What St. Josemaría Escrivá’s detractors can teach us about him and about holiness

Not every saint is universally esteemed at the time of his or her death.

False accusations from a hostile priest stained the reputation of Saint John of the Cross for decades after he died. Soon-to-be Blessed Fulton Sheen made powerful enemies both inside and outside the Church. But few saints have had as many ardent admirers and outspoken enemies as Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albá (1902-1975).

Although Josemaría’s detractors have written books and created websites to criticize him and Opus Dei, the organization he founded, the Vatican settled the question of whether he was a holy man by declaring him a saint in 2002.

However, it makes sense to wonder if some of those complaints are valid. Can we learn anything about Saint Josemaría from the arguments that some have raised about him?

Josemaría’s insight

For those not familiar with the man, Josemaría was born in Barbastro, Spain. He discerned a call to the priesthood as a teenager, pursued studies in both law and theology, and was ordained a priest.

He believed he had received a powerful insight into God’s mission for his life when he was twenty-six years old. Out of obedience to that inspiration, he founded a group for the Catholic laity called Opus Dei, which means “Work of God” in Latin. He also established the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, an association of priests that arose from members of Opus Dei.

If Josemaría had simply founded a religious order of priests instead of an organization involving the laity, he probably would not have been such a controversial figure. But associations of the laity have a rocky history in the Church. Members of lay societies have sometimes fallen into immoral practices, become extremely zealous or too lax, refused to obey Church leaders, or even wandered into heresy. Josemaría’s goal of establishing a group that would foster holiness among the laity, apart from a diocesan structure, could have been a recipe for disaster.

But Josemaría’s insight was rooted in an undeniable Christian truth: all of us are called to be holy. As Pope Saint John Paul II described Josemaría’s teaching in his canonization homily (nos. 1-2):

In virtue of the Baptism that incorporates him into Christ, the believer is called to establish with the Lord an uninterrupted and vital relationship. He is called to be holy and to collaborate in the salvation of humanity. … Work and any other activity, carried out with the help of grace, is converted into a means of daily sanctification.

Every believer is called by God to grow in holiness. As sons and daughters of God, we can attempt to sanctify our lives by offering up our work to Him, whether that work involves grading term papers, changing diapers, or operating a forklift. The Second Vatican Council particularly recognized a universal call to holiness, largely due to Josemaría’s presence at the Council, his demonstrable success with Opus Dei, and the witness of other modern associations of the laity.

However, Josemaría’s group didn’t fit comfortably in existing Church categories for religious orders, which is why he spent decades in careful negotiations with Church officials. Finally, in 1982, Pope John Paul II established Opus Dei as a personal prelature, subject only to the pope and to its own prelate.

Josemaría’s destractors

With that background in mind, what are some of the arguments raised by his detractors?

First, Josemaría was a Spaniard, so we must keep Spanish culture and history in mind when considering some of his decisions. For a minor example, the fact that he changed the spelling of his name from José María to Josemaría demonstrated his deep devotion to both Saint Joseph and the Blessed Mother. The argument that he was fussy about the spelling of his last name, Escrivá, can be attributed to childhood teasing and to one identification document that misspelled his name.

At least one former member of Opus Dei found it offensive (and perhaps overbearing) that Josemaría encouraged members to think of Opus Dei as a sort of family. But when you understand Josemaría’s childhood, it’s easy to see why family was so important to him.

Both of Josemaría’s parents came from wealthy, Catholic families, and multiple relatives in his extended family became priests. However, when Josemaría’s father’s business went bankrupt, his father chose the most honorable route possible. Rather than writing off his debts, he sold his possessions, moved the family to a small apartment, and took a low-paying job as a clerk so that he could pay back his debtors. Josemaría was always very proud of his father’s decision.

Their wealthy relatives, however, were appalled. They criticized Josemaría’s father for choosing a life of poverty and generally separated themselves from him and the family.

During this painful period, Josemaría’s three younger sisters died, one after another. Then his father died. Although Josemaría wanted to become a priest, he had also studied law to please his father. At his father’s death, although he was just a seminarian, he became the sole support of his mother, an older sister, and a younger brother.

Some critics have stated that there are no records that Josemaría ever completed his law degree. And one can certainly agree that the volatile political situation in Spain made it difficult for the young priest to earn enough money to feed four people and find time to attend courses in law. But if Josemaría never received his law degree, it was not for lack of trying.

Was it egalitarian of him to reach out first to college students, rather than the poor? It is difficult to maintain that he did not care about the poor since he had an established ministry to the sick in hospitals. But it made sense that he would first approach college students, who were about his own age, with his innovative ideas about the sanctification of work.

