July 7th, 1935: Bl. Alvaro joins Opus Dei

The DYA/Ferraz 50 residence was finishing the first academic course. St. Josemaria writes: “I prayed for Alvaro for years. An aunt of his spoke to me about him. Sometimes she would talk to me priding herself in her nephew Alvaro, who was studying two careers. Then I started praying for Alvaro. I was disappointed when I saw he wasn’t coming that easily! Not that he resisted much either.” Don Alvaro explained, “my auntie told him that she had a very clever nephew - given that she was my Godmother, she was in her right to speak from her heart - and that he liked bananas a lot”. This must have been before 1931, the year when St. Josemaria stopped working at the Foundation of the sick, where don Alvaro’s auntie volunteered. During the term of 1933-34 don Alvaro used to go to Vallecas, a very poor and outer suburb of Madrid, to give catechesis. “One day, (on Feb. 4th, 1934) the balconies were full of people, -don Alvaro remembered- it looked as if they were getting ready to go to a football game or something like that. Actually, they had planned to give us a first-class beating to those four or five of us who were going to give the catechesis at the San Ramon parish (those were times of a strong anticlerical environment). In fact, one of us had an ear torn off, and I was hit in the head with a wrench, I was quite bad for about three months, but very happy. All of that was preparation. I still didn’t know our father”. “One day, -he continued- I saw three or four talking in a low voice. I was curious and asked them what they were talking about. They were somewhat surprised, but they told me: they were talking about our father. So I asked them to introduce me to him”.

Of that first interview, don Alvaro recalled: “He greeted me, and I saw that he was a very cheerful priest. He asked me immediately: What’s your name?, Are you Carmen del Portillo’s nephew? so, you must be that one who likes 'banananas'? (As a child he liked bananas a lot, but it seems that he couldn’t pronounce the word correctly and his aunt told that to st. Josemaria. The word in spanish is "platanos", which don Alvaro as a child used to say 'palatanos'). I was surprised, and answered him: Yes, I like them a lot. The father got his diary out and, as if he had to take care of me, asked very gently: we have to talk, slow and long. And he arranged for a meeting in four or five days. I wrote it down too. But when I got there, the father wasn’t there, he stood me up! He must have been called to look after someone dying, and he couldn’t let me know because I hadn’t given him my telephone number”.

A few months passed before don Alvaro returned to Ferraz. “When I was just about to leave Madrid for the summer, I thought I should go to say goodbye to that pleasant priest. I went, although I hadn’t seen him for more than four or five minutes. He greeted me and we spoke calmly about many things. Then he told me: Tomorrow we will have a day of recollection -it was a saturday- why don’t you stay and do it, before going on your holiday? I couldn’t say no, although I didn’t find it very appealing as I didn’t have a clue what was it about. I couldn’t say no, and the fact is that I returned the next day”.

The 7th of July was a Sunday. “In that [day of] recollection, the father gave a meditation about love for God and love for Our Lady, and I was shattered. Then the second meditation. The father had asked that I be asked in the afternoon (about joining the Work) but the one who had to didn’t understand and spoke to me in the morning... and I said yes”.

With don Alvaro started the custom of asking to join the Work in writing: “The first one to ask the admission in writing was me, on July 7th, 1935. When they told me about the Work and I decided to join, the father told me: write me a couple of lines, which I did”.

July 28th, 1935: don Jose Maria Hernandez Garnica joins Opus Dei

On this date, don Jose Maria Hernandez Garnica wrote his letter asking to join Opus Dei. Years later, on June 25th, 1944, he became one of the first three priests in the Work (with Blessed Alvaro and don Jose Luis Muzquiz). With blessed Alvaro they also shared the same school and classroom. They also made their first Holy Communion on the same day. Blessed Alvaro had joined Opus Dei a few days earlier, on the 7th of the same month.

“Chiqui” as those close to him called him, was given the job by St. Josemaria of fostering the The Work’s apostolate among women in Spain. Later on, he went to several countries in Europe to do pastoral work there: England, Ireland, France, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland. Needless to say, he learned different languages and adapted to different environments and cultures. He also endured several illnesses, especially the final one which went for over a year. God chose to take him to Himself on the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 1972, while he was praying.

For a brief biography and to hear St. Josemaria’s words about that son of his, see this video:

The diocesan Process on his life and virtues opened in Madrid on February 28, 2005 and concluded on March 17, 2009.

All the documents and testimonies gathered have now been sent to Rome.

On November 11, 2011, Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach, Archbishop of Barcelona, presided over the transfer of the servant of God’s mortal remains from the Montjuic cemetery to the church of Santa Maria de Montalegre.

