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Opus Dei’s First Steps in Madrid
On finishing the spiritual retreat during which he had received the light to found Opus Dei, St Josemaria returned to his many activities in Madrid. At the same time, he started to look for people with whom he could begin the new apostolate that God had entrusted to him. This new foundation took first place in his heart, head and actions. Little by little over the next few years, he broadened out the field of his apostolate to men and women, students, laborers, priests, sick people, and many more.
Download the tour in pdf format with map.
21a Garcia de Paredes Street
Porta Caeli Home: Opus Dei’s first circle of Christian formation
The Porta Caeli Home was run by religious sisters. It was dedicated to the rescue and care of street children between the ages of six and fourteen. Abandoned by their families, these boys resorted to any job they could get in order to survive: some collected cigarette-ends from the ground and sold them, others carried people’s baggage or worked as shoe-shiners. Father Josemaria Escriva often went to the Home teach catechism and hear the confessions of the boys being looked after there.
A different building now stands on the site. In the former one, the founder of Opus Dei gave the first circle of Christian formation to three young students: Juan Jimenez Vargas and two of his friends. It was Saturday January 21, 1933.
He wrote in his personal notes: “Last Saturday, thanks be to God, I began the work which is under the patronage of Saint Raphael and Saint John with three young men at Porta Caeli. After the talk we had a short time of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and I gave them Benediction.”
Juan was impressed by the faith and devotion that shone through the liturgical gestures and prayers, and especially by “the way he held the monstrance in his hands and gave the blessing.” Years later Father Josemaría explained what had been going through his mind when he gave that blessing with the Blessed Sacrament:
”When the class was over, I went to the chapel with those boys, and I took our Lord sacramentally present in the monstrance, raised him, and blessed those three, …and I saw three hundred, three hundred thousand, thirty million, three billion…, white, black, yellow, of all the colors, all the combinations, that human love can produce. And I fell short, because this has become a reality after not even half a century. I fell short, because our Lord has been generous beyond my wildest dreams.”
No. 4, Martinez Campos Street
May you seek Christ. May you find Christ. May you love Christ.
In an apartment at no. 4, Martinez Campos Street, Madrid, the Escriva family lived from December 1932 to the summer of 1933. St Josemaria gave many classes of Christian formation and circles to young people, in that apartment.
St Josemaria also met students in this apartment, such as Ricardo Fernandez Vallespin, for whom he wrote a few words on the flyleaf of a book about our Lord’s passion: “May you seek Christ. May you find Christ. May you love Christ.” It sums up the message he was giving to young people.
A historic coincidence: the Echevarria family home
In 1940, at no. 15, Martinez Campos Street, there was an Opus Dei center that Father Josemaria helped to set up. By chance, a different apartment in that same building was where the Echevarria family lived, one of whose children, Javier, is now St Josemaria’s second successor at the head of Opus Dei. In an interview, he said: “When I was little, I lived in the same building where there was an Opus Dei center. It was 15 Martinez Campos Street.
I remember very well the day they moved in. It was in 1940 or 1941. The doorman merely told us, ‘There are some offices, and some gentlemen also live there.’ He must have known more than that, but that was all he said. The odd thing is that I made a mental note of it.
Years later, when I heard that the founder of the Work had often gone to that house, and that he used to go up and down the stairs instead of using the elevator, I thought perhaps he had seen me at some stage. And if so, he must have prayed to my Guardian Angel and prayed for me to have a vocation. That was what he usually did on passing by anyone.”
Chamberi Square
Keep quiet when people insult me; pelt them with Hail Mary’s.
Like any other priest in Madrid, St Josemaria was target of insults and physical attacks during the years leading up to the Spanish Civil War.
He wrote in his personal notes: “The barrage of insults against priests continues. (…) I made the resolution – I am renewing it – of keeping quiet when they insult me, even if they spit on me. One night, in Chamberi Square, when I was going to the Mirasol building, someone threw at my head a fistful of mud that almost plugged up my ear. I didn’t say a word.
Even more: the resolution that I am talking about includes pelting those poor haters with Hail Mary’s.”
33 Luchana Street. The DYA Academy
God and Daring!
Luchana Street leads from Chamberi Square. At no. 33, on the corner of Luchana Street and Juan de Austria Street, St Josemaria first set up the DYA Academy, which was located in a first-floor apartment from December 1933 to June 1934.
The first corporate work was the Academy, which we named DYA (‘Derecho Y Arquitectura’, or Law and Architecture), because classes were given in those two subjects; but for us the letters stood for God and Daring (‘Dios Y Audacia’).
