This biography is part of the most extensive research on Escrivá to date. It includes many incidents from his youth and family life that illustrate his deep personal relationship with God. As a child, he witnessed the deaths of his three sisters, the collapse of the family business, and his father's premature death. As a teenager, he noticed one day the footprints left by a Carmelite priest walking barefoot in the snow. Moved, Josemariá felt called to greater generosity. These ''devine caresses'', as he called them, continued during the first years of his priesthood, during which he struggled to build Opus Dei as the Spanish Civil War raged around him.
The reader benefits from an enormous wealth of details in extensive notes and appendices. Accompanying them are excerpts from his correspondence, spiritual writings, and testimonials from dozens of friends and acquaintances.
Andrés Váquez de Prada studied at the Universities of Valladoid and Seville, before working as a Spanish embassy Attaché for over thirty years. As a historian, he has published many articles and books, including The Dream of an Old Man (1954), The Story of John Henry Newman (1962) and The Significance of Humour (1976).
