I had written: there will never be women -nor even as a joke- in Opus Dei” (...) “Not long after: on February 14th, 1930, I was celebrating Mass in the little chapel of the old marchioness of Onteiro, Luz Casanova’s mother, whom I used to give spiritual direction, while I was the chaplain of the foundation (of the sick). During the Mass, immediately after communion - the whole of the women’s section! I can’t say I saw it, but yes that, intellectually, with detail (afterwards I added other things, when developing the intellectual vision) I got what would be the Women’s section of Opus Dei. I gave thanks, and in due time I went to the confessional of F. Sánchez. He heard me and told me that this was just as much from God as everything else”. “I always thought - and still do - that our Lord, like in other times, led me by the nose so that there would be an external objective proof that the Work is His. Me: ‘I don’t want women in Opus Dei!’ God: ‘Well I do!’ ”.

Nevertheless, to start the work with women meant a lot of difficulties for St. Josemaría. Back then, he was chaplain of the “Damas Apostolicas” (Apostolic Ladies) and there were many young ladies from Madrid who used to attend there. St. Josemaría, out of respect for that apostolic work, didn’t speak to any of them about the Work as, the vocations for the Apostolic Ladies would normally come from those girls. St. Josemaría then, used his confessional to talk about the Work with some of the girls that would go to confession with him. Bl. Alvaro said in a get-together: “The first female vocation came 2 years after the 14th of Feb. 1930. One day our father came to his home very enthusiastic because finally there was a woman in Opus Dei. That was the result of his work in the confessional. given that he didn’t remember the exact time when the Lord had asked him to start the work with women, he went to check it in his ‘catalinas’. And it coincided with the date in which the first one had requested admission. It took two years, but didn’t persevere. However, our father didn’t lose courage and started over again. Then, it happened that our father had to restart this task twice; only “the third time was lucky”. It was until 1931 that our father could leave the Foundation for the sick and transfer to the Church of St. Isabel and there carry out a more widespread work with those who came to confession to that Church. There was a group with very diverse people: a teacher, a nurse, a maid, and many girls that were not yet working. They came there only to see our father, they didn’t attend any other activity. In part due to, in those years, young girls had very little freedom. They needed to give explanations to their parents about everything: where they were going, with whom, what for… and then, the Work was close to nothing. Every now and then our father would have a meeting with the group in the house of one of the older ones. Some didn’t persevere as they didn’t get a life of piety. The group of women that persevered would suffer a lot when the civil war started in 1936. they lost all contact with our father. Moreover, within the confusion of that time, they came to hear that our father hd died. some would never see him again, convinced of his passing away. Others, after the war, our father made tyhem understand that they didn’t have a vocation to the Work as, due to the years of so much distance they came to adopt behaviors more akin to religious life. In regards to the women that came to the Work, Pilar Urbano writes: “First there came ones that would chat and be always on the move, but didn’t pray. They left. Then came others that did pray, but were not that type of woman who is going to labour in civil society to put Christ on top, on the peak, of every human activity. They were very good, of a mystical piety. Our father had to tell them they weren’t useful (for the Work) either.”
Bl. Alvaro mentioned in another get-together (14-II-1976): “Our father entrusted to the eldest of the priests (of those who made the commitment to help him to provide for the Work and help form those with vocations) to give spiritual direction to his daughters, and to transmit the advice that he was giving. But the majority of those priests were the father’s crown of thorns. They wouldn’t obey. Time passed. The Spanish war came. At the end (...), the father gathered all of those daughters of his, saw that they were all very good, but they had spirituality of nuns. So he told them: -’Daughters of mine, you’re all very good, but of no use to me. The spirit of Opus Dei is a secular spirit, of work in the middle of the world; is something totally different to what you’re living. Therefore, if any of you wants to be religious, I will write a recommendation letter to the Superior; but for Opus Dei you don’t fit’. And he started once more, from scratch. And so got the female section off the ground”. Then came those of “the third batch”, in general, sisters of the first ones in the Work, who were the ones that persevered. After the war, once the Jenner residence was installed, our father met occasionally there with some of the women (in the work). Towards the end of 1940 they rented a small apartment on Castelló street, to carry out an apostolic work, while all of them continued living in their families’ homes. They installed it the way they could, but the experience was short-lived: it didn’t seem prudent that a young priest would attend regularly an apartment, where nobody lived, to give formation to a group of girls also young. For this reason, in December of the same year, they left the apartment and started to come to Lagasca. Many years after, in a get-together, (14-II1990) bl. Alvaro commented, in reference to the women’s section: "In the 30’s, it used to come to our father’s mind and lips those words from sacred scripture: Dei perfecta sunt opera. One day he thought: Why am I saying this so many times? It wasn’t logical, there was no reason why he would retain them in his memory. And a very clear light from God came to illuminate him. He understood that those words were in reference to his daughters: Opus Dei was missing the women to be a perfect work, and this could not be: God’s works are perfect”.