Father Josemaría made a drawing of the metal plate for the front door. Isidoro had it cast at a workshop in Malaga.
The apartment occupied by the Academy had very few rooms, but even so, it was a cultural center where students attended classes or conferences. It was, in fact, something more than an academic center: it was a Christian formation center where university students could talk with the priest and get spiritual direction from him. Father Josemaría wanted it to function like a home. “For the Saint Raphael people,” he wrote, “the Academy is not an academy; it’s their home.”
He had also written, before the fact, “Every Saint Raphael academy will have to have a library and a good, very comfortable study room.” But although he meant it when he said “very comfortable,” those words had little or no connection with the Luchana Street apartment. The study room was a rather small, barebones room. The office in which the priest received visitors was even smaller.
Returning late in the afternoon from hearing confessions or visiting the sick or giving classes, he would find his office and the other rooms filled with students. Though exhausted, he would rise to the occasion. Taking refuge in the apartment kitchen, he received the young men in private and heard their confessions. So many came to him there that he used to joke that the kitchen had turned into a veritable cathedral.
No. 11, Santa Engracia Street. Foundation for the Sick.
Among Madrid’s poor.
Walking up the street on the left hand side, after passing Longoria Street, you come to Jose Maranon Street. This was where the Foundation for the Sick, founded by Luz Rodriguez Casanova, stood. During his first years in Madrid, Father Josemaria carried out a tireless ministry as its chaplain.
During this time Father Josemaria taught catechism and prepared thousands of children to make their first Confession and receive their First Holy Communion. He attended to thousands of sick and disabled people in their own homes or in hospitals. He traveled from one end of Madrid to the other, day after day, to administer the Last Sacraments to the dying, in the poorest and most wretched districts in the city.
No. 24, Nicasio Gallego Street. The Church of the Foundation for the Sick.
Prayer “without feeling like it”. “Jesus, I’m here to please you.”
Walking along Nicasio Gallego Street on the side nearest the Foundation for the Sick, you come to the old door of the church of the Foundation. This door, which has a statue of the Sacred Heart over it, is habitually kept shut.
In this church St Josemaria would often spend time in prayer, times that engraved themselves on his soul. He wrote on September 8, 1931: “Yesterday, at three in the afternoon, I went to the sanctuary of the church of the Foundation to pray for a little while in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I didn’t feel like it, but I stayed there, feeling like a nincompoop. Sometimes, coming to, I thought, ‘Now you see, good Jesus, that if I am here, it is only for you, to please you.’ Nothing. My imagination ran wild, far from my body and my will, just like a faithful dog, stretched out at the feet of his master, sleeps dreaming of running around and of hunting and of friends (dogs like himself), and gets fidgety and barks softly… but without leaving his master. That’s how I was, exactly like that dog, when I noticed that, without meaning to, I was repeating some Latin words which I had never paid any attention to and had no reason to recall. Even now, to remember them, I have to read them off of the sheet of paper I always carry in my pocket for writing down whatever God wants. (Right there in the sanctuary, I jotted down that phrase instinctively on that sheet of paper, out of habit, without attaching any importance to it.) The words of Scripture that I found on my lips were, Et fui tecum in omnibus ubicumque ambulasti, firmans regnum tuum in aeternum [‘And I have been with you everywhere, wherever you went...; your throne shall be established forever’ (2 Sam 7:9,16)]. Repeating them slowly, I applied my mind to their meaning. And later, yesterday evening and again today, when I read them again (for – I repeat – as if God was taking pains to prove to me that they came from him, I can’t recall them from one moment to the next), I well understood that Christ Jesus was telling me, for our consolation, ‘The Work of God will be with him everywhere, affirming the reign of Jesus Christ forever’.”
No. 1, Alcala Galiano Street.
Women in Opus Dei.
At no. 1, Alcala Galiano Street, lived Leonides Garcia San Miguel, the mother of Luz Casanova. There, on February 14, while Father Josemaria was celebrating Mass, he understood that he had to begin the apostolate with women in Opus Dei.
He wrote afterwards: “I was celebrating Mass in the little chapel of the elderly Marchioness of Onteiro (…). During the Mass, right after Communion, the whole women’s branch of the Work!”
What came to light that day was something new, a broadening-out of what had begun on October 2, 1928. “That February 14, 1930, our Lord made me experience what a father who wasn’t expecting any more children feels when God sends him another one. And from then on I think I am obliged to hold you in still greater affection: I look at you as a mother looks at her small child.”
(Adapted from A. Vazquez de Prada, The Founder of Opus Dei, vol. I: The Early Years, Princeton NJ: Scepter, 2001.)
