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St Josemaria Escriva in Madrid
The founding of Opus Dei
www.josemariaescriva.info
Fr Josemaria Escriva moved to Madrid in April 1927. He once said, “It
was in Madrid that I received my mission, and for that and other
reasons I feel that I have full right to call myself ‘a person of Madrid’.”
1. Garcia de Paredes Street:The founding of Opus Dei
At 45, Garcia de Paredes Street, Madrid, stands the Basilica of La
Milagrosa, belonging to the Vincentian Fathers.
The first stone of the Central House of the Vincentians was laid on the
feast of St Joseph, 1883, and the building is now occupied by La
Milagrosa Hospital. It was here that Fr Josemaria Escriva founded
Opus Dei on October 2, 1928.
The Central House of the Vincentian Fathers was a large, four-story brick
building with simple and austere rooms opening into corridors, and with a
large interior patio garden. Next to that building, at the corner where
Garcia de Paredes Street begins, was Saint Vincent de Paul Church, now
the Basilica of La Milagrosa (Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal), built in
1904. Behind it was “a large kitchen garden – fertile, verdant, colorful,
and luxuriant – with various flower beds separated by walkways covered
by leafy fruit and shade trees” (cf. Guia de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de
Madrid; in the 1940s this building underwent a substantial transformation,
and a good part of the old construction is now a hospital. The rest, rebuilt
and enlarged, is now the residence of the Vincentian community that staffs
the Basilica of La Milagrosa). As the years went by, these enormous open
spaces of vegetable and flower gardens – which extended to Cuatro
Caminos, alternating with ancestral homes and built-up areas – were eaten
up by the city’s expansion.
From Sunday, September 30, through October 6, St Josemaría did a
spiritual retreat at the Central House of the Vincentians with five other
priests. Wake-up time was 5 a.m., and bedtime was 9 p.m. In between
there were examinations of conscience, Mass, talks, the Divine Office...
On the morning of Tuesday, October 2, feast of the guardian Angels, after
celebrating Mass, Father Josemaría was in his room, reading the notes he
had brought with him. Suddenly an extraordinary grace came over him,
and he understood that our Lord was responding to those insistent
petitions, Domine, ut videam! and Domine, ut sit! – Lord, that I may see!
Lord, that it may be!
The Church of La Milagrosa today

earthly tasks, are called to sanctify themselves and their work. In this light
he saw that the Work (as yet unnamed) was destined to promote the divine
plan of the universal call to holiness; that from within its heart, as an
instrument of God’s Church, would radiate the theological principles and
supernatural spirit needed for the renewal of peoples. With immense
astonishment he understood, deep in his soul, that that illumination was
not only the answer to his petitions, but also an invitation to accept a
divine commission.
The decoration of a chapel in the church of Our Lady of the Angels
recalls the founding of Opus Dei
Three years later, he described the gist of it like this: “I received an
illumination about the entire Work, while I was reading those papers.
Deeply moved, I knelt down – I was alone in my room, at a time
between one talk and the next – and gave thanks to our Lord, and I
remember with a heart full of emotion the ringing of the bells of the
Church of Our Lady of the Angels.”
Under the powerful and ineffable light of grace he was shown the
Work as a whole; “saw” is the word he always used when relating this
event. These were moments of indescribable grandeur. As he prayed he
saw displayed within his soul the historical panorama of the
redemption of mankind, illuminated by God’s love. At that moment, he
comprehended in a way that could not be expressed in words the divine
core of the exalted vocation of Christians who, in the midst of their
Into the room, at this
moment of prayer, flooded the
jubilant sound of the pealing of
the bells of Our Lady of the
Angels, a church in the nearby
neighborhood of Cuatro
Caminos. That sound would stay
with him forever. “Still
resounding in my ears,” he said
in 1964, “are the bells of the
Church of Our Lady of the
Angels, announcing the feast of
its patroness.”
There is always a hidden treasure
in small things done with love
and perfection – in difficulties
and joys, in a job well done, in
service to society or one’s
neighbor. Professional work and
social relations are the milieu and
“I remember with a heart full of
emotion the ringing of the bells of
the Church of Our Lady of the
Angels,” said St Josemaria. One of
these bells is now in the shrine of
Torreciudad.
the matter that Christians must sanctify; they must become saints in and
through the fulfilling of their family and civic obligations. The universal
call to sanctity implies, in other words, the sanctifying value of work
offered to God and the Christian value of secular activities – the reality