July 16th, 1946: The first papal audience

St. Josemaria’s first papal audience was with Pope Pius XII. In the Città Leonina centre diary is written: At quarter to twelve received us the Holy father. “Very happy!”. The Vatican Radio echoed the audience with a long note in rather praiseful and complimentary terms, about the father’s activities and the great development of the Work. The newspapers Osservatore Romano, Qoutidiano and the whole of the Spanish press picked the news. Already by June 29th don alvaro had already given st. Josemaria an autograph of the Pope that reads: “To my beloved son Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer, founder of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, with a special blessing. Pio P.P. XII, Rome, June 28th, 1946”. St. Josemaria wrote: “I have an autograph from the Holy father (...) what a joy! I have kissed it a thousand times”.

June 16th: Our Lady of Mount Carmel - St. Josemaria was a Carmelite!

Apuntes, no.838. On September 12, 1932, Father Josemaría went to the Carmelite monastery in Madrid to request admission to the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites. "For two purposes (besides love) I want to become a Carmelite tertiary: to put more pressure on my Immaculate Mother, now that I see myself weaker than ever; and to provide suffrages to my good friends the blessed souls in purgatory" (Apuntes, no.823). The date of his entrance into the Third Order was, as he requested, October 2, 1932 (see Apuntes, no.838).

But the story goes even earlier than that: Just before his 16th birthday, in January 1918, walking down the street one morning during those Christmastide holidays, he came upon prints in the snow made by bare feet. His curiosity piqued, he stopped and stared at those white imprints so obviously left by one of the Discalced Carmelite fathers. Moved to the very depths of his soul, he asked himself, "If others can make such sacrifices for God and neighbour, can't I offer him something?"

The footprints had been made by Father Jose Miguel de la Virgen del Carmen. Following that snowy trail, the boy sought out the Carmelite for spiritual direction. He now had, very deep inside, " a divine restlessness" that moved him to a more intense life of piety, manifested in prayer, mortification, and daily Communion. (from Vasquez de Prada).

The founder's thoughts about the origin of his vocation are communicated in other testimonies as well. A few examples:

• "In 1964, speaking to me about his vocation to the priesthood, Monsignor Escriva said to me, but more as a question addressed to himself, 'What was the origin of my priestly vocation? Something apparently trivial: prints left in the snow by the bare feet of a Carmelite.' He then explained to me how, thinking about the sacrifice made by that religious for the love of God, he had asked himself what he himself was doing for our Lord. He had thought that perhaps God was calling him right then and there, on the street, and that if this was the case, then because of his love for the Eucharist, he would be called Brother Amador de Jesus Sacramentado [Lover of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament]" (Jesus Alvarez Gazapo, Sum. 4279).

• "The founder told us that it made a profound impression on him to see in the snow the footprints of a Discalced Carmelite, that it made him think about how little he himself was doing for the Lord, and that he realized then and there that our Lord wanted something specific from him" (Encarnación Ortega, PM, fol. 30).

• "The Father, as he himself confessed to me, began to experience desires for a more perfect and committed Christian life when, during the winter of 1917-1918, he contemplated tracks left in the snow by the bare feet of a Carmelite religious. ...He told me he had felt the call to the priesthood right after seeing those footprints in the snow" (Jose Luis MUzquiz, PM, fol. 35Ov).

From St. Josemaria: "Our Lady of Mount Carmel was pushing me to become a priest. Up until I was sixteen years old, dear Mother, I would have laughed at anyone who said I would one day be wearing a cassock. It happened all of a sudden, when I saw that some Carmelite friar had walked barefoot in the snow. ...How obliged you are, sweet Virgin of the Kisses, to lead me by the hand like a little child of yours!" (Apuntes, no.1637).

July 16th, 1932: don Jose Maria Somoano’s “Dies Natalis”

Don Jose Maria Somoano died after two days of agony, he was probably poisoned. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1927 and in 1931 he was already chaplain of “King’s Hospital” (also known as the National Infectious Diseases Hospital). He had joined Opus Dei on January 2nd, 1932 - one of the first priests to join Opus Dei.

St. Josemaria was deeply hurt by his death, but was convinced that he had died a holy death - as a martyr - and that from Heaven he would help the Work even more. St. Josemaria wrote in his personal notes on the day he was buried: “July 18th, 1932: The Lord has taken one of ours: Jose Maria somoano, an admirable priest. He died, victim of charity, in the King’s Hospital (where he has been chaplain till the end, despite all the secular anger) on the night of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel whom he had a great devotion to, always wearing the scapular. and because this feast was celebrated on a Saturday, surely that same night he would be in God’s presence. Beautiful soul. His zealous life gained him the affection of whoever came accross him. Today, I farewell him joyfully to Our Lord. He is with Him and will be of great help. I had a lot of hope invested in his character, upright and energetic: God has wanted him for Himself: may he be blessed”.

