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Two new books in English about St Josemaria

July 13, 2011

Tags: Spanish Civil War, books, Opus Dei, Character, difficulties
This new volume picks up the story and sees Escriva on his “path through the mountains” to the other side of Spain via the Pyrenees The title, however, has a much deeper sense
This new volume picks up the story and sees Escriva on his “path through the mountains” to the other side of Spain via the Pyrenees The title, however, has a much deeper sense
Two very different books have just appeared in English about Opus Dei founder St Josemaria. One is the second volume in a series by William Keenan entitled ‘St Josemaria Escriva and the Origins of Opus Dei’. The other is a translation of the vivid biographical sketch by Pilar Urbano.

The first volume of Keenan’s biography of Josemaria Escriva, The Day the Bells Rang Out, (Gracewing, 2004) covered the life of Opus Dei’s founder from childhood to November 1937, when, in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, he and his companions were planning to escape from the “Red” zone of Spain to be able to continue their apostolate in freedom.

This new volume picks up the story and sees Escriva on his “path through the mountains” to the other side of Spain via the Pyrenees, Andorra and Lourdes, France. The title, however, has a much deeper sense: in spreading the message of Opus Dei, Escriva and his followers were cutting a new path of holiness and apostolate in the world, and when they met difficulties, which came abundantly, he would remind them of the words of Scripture, inter medium montium pertransibunt aquae – the waters will make a path through the mountains (Ps 103/104: 10). Notably, Escriva quoted this verse in the first chapter of his classic work The Way: “Let those very obstacles give you strength. God’s grace will not fail you: Inter medium montium pertransibunt aquae! You shall pass through the mountains! Does it matter that you have to curtail your activity for the moment if afterwards, like a spring which has been compressed, you will reach incomparably farther than you ever dreamed?”

Divided into three parts, the book consists of 87 short chapters, ending up with Escriva’s first stay in Rome in June 1946. The Spanish Civil War ended in 1939, just months before the outbreak of World War 2. Keenan shows Escriva and his companions living in dire poverty, filled with irrepressible good spirits and fired with zeal for apostolate, no matter what. The book fills in the rather sketchy picture of Escriva’s life at this time offered by Joffé’s film There Be Dragons, supporting Joffé’s inspired artistic impression with historical facts. Far from being a dry, historical document, however, the book is enlivened from the start with the humour, homely details and breathtaking vision that were so evident in Escriva himself, as a result of his deep, active faith and love.

In “The Man of Villa Tevere” Urbano puts her account together almost entirely from the personal reminiscences of people who lived and worked with Escriva. It shows St Josemaria Escriva relating to people as individuals, treating each person as a personal friend and bringing out the best in them
In “The Man of Villa Tevere” Urbano puts her account together almost entirely from the personal reminiscences of people who lived and worked with Escriva. It shows St Josemaria Escriva relating to people as individuals, treating each person as a personal friend and bringing out the best in them

It is to be hoped that a third volume from Keenan will soon take the story onwards once more. Meanwhile, however, Keenan’s work is nicely complemented by the long-awaited appearance of an English translation of Pilar Urbano’s book The Man of Villa Tevere, originally published in Spanish in 1994. Urbano’s approach is widely different from Keenan’s. Where Keenan mainly uses published sources, interwoven with documents from Opus Dei’s historical archives, Urbano puts her account together almost entirely from the personal reminiscences of people who lived and worked with Escriva. Her book focuses on Escriva’s life from 1946 to his death in 1975. Its nineteen chapters (followed by a chronological summary of the main events in Escriva’s life) present different aspects of his character and his approach to life, giving a satisfyingly rounded portrait of a rich, striking personality. It shows him relating to people as individuals, treating each person as a personal friend and bringing out the best in them; it also shows, in a way few books do, the way he laid himself open to people, trusting them unconditionally and letting himself be seen by others exactly as he was, without putting on a front. This is one of the most enduring impressions left by a very unusual book.



William Keenan. St Josemaria Escriva and the Origins of Opus Dei: The Day the Bells Rang Out, 2004. St Albans: Batchford Press, available from: roscoe@artsgraphique.com .
The first volume of a series, this book covers St Josemaria’s life from his earliest childhood memories to the middle of the Spanish Civil War.

William Keenan. The Path Through the Mountains: St Josemaria Escriva and the Origins of Opus Dei, 2011. St Albans: Batchford Press, available from: roscoe@artsgraphique.com.
Volume II in the series recounts the events in St Josemaria’s life and spiritual journey from the Spanish Civil War to his arrival in Rome in 1946.

Pilar Urbano. The Man of Villa Tevere, Princeton NJ: Scepter Publishers, 2011 (http://www.scepterpublishers.org). Paints a vivid portrait of the day-to-day life of St. Josemaria Escriva, “the saint of ordinary life.” Set in the world headquarters of Opus Dei, this account is rich with anecdotes culled from the Founder’s contemporaries about his life in Rome until his death in 1975.