Commemorative plaques of St Josemaría in Logroño

February 13, 2007

Tags: The Escriva family, Footprints in the Snow, Logroño

The town of Logroño, Spain, has recently put up two plaques to commemorate the years that St Josemaría lived there. The Founder of Opus Dei was born in Barbastro, Huesca Province, in 1902, but in 1915 the Escrivá family moved to Logroño where his father, José Escrivá, who had been a cloth trader, found another job.

The initiative of putting up the plaques was supported by the Assistant Mayor of Logroño, who is in charge of the restoration of the historic center of the town, and the Director of the town’s Historic Research Office.

One of the plaques is placed at 12 Sagasta Street. It is made of bronze, measuring 60cm by 35cm, and has a bas-relief of St Josemaría’s face and an inscription that says:
“St Josemaría Escrivá.
In this building St Josemaría Escrivá lived with his family, from 1915 to 1918 (4th floor, right)
and from 1921 to 1925 (2nd floor, right).”

Msgr Illanes, Director of the Istituto Storico San Josemaría Escrivá in Rome, said once: “From a chronological point of view, in his years in Logroño St Josemaría’s character matured, and he grew from an adolescent into a young man. Those were the years when God used a cold winter’s morning to intervene in Josemaría’s life in a sovereign way, making him sense that he had a mission to fulfill.”

This fact is recorded on another plaque which has now been put up on a building that belongs to the Fundación Caja Rioja on Marqués de San Nicolas Street, which says:
“St Josemaría Escrivá.
On this spot, in December 1917 or January 1918,
St Josemaría Escrivá discovered his vocation of self-dedication to God, on seeing the footprints left in the snow
by the bare feet of a Carmelite religious
who was walking along the street.”

Related item:
- Footprints in the snow
Multimedia:
- God wants something of me