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Josemaría Escrivá dated Opus Dei’s founding to a religious insight during a Madrid retreat in 1928: ordinary work could become a path to holiness. The small circle he gathered grew into an international Catholic organisation. Its history includes valued vocations, influential members and serious disputes about recruitment, authority and conditions of work.
Explore Opus Dei through its founder, its different forms of membership and the controversies that have tested its promise of holiness in ordinary life.
999
Maxims in Escrivá's book The Way — the ideological foundation of Opus Dei. Maxim 617: "Obey, as an instrument obeys in the hands of the artist." Translated into 40+ languages, it has sold over six million copies.
27 yrs
From death to sainthood — one of the fastest canonisations in modern Catholic history. The Devil's Advocate was abolished just in time.
8
Opus Dei members who served as ministers in Franco's dictatorship, engineering the "Spanish Miracle" of the 1960s.
2/day
Hours per day numerary members wear a spiked metal chain on the thigh. Former members testified the prongs left puncture marks and sometimes drew blood.
The Evidence
The Cilice
A cilice is a metal band used for penance by some celibate members. Opus Dei describes moderate use without injury; former members including Sharon Clasen and John Roche have reported painful practices and disputed their freedom to decline. Their accounts concern particular periods and experiences, rather than a universal routine for all members.
Villa Tevere
Villa Tevere is Opus Dei’s headquarters in Rome. Its membership, reported at about ninety thousand, includes married supernumeraries, celibate lay members and clergy. Argentine prosecutors sought questioning of four former authorities in 2024 over alleged servitude and trafficking; the request was extended to Mariano Fazio in 2025. Opus Dei denies the allegations, which are not convictions.
The Network
Opus Dei’s national headquarters in New York opened in 2001. Its priests also serve the Catholic Information Center in Washington, a setting for religious activities and encounters involving prominent conservatives. Participation, donations and membership establish different relationships; none alone proves institutional control of political decisions.
The Work of God
The Vision
On October 2, twenty-six-year-old priest Josemaría Escrivá experiences a vision in Madrid and founds Opus Dei — "The Work of God." His mission: ordinary people can become saints through their daily work. The first followers are gathered one by one from hospitals and universities.
The Crossing
During the Spanish Civil War, Escrivá and seven companions escape Republican Madrid by crossing the Pyrenees on foot in winter. The harrowing trek through freezing mountain passes becomes a founding myth of the organisation — an exodus narrative of persecution and deliverance.
The Technocrats
Alberto Ullastres and Mariano Navarro Rubio, both Opus Dei members, enter Franco’s cabinet. Laureano López Rodó holds a senior technical role. They participate in economic reforms adopted by a dictatorship; religious affiliation alone does not establish that Opus Dei directed their policies.
Personal Prelature
John Paul II establishes Opus Dei as a personal prelature. The new form structures its pastoral work and relationships with clergy and lay participants; it does not place the organisation outside Church law or remove lay members from their dioceses.
The Fastest Saint
Escrivá is canonised on October 6, twenty-seven years after his death. Supporters celebrate recognition of his holiness; critics question the handling of adverse testimony. The 1983 reforms changed the process but retained a Promoter of the Faith, rather than abolishing the office entirely.
Key Figures
Josemaría Escrivá
Born in Barbastro in 1902 and ordained in 1925, Escrivá founded Opus Dei and wrote The Way, a collection of 999 spiritual maxims. Admirers emphasise ordinary holiness; former members criticise aspects of his leadership. He obtained the title Marqués de Peralta in 1968, died in 1975 and was canonised in 2002.
Fernando Ocáriz
Fernando Ocáriz, born in Paris in 1944, became prelate in 2017. Francis’s 2022 and 2023 reforms changed oversight, reporting and the canonical framework. Ocáriz was not a bishop whose ordination was removed. Under Leo XIV, the revision of the statutes continued.
The Reckoning
Opus Dei’s history connects an invitation to holiness in daily work with demanding forms of commitment. Members and former members describe sharply different experiences of that life. Economic and political influence, recruitment and spiritual direction each raise questions that deserve concrete answers.
Vatican reforms and Argentine proceedings have brought renewed scrutiny. The reforms changed governance; the criminal allegations remain contested. This history follows the people and decisions behind those disputes while distinguishing an institutional response from a judicial finding.
Get the Full Book
The story of Opus Dei — its founding, members, spiritual practices and contested institutional history.