that one can be detached from this world
without being absent from it, that mundane
things can be used as a means for becoming
sanctified, for becoming divinized.
“In that ordinary life, as we go along through
the world with our professional colleagues or
coworkers, God our Father gives us the
opportunity to exercise ourselves in all the
virtues: charity, fortitude, justice, sincerity,
temperance, poverty, humility, obedience….”
Thus the sciences and the arts, finance and
politics, crafts and industry, housework, and
all other honorable fields of endeavor no
longer are indifferent or “profane.” Any activity carried out in union
with Christ – with an upright spirit of sacrifice, love of neighbor, and
perseverance, and with the intention of giving glory to God – is thereby
ennobled and endowed with spiritual value.
The young priest was to be the herald of a message for humanity “as
old and as new as the Gospel itself”. But he saw himself as, at best, a
humble, worthless donkey upon whom a precious and very heavy load
had suddenly been placed. A beautiful burden, which he shared with
Our Lord, who was there in the very depths of his soul. Fr Josemaria
described his calling in these terms:
“If you ask me how one recognizes a divine calling, how one comes to
a realization of it, I will tell you that it is a new view of life. It’s as if a
light were lit within us: it is a mysterious impulse which urges us to
devote our noblest energies to an activity which, with practice,
becomes second nature to us. That vital force, which is something like
an avalanche sweeping everything before it, is what others call a
vocation.”
During that retreat with the Vincentians, he came to see how the Lord’s
providential hand had prepared the foundation’s cornerstone by means of
the sad events that had forced his family to move from Barbastro to
Logroño, from Logroño to Saragossa, and from Saragossa to Madrid. In
that light his life took on a new and full coloring. God had brought him to
the capital city to plunge him into the very depths of the problems of
humanity.
“Yesterday evening, while walking down the street,” he would later write
in his personal notes, “it occurred to me that Madrid has been my
Damascus, because it was here that the scales fell from the eyes of my
soul... and it was here that I received my mission.”
He took an inventory of the material means on which he could count for
this mission, and found that he had none at all. As his life progressed, the
Lord had been divesting him of all impediments. “I found myself then
alone, equipped with nothing but my twenty-six years and my good
humor,” he said. On another occasion he expressed it this way: “We
started the Work, when our Lord wanted, with a complete lack of material
means. I had only twenty-six years of age, the grace of God, and good
humor. But that was enough.”
A plaque records the place
where Opus Dei was founded
In 2000 the Vincentian Fathers of
the Basilica of La Milagrosa put
up a plaque inside the church
recording the fact that it was
there that, in 1928, St Josemaria
Escriva received the divine
inspiration to found Opus Dei.

The text of the plaque, preceded by the seal of Opus Dei, says: “On
October 2, 1928, while he was doing a spiritual retreat in this house of
the Vincentian Fathers, Blessed Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer
received in his heart and mind the divine seed of Opus Dei: ‘I received
the illumination about the entire Work: deeply moved, I knelt down – I
was alone in my room – and gave thanks to our Lord, and I remember
with a heart full of emotion the ringing of the bells of the Church of
Our Lady of the Angels’.”
PLACES NEARBY THAT ARE CONNECTED WITH THE
HISTORY OF OPUS DEI
2. Diego de Leon Street
This building has a crypt which holds the mortal remains of the parents
of the founder of Opus Dei.
Fr Josemaria moved to this house on October 31, 1940. His mother,
sister and brother moved there shortly afterwards.
In this house, Dolores, Fr Josemaria’s mother, died on April 22, 1941.
Another episode that took place in this center was one night when Fr
Josemaria was too upset to sleep. His good name as a priest had been
insulted and dishonoured. He got up from his bed. The oratory was
close by. He went in and prostrated himself in front of the Tabernacle,
and said to Our Lord, “Jesus, if you don’t need my good name, what do
I want it for?” From that moment on, people could trample on his good
name as much as they liked; he was totally detached from his
reputation.
The building on Diego de Leon
Street, Madrid, in 1940 and today
3. Alcala Street: “The Sotanillo”
In Opus Dei’s early days, when St Josemaria had no center to take them
to, he used to meet the young men he was doing apostolate with at “The
Sotanillo” at 31 Alcala Street, Madrid.
This establishment – a chocolate shop, bar, and cafeteria, all in one – was
in a very central location: on Alcala, between Cibeles Square and
Independencia Square. Its entrance was at street level, but from there one
had to go down a few steps, because it was in a semi-basement.
He went back to bed in all tranquility, having abandoned into God’s
hands whatever anyone might think about him.

Father Josemaría greatly enjoyed the atmosphere of the Sotanillo and
the company of his friends. The proprietor, Juan, and his son Angel got
used to seeing the priest accompanied by students. Whichever of them
first saw him come in would call out, “Here he is, with his disciples.”
4. Alcala Gate and Retiro Park
In the Plaza de Independencia stands the Puerta de Alcala, or Alcala
Gate. In this square, at 75 Alcala Street, Alvaro del Portillo was born
on March 11, 1914.
The Puerta de Alcala, together with the Cibeles Fountain, is one of the
best-known sights in Madrid. It was built by Francisco Sabatini in
1771. It is one of the great ornamental gates built during the reign of
Carlos III, and commemorates his entry into the capital city.
Retiro Park
The name Retiro Park, or “Retreat
Park”, originated with King Felipe II,
who ordered it to be built as a place
of spiritual retreat for the King
during Lent, where he could pray and
prepare for Holy Week. It was first
called the Royal House of St Jerome.
Later the Duke of Olivares named it
the Royal House of the Good Retreat
(Buen Retiro), from which comes its
present name.
St Josemaria often used to meet the
first people of Opus Dei and the
people he was doing apostolate with,
here in this park, for a chat. Isidoro relates, “To begin with we didn’t have
anywhere to go with the Father. We would sit on a bench in the street.
Then we started to go to Retiro Park, which was quieter, and would make
plans for the future.”
St Josemaria wrote in February 1932 that he would sometimes visit the
Park. “Last Saturday I was in Retiro Park from 12:30 to 1:30 (...) and I
tried to read a newspaper. Prayer came upon me with such force that,
against my will, I had to stop reading.”

Map with the places mentioned in this article
1. Garcia de Paredes Street:The founding of Opus Dei
2. Diego de León Street
3. Alcala Street: “The Sotanillo”
4. Alcala Gate and Retiro Park