St. Josemaria wrote an obituary: Admirable priest, his life, short and fruitful, he was a ripe fruit that the Lord wanted for Heaven. Just the thought that there were priests who dare to go to the Altar with lesser dispositions, would make him shed tears of reparation. Before knowing the Work of God, after the sacrilegious fires in May, at the start of the persecution (in spain) with official decrees, he was caught unaware in the chapel of the Hospital where he was chaplain, offering himself to Jesus, in loud voice, as a victim for this poor Spain. Our Lord accepted the holocaust, and with a double predilection -predilection for the Work and predilection for Jose Maria, he sent for him (...) so that the Work would have next to the Blessed Trinity and next to Immaculate Mary someone to continuously care for us. He heard with such enthusiasm, during our last priestly meeting, the Monday prior to his death, the projects to start our action! I know that his intentions will press on Our Lord’s Merciful Heart, when he asks for us and we well obtain the abundant graces that we will need to fulfill God’s will”. (+ 16-VII-1932).

With don Jose Maria’s death, st. josemaria felt eager to fill the void left in the chaplaincy of the King’s Hospital. Sr. Engracia Echevarria, superior of the religious who looked after the hospital later said: “don Josemaria Escriva came to me. at that time he was a young priest who would have barely been 30 years old, and told me not to worry about not having an official chaplain. that night and day, and at whatever time, and under my responsibility, I should call him if there was any terminal patient who required the Sacraments”. St. Josemaria -who was the chaplain of the Foundation of St. Isabel- had to make room in his schedule, which was more than tight, to be able to look after the hospital which, on top of that, made him cross the city from north to south and even walk a bit through a field - back then, given that St. Josemaria would always wear a cassock, was putting himself at the constant risk of insults and stone blows.

At the hospital, St. Josemaria was always at risk of contagion from the patients. In order to hear confessions in those common rooms it was necesary to be with his ear very close to the pillow, putting up with the infected breath and rhoncus of the dying and the cough of those with tuberculosis. With the increase of penitents and lengthening of visits, st. Josemaria didn’t have a choice but to go also on Saturdays to hear confessions. From then no, almost every Sunday and Feast days he would celebrate Mass and preach a homily for the whole hospital. It was in this hospital where he met Maria Ignacia Garcia, who was the first expiatory vocation. This was not the only hospital where st. Josemaria dedicated himself to look after the sick. He also dedicated a lot of time to the General Hospital, the King’s Hospital, the Princess Hospital, etc.

July 15th, 1950: The first vocation in the USA

On this date, the first American asked to join the Work: Father Dick Rieman. After writing his letter to the father, very happily he asked don Jose Luis Muzquiz: “Well, well, and how many of us are there, here in the United States?” And don Jose Luis answered: “you, another one, and me... that’s it”.

In this clip from Passionately Loving the World, Fr. Dick shares his story about meeting St. Josemaria Escriva in Rome for the first time.

Passionately Loving the World is a short documentary about ordinary Americans living the spirituality of St. Josemaria Escriva in the middle of the world today. From farmers to fire-fighters, they work hard, love their families, celebrate successes and endure failures. Through it all they try to grow closer to God.  (taken from http://www.josemariaescriva.info/article/fr-dick-rieman-passionately-loving-the-world)

July 15th, 1943: Isidoro Zorzano's "Dies Natalis"

Isidoro was one of the first members of Opus Dei. He met St. Josemaria when they were schoolmates in Logroño, the town where St. Josemaria’s family had to move to due to their financial problems in Barbastro. Years after, when he was already an Engineer, St. Josemaria (who had been praying for him for a long while now) ran into him in a street in Madrid - the encounter was even more strange as both of them had taken a different way than their usual to their destination. St. Josemaria spoke to him about the Work, and Isidoro did not delay his answer to that vocation to Opus Dei.

At the time of his death, Isidoro was 41 years old. During the last months of his illness he had continuous help from those living with him, taking turns. He had spoken with st. Josemaria many times about his hospitalization. The last time he spoke with him, on June 14th, he asked him if he was in peace [with God]. “Yes father, I’m very happy, I really am. This will be over soon and I’m going to our heavenly Home. There I will be remembering the Work a lot”. St. Josemaria told him: “Son, I’ve asked Our Lord to give me a death like yours”. The day he died, the whole morning he had someone -from the other members of the Work- with him. For some unforeseen reason - there was a misunderstanding in the roster - towards 5pm he was momentarily alone in the room. As soon as they notified that he was about to die, st. Josemaria left immediately to the hospital with other members of the Work but when they arrived, Isidoro had already passed away. St. Josemaria remained for a long while next to the bed, unable to hide his sadness. St. Josemaria celebrated Mass on the 16th. Isidoro was buried in the Almudena cemetery, next to St. Josemaria’s parents. St. Josemaria got the tombstone to be engraved “Vita mutatur, non tollitur”. His process of beatification was opened on October 11th, 1948, in presence of bishop don Leopoldo Eijo y Garay and st. Josemaria. The information process was closed on the 19th of April 1961 and in 1994 the collection of new documentation was completed.

To read a brief biography, go to: http://www.opusdei.org/en-us/article/biography-of-isidoro-zorzano/