Download the tour in pdf format with map.
21a Garcia de Paredes Street
Porta Caeli Home: Opus Dei’s first circle of Christian formation
A different building now stands on the site. In the former one, the founder of Opus Dei gave the first circle of Christian formation to three young students: Juan Jimenez Vargas and two of his friends. It was Saturday January 21, 1933.
He wrote in his personal notes: “Last Saturday, thanks be to God, I began the work which is under the patronage of Saint Raphael and Saint John with three young men at Porta Caeli. After the talk we had a short time of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and I gave them Benediction.”
Juan was impressed by the faith and devotion that shone through the liturgical gestures and prayers, and especially by “the way he held the monstrance in his hands and gave the blessing.” Years later Father Josemaría explained what had been going through his mind when he gave that blessing with the Blessed Sacrament:
”When the class was over, I went to the chapel with those boys, and I took our Lord sacramentally present in the monstrance, raised him, and blessed those three, …and I saw three hundred, three hundred thousand, thirty million, three billion…, white, black, yellow, of all the colors, all the combinations, that human love can produce. And I fell short, because this has become a reality after not even half a century. I fell short, because our Lord has been generous beyond my wildest dreams.”
“May you seek Christ. May you find Christ. May you love Christ.” St Josemaria wrote this phrase on the flyleaf of a book about our Lord’s Passion. It sums up the message he was giving to young people.
May you seek Christ. May you find Christ. May you love Christ.
In an apartment at no. 4, Martinez Campos Street, Madrid, the Escriva family lived from December 1932 to the summer of 1933. St Josemaria gave many classes of Christian formation and circles to young people, in that apartment.
St Josemaria also met students in this apartment, such as Ricardo Fernandez Vallespin, for whom he wrote a few words on the flyleaf of a book about our Lord’s passion: “May you seek Christ. May you find Christ. May you love Christ.” It sums up the message he was giving to young people.
A historic coincidence: the Echevarria family home
In 1940, at no. 15, Martinez Campos Street, there was an Opus Dei center that Father Josemaria helped to set up. By chance, a different apartment in that same building was where the Echevarria family lived, one of whose children, Javier, is now St Josemaria’s second successor at the head of Opus Dei. In an interview, he said: “When I was little, I lived in the same building where there was an Opus Dei center. It was 15 Martinez Campos Street.
I remember very well the day they moved in. It was in 1940 or 1941. The doorman merely told us, ‘There are some offices, and some gentlemen also live there.’ He must have known more than that, but that was all he said. The odd thing is that I made a mental note of it.
Years later, when I heard that the founder of the Work had often gone to that house, and that he used to go up and down the stairs instead of using the elevator, I thought perhaps he had seen me at some stage. And if so, he must have prayed to my Guardian Angel and prayed for me to have a vocation. That was what he usually did on passing by anyone.”
One night in Chamberi Square (…) someone threw at my head a fistful of mud (…) I didn’t say a word. Even more: the resolution that I am talking about includes pelting those poor haters with Hail Mary’s.
Keep quiet when people insult me; pelt them with Hail Mary’s.
Like any other priest in Madrid, St Josemaria was target of insults and physical attacks during the years leading up to the Spanish Civil War.
He wrote in his personal notes: “The barrage of insults against priests continues. (…) I made the resolution – I am renewing it – of keeping quiet when they insult me, even if they spit on me. One night, in Chamberi Square, when I was going to the Mirasol building, someone threw at my head a fistful of mud that almost plugged up my ear. I didn’t say a word.
Even more: the resolution that I am talking about includes pelting those poor haters with Hail Mary’s.”
33 Luchana Street. The DYA Academy
God and Daring!
The first floor of no. 33 Luchana Street (on the right side of the building in the photograph) housed the first DYA Academy
Luchana Street leads from Chamberi Square. At no. 33, on the corner of Luchana Street and Juan de Austria Street, St Josemaria first set up the DYA Academy, which was located in a first-floor apartment from December 1933 to June 1934.
The first corporate work was the Academy, which we named DYA (‘Derecho Y Arquitectura’, or Law and Architecture), because classes were given in those two subjects; but for us the letters stood for God and Daring (‘Dios Y Audacia’).
Father Josemaría made a drawing of the metal plate for the front door. Isidoro had it cast at a workshop in Malaga.
The apartment occupied by the Academy had very few rooms, but even so, it was a cultural center where students attended classes or conferences. It was, in fact, something more than an academic center: it was a Christian formation center where university students could talk with the priest and get spiritual direction from him. Father Josemaría wanted it to function like a home. “For the Saint Raphael people,” he wrote, “the Academy is not an academy; it’s their home.”
