Romana

On Friday, August 23, the municipality of Fombuena in the province of Zaragoza held a tribute to St. Josemaría. The event included the blessing of a painting dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption, by the Valencian artist José Manuel Pozo, which commemorates the priest’s stay in the town, when he served the parish between April 2 and 18, 1927, during Passion Week and Holy Week. After the blessing of the image, the Eucharist was celebrated, presided over by the vicar of the Delegation of Opus Dei for Aragon and Levante, Fr. Jaime Abascal, and concelebrated by the parish priest, Fr. Federico Castillo and other priests. Among those attending were the mayor of Fombuena, Jaime Mainar, and around a hundred residents and visitors.

On October 5, in Granada, the Church of Santo Domingo hosted the presentation of a relic ex sanguine of St. Josemaría to the Royal Brotherhood of the Crowned Rosary, which also received a painting of our Lady with St. Josemaría. The artist, Irene Martín Melguizo, wanted to express the founder of Opus Dei’s filial trust in Mary. The painting and the relic have been placed in the niche of Our Lady of Lepanto, a 16th-century image traditionally linked to the famous naval battle.

Callosa de Segura, a town in the Vega Baja region of the province of Alicante (Spain), has had a sculpture of St. Josemaría in the chapel of the tabernacle of the archpriestly church of San Martín Obispo since October 11. The work of the Elche artist José Vicente Bonete Ruiz, it has been made using a mixed technique of traditional modeling and three-dimensional enlargement, with a polychrome finish that imitates bronze. It stands on a wooden pedestal carved by the craftsman Francisco Pascual, which holds an ex sanguine relic of the saint. The initiative for the statue came from a group of faithful with devotion to St. Josemaría and was brought to completion by Ricardo Díez de Ulzurrun, vicar of the parish, with the collaboration of the parish priest, Francisco José Rayos.