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The Early Days of Opus Dei in Cambridge (U.S.)

John Arthur Gueguen, JR. published in Studia et Documenta

Tags: Opus Dei, US
Skyline of Back Bay, seen from the Charles River, featuring Boston's tallest building, the John Hancock Tower
Skyline of Back Bay, seen from the Charles River, featuring Boston's tallest building, the John Hancock Tower
Abstract: This documentary account is a sequel to “The Early Days of Opus Dei in Boston… (1946-1956)”, which appeared in Vol. 1 (2007) of Studia et Documenta .

It tells of a series of apartments across the Charles River in Cambridge that preceded the opening of Elmbrook, and the apostolate conducted mainly with students and professors at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). Recollections of persons who took part in this history (1956-1961) are supplemented by material in the General Archive of the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei.

Introduction
Opus Dei’s apostolate with students and professional men, based at
Trimount House in Boston since it opened in October 1954, acquired a more visible presence across the Charles River in Cambridge in January 1956, when a small apartment was rented on the second floor of the Ambassador, a residential hotel a few minutes’ walk from the Harvard campus and a short subway ride from M.I.T. In spring 1956 it facilitated the growth of Opus Dei following upon the first steps of its apostolate in metropolitan Boston. Four of these apartments preceded the opening of Elmbrook. This article treats the apostolate there between 1959 and 1961. Stories of new members are given emphasis in this account because Opus Dei was experiencing its first growth in the United States.

Download the article published in Studia et Documenta n. 4


Boston College, with Boston skyline in background
Boston College, with Boston skyline in background
This article and the previous one on the earlier years have provided glimpses of what St. Josemaría called “the history of God’s ways among men” as it unfolded when members of Opus Dei arrived in Boston and Cambridge. Their successors and the young men they introduced to the apostolate—first at Harvard and M.I.T.—were from countries far and near (Australia, the Philippines, England, Spain, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Canada) and from cities and towns in fifteen states from coast to coast within the United States (from Maine to California and North Dakota to North Carolina). These young men, each in his own way, discovered a unifying meaning for their lives in the family of Opus Dei through the prayer and sacrifice of dedicated mentors. After spending a few years in Boston and Cambridge, most of them went to distant places in the United States and beyond—some after spending time in Rome at the side of the Founder of Opus Dei.

It was a fruitful beginning, through the prayers of St.Josemaría, and the hard work of those who received and passed along his spirit. As the story of the initial apostolate at the universities in Cambridge closed, the same story extended to other schools in the area: Northeastern, Boston College, Boston University…. The next period, 1962-1972, included the opening of a conference center (Arnold Hall) on Boston’s south shore, the final years of Trimount House, and the expansion of the apostolate to a new center in suburban Chestnut Hill. Those years witnessed a dramatic transition in student life and intellectual culture, the context for Opus Dei’s apostolate.

John Arthur Gueguen, JR