28-3-1939 St. Josemaria returns to Madrid after the end of the Spanish civil war. As he was wearing his cassock, people rushed to him to kiss his hands, and he would take the crucifix out of his pocket so people would kiss that instead.
Given that the house at #16 Ferraz st. was in ruins, he went to stay at the rectory house at St Isabel's Foundation, and his mother and siblings moved in there a few days later (he hadn’t seen her in 18 months).
St. Josemaria was very moved when he saw that his mother, risking her life, had kept all the documents of the archives of the Work. During the Spanish civil war, she hid them inside her mattress and during searches she would lie down saying she was sick. There was a time that it had more papers than wool, and it would have been very uncomfortable. Many material things were lost - furniture, jewels intended for sacred vessels... but the documents were saved by doña Dolores and his sister Carmen - they would have risked a lot to keep them.
No comments:
Post a Comment