St. Josemaría Escrivá was canonized on the 6th of October, 2002. From 1928 until his death in 1975, he preached that all men and women are called to holiness. His statue in the Vatican reminds thousands of Catholic faithful of this message (1:40').
On October 6, 2002, Pope John Paul II canonized the founder of Opus Dei in St Peter's Square, Rome, in the presence of more than 300,000 people from all round the world.
Days of Prayer and Thanksgiving
When Saint Josemaría first arrived in Rome on the evening of June 23, 1946, he took up lodgings in a little apartment at the very top of a building in the Piazza Città Leonina, just a short distance away from Saint Peter's Basilica. When night fell, he went out onto the covered balcony overlooking the Apostolic Palace where Pope Pius XII lived. From there he could see the windows of the Pope's apartment. Deeply moved, he began praying for the Holy Father.
On October 6, 2002, from very early in the morning, prayers for the Pope and the Church rose up from the huge crowd that filled not only Saint Peter's Square, but also the Via della Conciliazione, and many of the surrounding streets and squares as well. The authorities calculated that a total of 450,000 to 500,000 people had come to celebrate Saint Josemaría's canonization. For many of them it was their first visit to Rome; and for some, it was probably the only time they would be there in their whole lifetime.
From just one person in 1946, to several hundred thousand in 2002 -- not a long time in terms of the whole history of the Church. The building in the Piazza Città Leonina, hasn't changed, and doesn't even look particularly old. There is a certain continuity between the prayer which Saint Josemaría offered all alone for the Pope on that first night in Rome, and the prayer of the huge, serene, multi-ethnic, joyous and at the same time committed crowd that assembled outside the Basilica. In either case what matters is the individual's union with God; and it is impossible to calculate the fruitfulness of such prayer, because it is always God who gives the increase.
The canonization ceremony took place on Sunday, October 6 at 10 o'clock in the morning. "For the honor of the Blessed Trinity ... we declare and define that Blessed Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer is a Saint and we enroll him among the Saints, decreeing that he is to be venerated in the whole Church as one of the Saints," Pope John Paul II solemnly proclaimed. The formula of canonization was closed by an "Amen" from the whole congregation, and enthusiastic applause broke out all the way down from Saint Peter's Square to the Castel Sant'Angelo. After the Mass was over, the Pope wanted to greet all those present, and in the "Popemobile" he went around the Square and along the whole length of the Via della Conciliazione, accompanied by the Prelate of Opus Dei. Along the way, many babies and small children received a blessing and a kiss on the forehead from the Pope.
On the morning of October 7, feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, there was a Mass of Thanksgiving in Saint Peter's Square celebrated by the Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Javier Echevarría, which was immediately followed by an audience with the Holy Father. The Pope spoke of how the new Saint had always displayed an attitude of unconditional service to all souls: an attitude "plain to see in his dedication to priestly ministry and in the magnanimity with which he pushed ahead so many works of evangelization and of human development to help the poorest."
At the end of the audience the Patriarch Teoctist, head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, arrived to present his official greetings to the Holy Father. The crowd applauded repeatedly, as a sign of the affection of so many Catholics from all over the world, and of their shared desire for unity.
Thanksgiving Masses
On October 8 and 9, thanksgiving Masses were celebrated in different basilicas and churches in Rome. These Masses were celebrated in 18 languages: Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Czech, Chinese, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.
Many bishops underlined the universality of the message spread by the new saint. They also expressed their happiness at the fact that Saint Josemaría Escrivá is now numbered among the saints, thus becoming part of the patrimony of the whole Church.
Some 200 faithful from Hong Kong took part in the Mass celebrated by Msgr. Joseph Ti-Kang, Archbishop of Taipei (Taiwan) in the Church of S. Girolamo della Carità. Speaking of the life of the new saint, Msgr. Ti-Kang emphasized that "the Far East was in his heart since his youth."
http://www.josemariaescriva.info/article/days-of-prayer-and-thanksgiving
http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/friends_of_god-chapter-18.htm
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The Pope Canonizes Six New Saintsby romereports2,623 views
love the video
Sunbrawler 7 months ago