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”.
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”.
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