I want to put the favors that my family and I believe we have received through the intercession of Blessed Álvaro del Portillo into writing. We have turned to him with deep faith in recent years.

In February 2007, I began my relationship with the woman who is now my wife. Through her parents, I came to know Opus Dei and, in particular, the life and person of Blessed Álvaro. In 2013, we were married, generously open to having children. In 2014, we were blessed to attend his beatification ceremony in Madrid, and it was a very moving experience; one that deepened our devotion and spiritual closeness to Blessed Álvaro even further.

Yet the children did not come. For years, we went through various medical tests and periods of suffering, as well as social and family pressure to pursue in vitro fertilization.

Out of respect for those who choose that path, we decided against it, because we believe that children are not a right but a gift. During this time, my wife was diagnosed with a chronic illness: a rare form of leukemia known as hairy cell leukemia. It was a moment of tremendous pain and uncertainty.

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From that point on, I began entrusting myself to Blessed Álvaro with particular intensity and confidence, asking for his intercession both for my wife's health and for the flourishing of our vocation in marriage. After she completed chemotherapy, the doctors warned us that conceiving children would be even more difficult. We had not been able to conceive before treatment, and the odds afterward were considerably lower.

Yet in 2021, against all expectations, my wife became pregnant with our first child. The following year, our second was born. And in 2024, our third arrived. Each of them has been prayed for deeply and entrusted to Blessed Álvaro. We asked for his intercession not only for the birth of our children, but also that my wife would achieve a good remission from her illness, which currently has no definitive cure.

In 2025, she had to undergo treatment again, going through a very serious episode of neutropenia with a near risk of septic shock. Once again, I turned to Blessed Álvaro with special urgency, and by the grace of God, she pulled through and is now in remission.

Throughout all these years, I have prayed to Blessed Álvaro nearly every day. We feel his constant presence, not only in our most difficult moments, but also in the light we have received to better understand our vocation.

Since 2022, my wife and I have been supernumerary members of Opus Dei, a vocation we've embraced with deep peace and gratitude. With this letter, we wish to set down a record of these events, which we see as clear signs of Blessed Álvaro's intercession in our family life. We humbly offer this testimony in support of his cause for canonization.

G. A. B. - Spain