Romana

On April 15, Rosalía López Martínez died in Rome.

Rosalía was one of the first women to ask for admission to Opus Dei in order to dedicate herself, through her professional work, to the domestic management of the centers of Opus Dei and to caring for people. Born in 1925 in Busnela (Burgos, Spain), she met Opus Dei in February 1946 when she began working in the domestic administration of the Abando Residence in Bilbao. There she worked with, among others, Blessed Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri, who accompanied her in her vocational discernment. She saw her own vocation after attending a retreat preached by Don José María Hernández Garnica.

She asked for admission to Opus Dei on July 28, 1946. A few months later, on December 27, she moved to Rome. From then on she lived in the Eternal City, working for 30 years close to St. Josemaría and, for the following decades, his successors at the head of Opus Dei.

Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz, Prelate of Opus Dei, celebrated the funeral Mass for her eternal repose on April 16 in the Prelatic Church of Santa María de la Paz.

“Rosalía's life on this earth has been a long one, just a few months shy of a century! It has been a life of service to our Lord, doing the Work, also through her direct assistance to our Father, Don Alvaro, and Don Javier,” the Prelate said in his homily. And he added, referring to the work carried out by the deceased: “In the Gospel that we have heard in this Holy Mass (Mt 25:31-46), we were reminded of the way our Lord put caring for others at the center of the Final Judgement: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the sick... We have meditated on these words many times, and it impressed us, and still impresses us, to hear Jesus tell us that what we do for others, we do for Him! He himself states that it is the condition for entering the Kingdom of Heaven!”

Because of her many years of close collaboration with the founder, the current Prelate of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz, has arranged for Rosalía's mortal remains to rest in the crypt of the prelatic church of Our Lady of Peace, in Rome, next to Carmen Escrivá de Balaguer and close to St. Josemaría Escrivá and his first successors, as well as Dora del Hoyo, the first assistant numerary, who is in the process of canonization.