Romana

Una luz encendida recounts the life of Dora del Hoyo, a woman who sought holiness in domestic tasks. “There is nothing better than to have used my hands to serve others,” she said. The book, published by Palabra, is written by Javier Medina (Portugalete, 1950).

Dora del Hoyo was born in a small village of Castille and Leon, Spain, in 1914. After finishing her elementary studies, she began at a very young age to work as a domestic employee. In 1939 she moved to Madrid, where she distinguished herself by her commitment and the quality of her work. In 1946 she requested admission to Opus Dei, and was the first numerary assistant in the Work. That same year, she moved to Rome. With her prayer and work, she was a great help to St. Josemaría Escrivá and to the expansion of Opus Dei throughout the world. The book gathers many testimonies of how, in exercising her work, Dora was an example for many young women of a person who sought sanctity according to the spirit of Opus Dei.

St. Josemaría had a great appreciation for his numerary assistant daughters, for their professional dedication to the tasks of the home in the centers of Opus Dei. He used to say that their work was, as it were, the “backbone” that supported all the apostolic work. And he added: “Work in the home is of such great importance! Besides, all human work can have the same supernatural quality: there are no great or small tasks; all of them are great, if they are done for love.”

Dora died the day before her 90th birthday. Her mortal remains repose in the Crypt of the Prelatic Church of Our Lady of Peace, in Rome, where the Servant of God Alvaro del Portillo, bishop and first successor of St. Josemaria as head of Opus Dei, is also buried. On October 11, 2011, Bishop Javier Echevarría published an edict inviting the faithful of the Prelature and anyone who so desires to provide information regarding the opening of her Cause of Canonization.