Opus Dei

Rafael Alvira, son of Tomas and Paquita, lists 7 keys to his parents' happy marriage. An article published in "Aleteia."

The launch of the biography of Tomas and Paquita Alvira, ‘Our lives in His Hands: An Ordinary Couple’s Path to Holiness, took place at Strathmore University. The book is a recollection of the life and adventures of the couple who raised a large family and had joys and struggles that contemporary couples can identify with.

On 17th January 1906 Tomás Alvira was born in Villanueva de Gállego, the village of his father and grandfather, a few kilometres from Saragossa. His daughter, Pilar, recalls that it was her father’s habit to celebrate his birthday not for himself, but for the enjoyment of the whole family, a simple party full of joy.

Mary Ann Glendon has written the foreword for Olga Marlin's biography of Tomàs and Paquita Alvira, a married couple with nine children whose cause of canonization is underway.

May 7th 2018 is the 26th anniversary of the passing of Tomás Alvira, the first supernumerary member of Opus Dei.

A great gift for us all, fundamental to our education”, concludes his son, “was the daily experience of the love our parents had for each other, which was always on the increase. I think my mother was everything for my father and from the time he married his life would have no meaning without her”.

The school’s energy is not produced in the directors’ offices, but in the classroom, in every classroom. But this will only be produced if it has life.

The first meeting between Tomás Alvira and the Founder of Opus Dei took place during a very difficult time, as the civil war had broken out little more than a year before. It occurred in Madrid, in the midst of a religious persecution that had already produced many martyrs. Tomás used to go to the house of an old friend from the Chemistry Faculty of Saragossa, Josémaría Albareda.

On September 20, 2012, Cardinal Ruoco, Archbishop of Madrid, presided over the closing of the diocesan phase of the cause of canonization of the servants of God Tomás and Paquita Alvira.

Yesterday, the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid presided over the closing of the diocesan phase of the cause of marriage canonization formed by the servants of God Paquita Domínguez Susín and Tomás Alvira Alvira, both faithful of the Prelature of Opus Dei.