José María Hernández Garnica

José María Hernández Garnica was born in Madrid, Spain, on 17 November 1913. He grew up in a Catholic family in the Spanish capital and trained as a mining engineer, a profession he practiced as a young man. In 1935 he came into contact with Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, and requested admission to the Work, becoming one of its earliest members when the institution was still a very small group of people seeking holiness in ordinary professional and family life. His youth and first years in Opus Dei coincided with the tensions of the Second Spanish Republic and with the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, which interrupted the lives of many of Escrivá’s first followers.

After the war he resumed professional work and continued his Christian and intellectual formation. Together with Álvaro del Portillo and José Luis Múzquiz he prepared for the priesthood while remaining a secular faithful of Opus Dei rather than entering a religious congregation. On 25 June 1944 the three men were ordained priests in Madrid by Bishop Leopoldo Eijo y Garay. They were the first priests of Opus Dei. Hernández Garnica thereafter dedicated himself to priestly ministry: celebrating Mass, preaching, hearing confessions, giving spiritual direction, and encouraging students, professionals, and families to seek holiness in daily work and ordinary circumstances.

From the late 1940s through the 1950s and 1960s, Escrivá entrusted him with a substantial share of the task of beginning and consolidating Opus Dei’s apostolate in Western Europe. His assignments took him to England, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands, among other places. In those countries he accompanied the first local members, helped establish centers, and carried out a wide pastoral activity. Those who knew him recalled his cheerfulness, naturalness, and fidelity to the spirit of Opus Dei.

In his later years he suffered a serious illness, commonly identified as cancer, and died in Barcelona on 7 December 1972. A cause for his beatification was later opened in the Archdiocese of Madrid; in the Catholic Church he is regarded as a Servant of God. He has not been beatified or canonized, and no liturgical feast or official patronage has been assigned to him.