He had also written, before the fact, “Every Saint Raphael academy will have to have a library and a good, very comfortable study room.” But although he meant it when he said “very comfortable,” those words had little or no connection with the Luchana Street apartment. The study room was a rather small, barebones room. The office in which the priest received visitors was even smaller.
Returning late in the afternoon from hearing confessions or visiting the sick or giving classes, he would find his office and the other rooms filled with students. Though exhausted, he would rise to the occasion. Taking refuge in the apartment kitchen, he received the young men in private and heard their confessions. So many came to him there that he used to joke that the kitchen had turned into a veritable cathedral.
No. 11, Santa Engracia Street. Foundation for the Sick.
During his first years in Madrid Father Josemaria carried out a tireless ministry as chaplain of the Foundation for the Sick.
Walking up the street on the left hand side, after passing Longoria Street, you come to Jose Maranon Street. This was where the Foundation for the Sick, founded by Luz Rodriguez Casanova, stood. During his first years in Madrid, Father Josemaria carried out a tireless ministry as its chaplain.
During this time Father Josemaria taught catechism and prepared thousands of children to make their first Confession and receive their First Holy Communion. He attended to thousands of sick and disabled people in their own homes or in hospitals. He traveled from one end of Madrid to the other, day after day, to administer the Last Sacraments to the dying, in the poorest and most wretched districts in the city.
No. 24, Nicasio Gallego Street. The Church of the Foundation for the Sick.
Prayer “without feeling like it”. “Jesus, I’m here to please you.”
The Church of the Foundation for the Sick, where Fr Josemaria spent long hours in prayer
In this church St Josemaria would often spend time in prayer, times that engraved themselves on his soul. He wrote on September 8, 1931: “Yesterday, at three in the afternoon, I went to the sanctuary of the church of the Foundation to pray for a little while in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I didn’t feel like it, but I stayed there, feeling like a nincompoop. Sometimes, coming to, I thought, ‘Now you see, good Jesus, that if I am here, it is only for you, to please you.’ Nothing. My imagination ran wild, far from my body and my will, just like a faithful dog, stretched out at the feet of his master, sleeps dreaming of running around and of hunting and of friends (dogs like himself), and gets fidgety and barks softly… but without leaving his master. That’s how I was, exactly like that dog, when I noticed that, without meaning to, I was repeating some Latin words which I had never paid any attention to and had no reason to recall. Even now, to remember them, I have to read them off of the sheet of paper I always carry in my pocket for writing down whatever God wants. (Right there in the sanctuary, I jotted down that phrase instinctively on that sheet of paper, out of habit, without attaching any importance to it.) The words of Scripture that I found on my lips were, Et fui tecum in omnibus ubicumque ambulasti, firmans regnum tuum in aeternum [‘And I have been with you everywhere, wherever you went...; your throne shall be established forever’ (2 Sam 7:9,16)]. Repeating them slowly, I applied my mind to their meaning. And later, yesterday evening and again today, when I read them again (for – I repeat – as if God was taking pains to prove to me that they came from him, I can’t recall them from one moment to the next), I well understood that Christ Jesus was telling me, for our consolation, ‘The Work of God will be with him everywhere, affirming the reign of Jesus Christ forever’.”
No. 1, Alcala Galiano Street.
Women in Opus Dei.
At no. 1, Alcala Galiano Street, while celebrating Mass, St Josemaria understood that he had to begin the apostolate with women in Opus Dei
He wrote afterwards: “I was celebrating Mass in the little chapel of the elderly Marchioness of Onteiro (…). During the Mass, right after Communion, the whole women’s branch of the Work!”
What came to light that day was something new, a broadening-out of what had begun on October 2, 1928. “That February 14, 1930, our Lord made me experience what a father who wasn’t expecting any more children feels when God sends him another one. And from then on I think I am obliged to hold you in still greater affection: I look at you as a mother looks at her small child.”
(Adapted from A. Vazquez de Prada, The Founder of Opus Dei, vol. I: The Early Years, Princeton NJ: Scepter, 2001.)
Documentation
Related articles
Documents
List of Contents
- Magnanimity, faith, and “madness”
- For a “today” that builds tomorrow
- A real passion for making Jesus Christ known
- God is my Father!
- Opus Dei’s First Steps in Madrid
- St Josemaria Escriva in Madrid: the founding of Opus Dei
- St Josemaria’s final moments
- Saint Josemaría’s love for the Eucharist
- January 1938, from Burgos, Spain: "If you need me, just call me"
- Tracing the history of the Church in the footsteps of St Josemaría
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