Luis Campos Górriz

Luis Campos Górriz was born on 30 June 1905 in Valencia, Spain. He studied law and practiced as a lawyer in his native city. Raised in a Catholic family, he belonged to a generation of Spanish laymen who sought to live an intense Christian life while remaining in the midst of secular professional work rather than by entering the priesthood or a religious institute.

In 1932 he asked for admission to Opus Dei, which had been founded in Madrid in 1928 by the priest Josemaría Escrivá. Campos Górriz became one of the first members of Opus Dei in Valencia and remained a layman. He strove to sanctify his work as an attorney and to carry out apostolate among friends and colleagues, helping to establish the still-new foundation in the Valencian region during its earliest years. He lived celibacy as a dedicated member of the Work and never married.

The Spanish Civil War, which began in July 1936, was accompanied in Republican-controlled territory by a widespread and violent persecution of the Catholic Church. Clergy, religious, and many lay faithful identified with the Church were imprisoned or killed. Campos Górriz was arrested in November 1936. On 28 November 1936 he was executed out of hatred for the Christian faith. He was thirty-one years old and is regarded as the first member of Opus Dei to die a martyr.

On 11 March 2001 Pope John Paul II beatified 233 martyrs of the Archdiocese of Valencia who had suffered in the persecution of 1936 to 1939. Luis Campos Górriz was numbered among them, in the group known as Blessed José Aparicio Sanz and 232 companions. Their liturgical memorial is observed on 22 September. He is remembered as a lay witness to holiness in ordinary professional life, crowned by martyrdom.