Blessed Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri

Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri Fernández de Heredia (12 December 1916 – 16 July 1975) was a Spanish Catholic professor and a member of Opus Dei. She was one of the first women to join Opus Dei, after meeting the founder Josemaría Escrivá in 1944. She helped start Opus Dei in Mexico and also collaborated directly with Escrivá in Rome. A serious heart condition eventually claimed her life in 1975. After several requests from people who knew her during her life, her cause of canonization opened on 3 November 2001. In mid-2017, Pope Francis declared that she had lived a life of heroic virtue and named her Venerable. The same Pope confirmed a miracle attributed to her intercession (the healing of a cancer patient) in June 2018. Her beatification was celebrated on 18 May 2019 in Madrid. Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri Fernández de Heredia was born in Madrid on 12 December 1916 as the fourth of four children (and the only daughter) to Manuel Ortiz de Landázuri, a military officer, and Eulogia Fernández-Heredia. Her three elder siblings were Manuel, Eduardo, and Francisco, who died in childhood. Her brother Eduardo (who became a doctor and college professor) and his wife (the two married in 1941) have both been named as Servants of God. Her father's career in the armed forces meant the Ortiz de Landázuris moved from place to place each time he was sent on a new assignment. The Ortiz de Landázuri moved to Tétouan in Morocco in 1927 after her father was sent there for further work. In 1932, they returned to Spain and lived in Madrid where her father was named Lieutenant Colonel), and Guadalupe finished high school at the Instituto Miguel de Cervantes. In June 1933, she enrolled in the Universidad Central de Madrid in chemical science and was just one of five women in a class of 70 students. Ortiz de Landázuri eventually pursued a doctorate since she wanted to teach chemistry at the university level.