Plan of life

February 14th,1933 St. Josemaría gives the plan of life its final configuration: “so that we oblige to fulfill it from the day of our father and lord Saint Joseph, on this year”.

Request for approval of OD as pious union

February 14th,1941 St. Josemaría requests to the bishop of Madrid -Don Leopoldo Eijo y Garay-, the approval of the Work as a pious union.

José María González Barredo

February 11th, 1933 José María González Barredo asks to be admitted. (without having dealt with him much, st. Josemaría had asked him on 25/03/1931 to pray for an intention of his: St. Josemaría’s intention was for God to give him the vocation. Jose María didn’t know what the intention was). On March 25th, 1931, st. Josemaría had written on his annotations: “Today, 25th, feast of the Annunciation of our Lady, with my apostolic coolness (daring!), I’ve approached a young man, who receives daily Communion in my Church (at the Foundation for the sick) with such a piety and recollection, -and he had just received the good Jesus- “listen -I said, would you be so kind of asking for a spiritual intention of glory to God?” “Yes, father” -he answered- and he even thanked me! My intention was that he, so fervorous, be chosen by God to be an Apostle, in his Work. Other times now, seeing him from mi confessional (in the Church of the foundation of the sick), I’ve asked the same to his Guardian Angel”. 

They saw each other every morning, they greeted each other, but they would never get to have a conversation. Two years after making that petition, St. Josemaría would write down on today’s date: “The Lord, through the guardian angel, brought us on the day of the Immaculate of Lourdes, this young man. He is José María González Barredo. 1933". José María was already a lecturer at the Linares Institute, a town in Andalucía. Years after, he moved to USA two years prior to st. Josemaría sending there don José Luis Múzquiz to formally start the apostolic work. He lived in USA until one year before his death (he died in Pamplona in 1983).

Jenaro Lázaro

February 10th, 1933 Jenaro Lázaro asks to be admitted. St. Josemaría met him through his visits to the sick at Madrid’s General Hospital. Jenaro was a sculptor, “a good man, artist and working with the railway service” st. Josemaría wrote in his annotations. On Sundays, after the visits had finished, Jenaro would stay chatting with st. Josemaría. Those conversations left a strong memory in Jenaro: “He was a man of God, who would drag towards him those he spoke with. I’ve thought many times, later on, that the father did a true apostolate of friendship as, if you got close to him, he would become your friend for life”.

St. Josemaría, Portugal and Sr. Lucía

St. Josemaría visits the ‘Capelinha de Fátima’ for the first time. The sanctuary was still under construction. He hadn’t yet been to greet Msgr. López Ortiz (at that time bishop of Tuy) who was a good friend of his. When the bishop told him he could meet Sr. Lucía, who back then was living in that city, st. Josemaría answered he would certainly love to. That encounter had a big impact in the expansion of the Work. st. Josemaría had planned to start in France, but understood, at Sr. Lucía’s request, that Opus Dei had to go first to Portugal. It was Sr. Lucía herself who resolved the immigration issue - st. Josemaría would recall on one occasion: 

“I was in a Galician city and Sr. Lucía came to see me, one of the seers of Fátima. I was somewhat distant with her, as I knew she was a very holy person. She wasn’t bothered by that - moerover, she came back to tell me that Opus Dei had to go to Portugal. I answered that we didn’t have a passport, but she said: “I will take care of that immediately”. She called Lisbon and got a document for us to cross the border. We didn’t speak at all of Our Lady’s apparitions, never have I. Every time I see her, I remind her that she owns a big part of the beginnings of the Work in Portugal”. 

In that first encounter with Sr. Lucía, st. Josemaría, quite directly told her: “Sister Lucía, if you, who received so many graces from God, like me, who also receive so many graces from God, are not faithful, what a problem! We could not make it to heaven!” and Sr. Lucía answered “I have thought of that as well, many times”. St. Josemaría returned to Fátima twice more that year, in June and September. On February 5th, 1946 the first ones arrived in Coimbra to stay. There is where the first tabernacle was set.

The Work in Portugal

February 5th, 1946  
The first ones arrive in Coimbra, Portugal, to stay. That city had the first tabernacle.

3rd trip to the Americas

February 4th, 1975

St. Josemaría begins his third trip to the Americas. On this occasion, he visited Venezuela and Guatemala. He returned to Rome on February 25th. He was unable to attend the last get-togethers as he became ill. After a few days, the doctor (seeing that he remained phisically unwelI) suggested that he returned to Rome.