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HomeDocumentationHistorical NotesIs it true that another priest was killed by mistake for Father Josemaria Escriva?
Documentation
Historical Notes
Is it true that another priest was killed by mistake for Father Josemaria Escriva?
Hard facts about this episode are difficult to find. In August 1936, the month after the Spanish Civil War started, some women told Dolores Escriva, Father Josemaria’s mother, that someone looking very like him had been hanged in a street in Madrid. Father Josemaria heard about this a year later, at the end of summer 1937, towards the end of his stay in the Honduran Legation. He wrote to the members of Opus Dei who were in Valencia on September 18, 1937, “A belated piece of news: I’ve been told to my face, repeatedly, that my brother Josemaria” [meaning himself] “was found hanged from a tree, in Moncloa Street according to some, and in Ferraz Street according to others. I’ve heard that the body was positively identified. Another version of his death is that he was shot.” In spite of not knowing for sure what had happened, to the end of his days Father Josemaria prayed for the soul of the priest who might have been killed by mistake for himself. After Father Josemaria’s death in 1975, research was undertaken to ascertain the facts, but to date it has been impossible either to prove or disprove it.
Documentation
List of Contents
- Historical Notes Introduction
- Was the Escriva family well off or short of money?
- What sort of childhood did Josemaria Escriva have?
- Why did Josemaria’s father’s business fail?
- If Opus Dei had no members till the 1930s, why did Josemaria Escriva say it was founded in 1928?
- What difficulties did Opus Dei meet with at the start?
- What kind of people did Father Josemaria Escriva work with in Opus Dei’s early years?
- What was Father Josemaria Escriva’s attitude towards the Second Spanish Republic?
- What was Father Josemaria Escriva’s reaction to the attempted military coup of July 18, 1936?
- Where did the first Opus Dei members stand politically?
- Is it true that another priest was killed by mistake for Father Josemaria Escriva?
- Why did Father Josemaria go into hiding?
- How did Father Josemaria exercise his priesthood during the Spanish Civil War?
- How and why did Father Josemaria decide to escape across the Pyrenees Mountains?
- Why Burgos?
- Which side were Opus Dei members on in the Spanish Civil War?
- What did Father Josemaria think of Franco and his activities during the Spanish Civil War?
- What contact did Father Josemaria have with the Franco regime?
- What did Father Josemaria say about the reprisals carried out by Franco’s followers during the Spanish Civil War?
- What did Father Josemaria think of Hitler and the Nazis?
Prayer
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