Everyone who becomes involved with the activities of NEA sooner or later comes to appreciate that their inspiration derives from Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei. It was therefore an occasion of great joy when Pope John Paul II declared him a saint on October 6 before a crowd overflowing St Peter's Square in Rome. Many supporters, their families and friends – by no means all Catholic – were present at the ceremony and at the Mass of thanksgiving that was celebrated the next day in St Peter's Square by Bishop Javier Echevarría, Prelate of Opus Dei, followed by an audience with the Pope.
In his homily at the canonization Mass Pope John Paul II said that the new saint was calling on Christians to 'raise the world towards God and to transform it from within,' and not to be swayed 'by a materialistic culture, which threatens to dissolve the most genuine identity of the disciples of Christ'.
St Josemaría was born in Spain in 1902. On October 2, 1928 he saw that God was asking him to found Opus Dei, a way of sanctification in daily work and in the fulfilment of the Christian's ordinary duties. In 1946 he moved to Rome although he travelled frequently from Rome to European countries including Britain, where he spent five summers 1958 –1962. It was during these visits he suggested and encouraged both the establishment of Grandpont House and the new buildings of Netherhall House.
By the time of his death in 1975, Opus Dei had begun in dozens of countries and had touched countless lives. After his death thousands of people, including more than a third of the world's bishops, sent letters to Rome asking the Pope to open his cause of canonization.
Among the pilgrims at Josemaría Escrivá's canonization was the doctor whose scientifically inexplicable cure opened the doors for the Opus Dei founder to be declared a saint. Dr. Nevado Rey had chronic and incurable radiodermatitis, which disappeared after he sought Josemaría Escrivá's intercession in 1992. It was estimated that over 400,000 attended the canonization.
The relevance of the canonization for NEA's aims of providing all-round formation for the service of society was summed up in the words of the US Ambassador to the Holy See, 'I found it very moving and inspiring to see a humble priest proclaimed a saint… I think the message is clear: when people are living their lives in a manner where they are fulfilling their responsibilities, being good husbands, sons or daughters, they are doing something very important in God's eyes'.
The following day Bishop Javier Echevarría, told those in St Peter's Square, 'When you return home bring back with you the teachings of the new Saint and try to put them into practice. Ask St Josemaría to teach you to convert the prose of each day — your most ordinary occupations — into poetry, into heroic verse: into desires and deeds'.