Devotion to Saint Josemaría Escrivá

Facts about the spread of popular devotion to the founder of Opus Dei.

Josemaría Escrivá died in 1975. Thousands of people who knew him are alive today. He is a contemporary saint, who was familiar with today's problems and reflected on them in today’s language.

Every day, many Christians entrust their cares and concerns to him, in "an authentic manifestation of popular devotion,” as the Vatican’s 1990 decree on his virtues noted. The prayer card for devotion to him has been printed in 66 languages.

Since Escrivá’s death, more than 100,000 accounts of favors attributed to his intercession have been collected and published, from more than 80 nations.

Among those favors 18 extraordinary cures have been exhaustively documented. Their story is told in a recently-published book by Flavio Capucci entitled Cures Through the Intercession of Josemaría Escrivá, Scepter Publishers, 2002.

Pope John Paul II has dedicated a parish in Rome to Escrivá. In his native city of Barbastro, Spain, a church was recently dedicated to him by the diocesan bishop. A parish in Kolin (Morzyca), Poland, has been dedicated to him.

In the cathedral of Madrid, a chapel has been dedicated to him. And in the cathedral of Guayaquil, Ecuador, there is a chapel in his honor entitled “The Chapel of Sanctification of Ordinary Work.” There are other chapels dedicated to him in various countries, including one in the United States at the diocesan Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C.

Some countries, among them Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Italy, Peru, Poland, and Venezuela, have issued postal stamps commemorating him. Spain, his native land, issued a stamp commemorating the 25th anniversary of his death on June 26, 2000.

Streets and squares have been named after Escrivá in more than 30 places, including Rome; Barbastro, Spain; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Piura, Peru; San Salvador, El Salvador; Quito, Ecuador; and Pasig City, the Philippines.

Escrivá’s name has also been given to a shelter for the homeless in Seville, Spain; a public school in São Paulo, Brazil; a peak in the Bolivian Andes; and even a star discovered by an astronomer with devotion to him.