First developments

In 1933, Father Escrivá opened a cultural centre, then later in 1934, a student accommodation. There, around a hundred students received an advanced Christian training and enjoyed a studious atmosphere to prepare for exams and admission tests. While social tensions were growing strong in Madrid, politics were left outside the residence, and a point was made to respect everyone's personal choices. Some young occupants decided to follow "the Father" by committing their life to God, working for His glory outside in the world, without making any religious vows or acts of consecration. They carried on with their studies, then with their professional careers, but took every opportunity of apostolate in their lives to bring people to God. Most of them reunited after being scattered around Spain because of the Civil War.

The growth of the Opus Dei

The civil war broke out in July 1936. Josemaría, who lived in Madrid, then under the control of the Republican faction, was constantly forced to switch from one hiding place to the other because of religious repressions. He found refuge at the legation of Honduras in March 1937, and left a few months later to work on an important sacerdotal project in Madrid, risking his life in the process. In December 1937 he entered the Nationalist zone. Settled in a guesthouse in Burgos, he reconnected with the people he knew before the war, who were fighting on various fronts, and began to write what would later become his best known spiritual book: "The way".

Hostilities came to a term in March 1939. Josemaría founded a new student accommodation in Madrid. He supported spiritually hundreds of people, while working on the expansion of the Opus Dei in different Spanish towns and preaching retreats for their priests. On June 25, 1944, the Bishop of Madrid ordained the first three members of the Opus Dei to join priesthood. A few priests would then be able to support their lay brothers in every place where they practiced their apostolate. 

At the end of the year 1946, Father Escrivá went to Rome where he obtained pontifical approbation for the Opus Dei. He settled there for good in 1947, and was given the title of Prelate of Honour of His Holiness. From the end of WWII and on, the First members of the Opus Dei spread their apostolate all over the world. By the time the life of its founder approached its end, the Opus Dei had settled on the five continents and John XXIII entrusted the association with a parish and professional training centre called ELIS centre, located in a disadvantaged suburb of Rome. Paul VI inaugurated the facility in 1965.

Texts from Saint Josemaría Escrivá

Freedom, a gift from God (third excerpt from the homily : Freedom, a gift from God, published in Friends of God.)

Our faith is not in any way a burden or a limitation. What a poor idea of Christianity one would have if one thought that way! When we decide for God we lose nothing, and we gain everything. He who, at the expense of his soul secures his own life, will lose it ; it is the man who loses his life for my sake that will secure it.
We have drawn the winning card, the first prize. If anything prevents us from seeing this clearly, let us look inside our own soul. We may find that our faith is weak, that we have little personal contact with God, that our life of prayer is impoverished. We must beg Our Lord, through His Mother who is our Mother too, to increase his love in us, to grant us a taste of the sweetness of His presence. Only when we love do we attain the fullest freedom: the freedom of not wanting ever to abandon, for all eternity, the object of our love.