Some have raised the point that early members of Opus Dei were mostly men, and it’s not clear if Josemaría initially believed that the group should include both men and women. However, there were two practical reasons for the initial lack of women members.

First, the women whom he first invited to join gradually fell away, probably because of political instability in the country. Second, as a priest, Josemaría was concerned about maintaining modest, appropriate relationships with women. As time passed, more women became involved in Opus Dei, such as Maria Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri Fernández de Heredia (1916-1975), a laywoman and chemist who was beatified in 2019. There are currently about an equal number of men and women in Opus Dei.

Josemaría’s context and challenges

It is always important to understand the historical context in which a person lived. The impact of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the anti-Catholic sentiment that brewed in Spain for years leading up to that war should not be ignored when trying to understand Josemaría’s life.

Immediately prior to this war, priests like Josemaría were often insulted and threatened on the streets. That daily anti-Catholic persecution escalated to outright violence during the civil war. Thousands of priests, monks, and friars were killed, hundreds of nuns were raped and then martyred, and churches were desecrated and burned all over Spain. Like many other priests and religious, Josemaría was forced into hiding. At one point, he learned soldiers had captured a man in his neighborhood whom they thought was him and had executed the man in the street. Josemaría prayed for that innocent man for the rest of his life.

For months on end, Josemaría hid in apartments with Catholics willing to risk their lives for his sake. Then, pretending to be mentally ill, he lived in a mental asylum. Later, he found shelter in the Honduran consulate with other refugees. When he ran out of places to hide, he and a small group of companions hiked across the mountains into France and into a safe region of Spain. Along with the danger of being arrested and shot during their journey, they suffered from starvation, exhaustion, altitude sickness, and extreme cold.

After the war ended, Josemaría resumed his efforts to establish Opus Dei. Many of his early supporters remained faithful members throughout their lives. His mother, sister, and brother also made many personal sacrifices to support him and Opus Dei.

To be named a saint, one must demonstrate heroic virtue. Many of the details already described—particularly his perseverance in his priesthood during extreme danger—show such virtue. Many of his companions later described how he lived in poverty, possessed only two patched cassocks, and uncomplainingly accepted numerous health scares and a restricted diet due to diabetes.

Friends also stated that Josemaría regularly practiced penitential discipline. Specifically, he used a device called a discipline to beat himself as a penance. His modern detractors may find this shocking, but it is not a new practice in the history of the Church. Many Desert Fathers, Celtic saints, medieval mystics, and English martyrs practiced such physical mortifications, and with good reasons.

During Josemaría’s lifetime, he wrote several short works, the most famous of which is called The Way. This book has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold millions of copies. Critics are quick to point out that the respected Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar once spoke disparagingly about this book. It is understandable that the prolific, erudite von Balthasar would have found it puzzling that Josemaría’s tiny books of pithy insights would sell far more copies than his own works. The two men were simply trying to reach different audiences.

Josemaría and the pursuit of holiness

The most damning criticism of Josemaría’s personal behavior seems to be that he could be hot-tempered. He was a Spaniard, after all. But he was also known to be sensitive, humble, forgiving, and quick to ask for forgiveness.

Josemaría’s enemies have tried hard to link him with the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from 1936 to 1975. There is no evidence that Josemaría as an individual or Opus Dei as an organization ever spoke for or against Franco or his government. Faithful Catholics living in Spain surely appreciated Franco’s efforts to protect them from persecution and outright martyrdom, even if they could find many faults with his other decisions as their leader.

It must be admitted that Josemaría’s detractors remind us of one important point: every saint, no matter how holy, is still an imperfect man or woman (the Blessed Mother is a special case). However, many of the criticisms of Josemaría seem to be rooted in resentment rather than reason.

It is hard to avoid the impression that Josemaría has been targeted precisely because he was a faithful son of the Church. For example, throughout the turmoil in Spain and during the post-Vatican II Church, he remained obedient to the Church hierarchy, firm in his support for traditional Catholic morality, and critical of post-Vatican II excesses. If you place man and man’s desires at the center of your understanding of human existence rather than God, you will be unhappy with your own life, with Josemaría, and with Opus Dei.

Whatever one thinks of Saint Josemaría Escrivá, the fact remains that we are all called to pursue holiness. We are all called by God to pick up our daily crosses, to follow Jesus Christ, and to try to be perfect. Or, as another saint put it: “Christian perfection has but one limit, that of having none.”¹

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