Romana

The Istituto Storico San Josemaría Escrivá has published the tenth issue of Studia et Documenta. The first part of the volume looks at the life and vocation of five of the first faithful of Opus Dei who asked for admission to the Work before the beginning of the civil war in Spain in 1936.

John F. Coverdale depicts the life of José María González Barredo (1906-1933), who knew St. Josemaría in the 1930s and was the first member of Opus Dei to live in North America. José Luis Gonzáles Gullón and Mariano Galazzi present a sketch of Ricardo Fernández Vallespín (1910-1988), director of the DYA Academy and Residence, the first corporate apostolate of Opus Dei, begun by St. Josemaría in 1933. He was a pioneer of the stable apostolic work of Opus Dei in Argentina. In the third article, José Carlos Martín de la Hoz goes deeply into the life of Msgr. Pedro Casciaro (1915-1995), who met St. Josemaría in the 1934-1935 school year. He assisted the founder of Opus Dei in the installation and direction of the first university residences in Madrid, Valencia, and Barcelona, and began the apostolic work of Opus Dei in Mexico and Central America. The fourth article, by Constantino Anchel, is dedicated to Francisco Botella Raduan (1915-1987), who met St. Josemaría in 1935. Finally, Luis Martínez Ferrer studies the life of Vicente Rodríguez Casado (1918-1990), within the framework of the Spanish Civil War and the immediate postwar period.

The volume includes a study by José Luis Illanes entitled “Points of Theological Reflection on the Juridical Path of Opus Dei.” In addition, the researcher Alfredo Méndiz presents the exchange of letters between St. Josemaría and Juan Jiménez Vargas, from the years 1937 to 1939.

The tenth volume of Studia et Documenta completes the first decade of publication of studies on Opus Dei and St. Josemaría Escrivá, as is noted in the prologue by the director of the Journal, Rev. Carlo Pioppi, who also highlights the goals that the publication has set for itself for the coming years.