Josemaría Escrivá

Spanish priest, writer and Catholic saint

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Lived 1902–1975, aged 73Spain

Spain Religious Figures

Wikipedia
50 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1902–1975
Aged 73
Awards
9
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

He founded Opus Dei, the Catholic organization built on the idea that ordinary work is a path to holiness — and became one of the church's most polarizing saints, reviled and venerated in nearly equal measure.

Biography

About

Josemaría Escrivá was ordained a priest in Zaragoza in 1925, then moved to Madrid to pursue a doctorate in civil law. When the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936, he fled Madrid through Andorra and France to Burgos, the rebel Nationalist headquarters under Franco, returning only after the Nationalist victory to complete his doctorate in 1939. His life's work was Opus Dei, the organization he founded to promote everyday holiness among laypeople and priests; his book The Way sold millions of copies in 43 languages. He settled in Rome in 1946 and earned a theology doctorate from the Lateran Univer…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Josemaría Escrivá

Josemaría Escrivá

said1950

You are too calculating. Don't tell me you are young. Youth gives all it can: it gives itself without reserve.

— #30

Josemaría Escrivá

said1950

First, prayer; then, atonement; in the third place, very much 'in the third place', action.

— #82

Josemaría Escrivá

said1950

True virtue is not sad or disagreeable, but pleasantly cheerful.

— #657

Josemaría Escrivá

said1950

All the things of this world are no more than earth. Place them in a heap under your feet and you will be so much the nearer to heaven.

— #676

Josemaría Escrivá

said1950

Gold, silver, jewels: dust, heaps of manure. Gratification, sensual pleasures, satisfaction of the appetites: like a beast, like a mule, like a cock, like a pig, like a bull.

— #677

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