Saint Josemaría Escrivá

Josemaría Escrivá was born on January 9, 1902, in Barbastro, Spain. After his father's business failed, the family moved to Logroño, where as a teenager he saw the footprints of a barefoot Carmelite friar in the snow and felt God calling him. He was ordained a priest in Zaragoza in 1925 and moved to Madrid, where he served the poor and the sick in the city's slums.

On October 2, 1928, during a retreat, he understood that God wanted him to found Opus Dei, a path for ordinary Christians to seek holiness in their work and daily duties. During the Spanish Civil War he hid from persecution and escaped across the Pyrenees in 1937. His book The Way has been read by millions. He moved to Rome in 1946, where he died on June 26, 1975. Pope John Paul II canonized him on October 6, 2002.

His feast is celebrated with Masses in cathedrals and parishes across Latin America, Spain, the Philippines and the US, often crowded with families, students and professionals. His body rests in the prelatic church of Our Lady of Peace in Rome.

The Marian shrine of Torreciudad, near his birthplace in Aragon, which he promoted, welcomes many pilgrims.