Roman Catholics celebrate Saturday, June 26, the Feast of St. Josemaria Escriva, a modern-day saint and the revered founder of the Opus Dei.
Special masses in commemoration of his liturgical feast will be celebrated in at least 75 churches in 32 cities or dioceses across the country.
In a pastoral letter, the late Bishop Javier Echevarría, who served as St. Josemaria’s executive secretary, said: “St. Josemaria Escriva is proving to be a truly powerful intercessor for families more than forty years after his death. How many gifts he has gained for us since then! And he has certainly fulfilled his promise.”
St. Josemaria was born on Jan. 9, 1902, in Barbastro, Spain. He was a Roman Catholic priest from Spain who founded Opus Dei in 1928, an organization of lay people and priests dedicated to the teaching that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity.
He died on June 26, 1975, and was beatified on May 17, 1992.
Then pope now St. John Paul II, who canonized St. Josemaria on October 6, 2002, said the Spanish priest should be “counted among the great witnesses of Christianity.”