Blessed Alvaro - Dies Natalis

March 23rd, 1994 

Death of Bl. Alvaro in Rome, at 4am. 

At 3:10am bl. Alvaro, who had just arrived from the Holy Land, called don Javier (Echevarria): He had trouble breathing and felt his heart racing. Don Javier told him that it could be serious and that he could die, and don Alvaro answered “It's nothing my son, I’m in God’s hands...”. Don Joaquin (Alonso) and don Fernando (Ocariz) arrived. Don Joaquin arranged for the last rites to be administered. Don Javier went and told the administration so they would start praying. Don Alvaro was conscious when don Javier administered the last rites, around 3:30. At 3:40 he was unconscious. Don Javier, don Joaquin and don Fernando were on their knees praying. The doctor was doing everything he could, but the vital signs were getting weaker. Finally, the only sign was of the pacemaker he had implanted the previous year. At 4am the doctor confirmed to don Javier that bl. Alvaro had died. On Tuesday, March 22nd, he had celebrated his last Mass in the Church of the Cenacle in Jerusalem. 

Don Javier waited until 6am to communicate it to Msgr. Stanislaw, the Pope’s secretary, so he would inform the holy father before the Mass. Don Alvaro’s body was transferred to the Church of the Prelature on the same board used for St. Josemaria on the 26th of June 1975.

The Pope arrived at 6:15 (Villa Tevere) to pray and remained kneeling for about 10 minutes. When upon saying goodbye don Javier thanked him for having come to pray, the Pope answered that he thought of it as a duty: “Si doveva, si doveva” ("but I had to, I had to").

In the homily that don Javier pronounced in the funeral celebrated at the basilica of St. Eugenio the next day, he said (among other things): “...has been a man whom the Lord enriched with first-class human and supernatural gifts”. Despite his great intellectual and moral attributes, he never wanted to shine with light of his own”.

In a get-together (11-3-1956), St. Josemaria commented: He is the first general procurator, the first general secretary, the first priest that came to Italy, the first Counsellor in the Italian region, the first rector of the Roman College of the Holy Cross...” and on another occasion he wrote (11-5-1962): If among you, there are many sons of mine who are altar saints - and I never overuse these terms - Alvaro is a model, and the son of mine that has worked the most and suffered the most for the work, and the one who has been able to get the spirit the best”. “If I only told you the difficulties of the first years! It was an avalanche: lack of understanding, slander, persecution...".

Bl Alvaro was beatified in Madrid on September 27, 2014. His legacy, impossible to summarise here, can be read here. A brief biography can be read here.

Beatification of Don Alvaro - View of the crowds from the altar towards the city of Madrid