The Evolution of a Religious Force

Sunday, Apr. 16, 2006
    • 1902

    Jose Maria Escriva is born to a middle-class family in the Spanish region of Aragon; he later changes his name to Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer.

    1928

    Escriva, now a priest living in Madrid, has a vision in which "the Lord willed that Opus Dei might come to be" and founds the organization to help laypeople find sanctity in ordinary work and life.

    1939

    Escriva publishes The Way, a book of 999 spiritual maxims.

    1949

    Opus Dei arrives in the U.S.; the organization also establishes operations in Mexico—its first in Latin America.

    1962

    Vatican II opens, sharing Escriva's emphasis on lay activism but not his conservatism.

    1975

    Escriva dies; Alvaro del Portillo, a close associate, is elected his successor.

    1982

    Pope John Paul II gives Opus Dei the status of personal prelature.

    1994

    Del Portillo dies and is replaced by Javier Echevarria, the current Opus Dei head.

    2001

    FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for selling secrets to Moscow. The ensuing media scrutiny introduces many outsiders to Opus Dei when it is revealed that Hanssen was a supernumerary member and had confessed his misdeeds to an Opus Dei priest.

    2002

    Pope John Paul II, above, canonizes Escriva just 26 years after his death, describing him as "the saint of ordinary life."

    2003

    The Da Vinci Code, a thriller by Dan Brown featuring a murderous villain who is a member of Opus Dei, is published.

    May 2006

    The scheduled month of release for the book's film version. Directed by Ron Howard, it stars Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, with Paul Bettany, right, as the assassin.